Grace is the Main Theme of the Bible

Last week, I argued that Jesus is the main character of the Bible. This week, I will argue that grace is the main theme of the Bible.

      John 1:16 says, “For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.” Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” Romans 5:20 says, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us about the “throne of grace” that we can approach to “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” James 4:6 says Jesus gives “more grace.” Romans 6:14 declares we are “not under law but under grace.”          

      Matthew 11:28-30 is the one place in the Bible where Jesus speaks of his own heart. What does he say? “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” That’s grace.

      But, you say, that’s all in the New Testament. What about the Old Testament?

      After the fall of Adam and Eve, what did God do? He clothed them (Gen. 3:21) and promised them a savior was coming (Gen. 3:15). When Israel was in slavery, what did God do? “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”

      When God gave the Ten Commandments, where did he begin? On terms of grace. Exodus 20:1-2, “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’”

      Isaiah 55:1 says, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

      Psalm 86:15 says, “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

      Lamentations 3:22 says, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.”

      Time fails me to mention all the times we see God’s people fail and deserve death, and instead, God saves them and redeems them. Grace permeates the Bible, covering it like the waters cover the ocean.

      The Princeton Seminary stalwart and New Testament scholar J. Gresham Machen said, “The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God—the grace of God which depends not one whit upon anything that is in man, but is absolutely undeserved, resistless and sovereign. The theologians of the Church can be placed in an ascending scale according as they have grasped with less or greater clearness that one great central doctrine, that doctrine that gives consistency to all the rest; and Christian experience also depends for its depth and for its power upon the way in which that blessed doctrine is cherished in the depths of the heart. The center of the Bible, and the center of Christianity, is found in the grace of God; and the necessary corollary of the grace of God is salvation through faith alone.”[1]

      Isn’t this amazing? Think of all the books that exist in the world. Of all the guides that show us where to go and what to do. Of all the self-help books that motivate us to become the best versions of ourselves. Of all the other religious texts in the world that heap demands upon us. The Bible stands above them all with a message of grace for the undeserving. God wrote a book, and the thing he wanted to get across more than anything else is the reality that he is “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Ex. 34:6-7).

      Understanding that grace is the theme of the Bible changes the way we receive the Bible. If we don’t understand the terms of grace the Bible offers us, we will make it into a rule book. We will make it into something we strive to live up to. We will make it a merit contest. That will do one of two things. It will either make us incredibly prideful and self-righteous, or it will absolutely destroy us in guilt and shame. But if we understand the terms of grace upon which the Bible is offered to us, we will receive it as the gift that it is. We will enjoy it more. We will experience the love of God in it. We will see some ugly things about ourselves. We will see that we deserve judgment and hell. But we will also see that, in Christ, we can receive forgiveness and heaven.

      This understanding of grace will also ensure we read what the Bible actually says, not what we think it says. Here’s what I mean. We tend to approach the Bible like we do so much of the rest of our lives. If you want a job, get qualified. If you want love, make yourself lovable. If you want to run a marathon, start running. So, we naturally think if you want God’s love, earn it. We are all legalists at heart. But that thinking is anti-biblical. Nowhere in the Bible do we see God ask us to earn his love. Instead, repeatedly, we see him offering it freely on terms of grace.

      The logic of the Bible is different from the logic of the world, and that takes some getting used to. Theologians use two words for the concept: indicatives and imperatives. Indicatives are what God does. Imperatives are what we do. The Dutch theologian Herman Ridderbos put it this way. “Every imperative of Scripture (what we are to do for God) rests on the indicative (who we are in our relationship with God), and the order is not reversible.”[2]

      How often do we go to the Bible, read a passage or verse, and think, “I am not _____. I should be _____. So, I need to do or be _____.”[3] But that’s not the logic of the Bible.

      Listen to what Paul says, for example, in Romans 6:18-19. “Having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness [indicative (who we are in our relationship to God)], therefore now present your members as slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification [imperative (what we are to do for God)].” See the logic? Since you’ve been set free…present your members. Not the other way around.

      Ephesians 2:10 provides another example. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We are created…that we should walk in them. Not walk then created.

      If we don’t approach the Bible with the understanding that grace is the main theme, we will naturally reverse the order of God’s own words. We will think it says one thing while it actually says another because we are all legalists at heart. And, worse still, we will talk to others about what we read in the Bible and place law upon them instead of the gospel. We must never forget that what we do does not define who we are in Christ. Who we are in Christ defines what we do.

      Understanding that grace is the main theme of the Bible changes our entire approach to it. It motivates us to seek it out, frees us to receive God’s words—even the hard ones—and motivates us to live for him in all aspects of our life. Only grace truly motivates because only grace truly frees. And grace—praise be to God—is the theme of the Bible!

[1] Machen, J. Gresham, What is Faith?, pages 173–74

[2] Ridderbos, Herman, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, page 253.

[3] I’m indebted to Justin Taylor for this insight from this blog post: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/imperatives-indicatives-impossibilities/