The Grace-Knowledge Connection

"You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; ¹⁸ but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen."

2 Peter 3:17-18

After I read this passage, I was led to consider the connection between grace and knowledge.  Without knowledge we are unable to appreciate or even acknowledge grace.  For instance, salvation by grace through faith is an unmerited gift from God.  Because of His great love for us, God the Father chose to satisfy divine justice through the sacrifice of His own Son Jesus the Christ on Calvary.  What a gift!  Not only can man be forgiven for his sins by repenting and trusting in Jesus as Saviour, but the righteousness of Christ is freely credited to each Christian born again through the Holy Spirit.

There was a time when I was ignorant of God and His grace.  I didn't know that Jesus is God-made-flesh and humbled Himself to take human form.  I did not know Jesus died so I might live.  At first, His gracious sacrifice and gift of eternal life had been reduced to a picture on a page of an ornate Bible.  I didn't know that Jesus did that for me and everyone else who was guilty of sin.  But after reading the Bible I grew in knowledge.  I learned the Bible reveals Jesus is God's Son sent to seek and save the lost.  How greatly He humbled Himself in becoming a man and embracing the cross!  I realised all have sinned and none are worthy to be purchased with the precious blood of Jesus.  Only through knowledge and enlightenment by the Holy Spirit did God's grace - generous favour freely given which I cannot earn, purchase, or deserve - actually appear as grace.

So how can we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?  Practical knowledge spurns on our growth in grace.  When we understand who Jesus is, His infinite love for man, and the degree of His sacrifice and suffering, the grace He extends to us is discerned.  As our understanding of the depth of our sin grows, our appreciation of God's grace towards us also grows.  We realise our obligation to extend more and more grace to others, even as God has toward us.  We have freely received:  we are called to freely give.  If we do not see ourselves as great sinners, we will never be great in grace  If we are more concerned about the speck in our brother's eye than the log in our own, our growth in grace will be stunted.  This fact is illustrated in a conversation Jesus had with a self-righteous Pharisee named Simon.

Luke 7:40-50 reads, "And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." So he said, "Teacher, say it." ⁴¹ "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?" ⁴³ Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have rightly judged." ⁴⁴ Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. ⁴⁵ You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. ⁴⁶ You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. ⁴⁷ Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." ⁴⁸ Then He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." ⁴⁹ And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" ⁵⁰ Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

The difference between the sinful woman who anointed Jesus and the judgmental Pharisee was that the woman loved much because she had been forgiven much.  Do not misunderstand:  she had not sinned more than the Pharisee!  They were both sinners before God.  The woman recognised the enormity of her debt which had been forgiven.  Because of this, she expressed her love for Christ with tears and the sacrifice of expensive perfume.  The Pharisee loved little because he thought he had little need of Christ's forgiveness.  Though the woman was known as a sinner, she was the one who went home in peace justified and saved.

There is a point in every Christian walk we either grow or regress in grace.  Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.  When we grow in knowledge, we can be deceived to assume we have obtained the right to sit in the seat of judgement of others.  Our eyes are to be fixed on Christ, judging ourselves lest we be judged.  Knowledge of Christ and how undeserving we are allows us to grow in our appreciation of God's grace, to receive it from God, and freely offer it to others.  Maybe you figure you deserve grace because you have repented.  No!  We can never earn God's grace or it could not be grace.  Perhaps we withhold grace because someone has not proven themselves worthy to us.  In doing so we make grace of no effect.  If increased knowledge of doctrine makes us legalistic, we have abandoned the grace of God.  Paul warns the church in Galatians 5:2 & 4, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage...⁴ You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."

Let us grow in grace and knowledge of our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Gracious words should attend gracious thoughts.  Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one."  Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  Out of the abundance of grace a man has received from God so he thinks.  Unless God's grace seasons our knowledge, we will know nothing as we ought to know.