Grace is the word that explains everything Christianity is about. It is not a mood God is in. It is not a discount on our sin. It is not a license. Grace is the unmerited, sin-bearing, life-giving favor of God toward people who have done nothing to deserve Him. At Grace Fellowship Church in Sarasota, we are named after this word for a reason — and we will preach it the way the New Testament preaches it.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” — Ephesians 2:4–5
Grace is not God overlooking sin. Grace is God dealing with sin at the cost of His own Son so that He can welcome sinners. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). The freeness of grace to us was not free for Him. The price was the blood of Jesus.
This is why the New Testament writers cannot speak of grace without speaking of the cross in the same breath. To preach grace without the cross is to preach a sentimental fiction. To preach the cross without grace is to leave sinners with an unspeakable gift they do not know they have been given. Grace is what the cross actually accomplishes for the unworthy.
And grace is effective. When God’s grace reaches a person, it does not just hover politely waiting for permission. It awakens dead souls (Ephesians 2:5). It breaks the heart of the proud. It gives faith. It produces repentance. The Bible never speaks of grace as a possibility we activate. It speaks of grace as a power that saves.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). No one is saved by religious sincerity, by family heritage, by good works, or by being a fundamentally decent person. Every Christian who has ever lived was saved by grace alone, and every Christian forever will know it.
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11–12). Real grace does not leave the Christian where it found him. It tutors him.
To Paul in chronic suffering, the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). When life is too much, grace is not less than enough. The Christian’s daily survival is grace.
“As sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21). The believer is not under condemnation. Grace, not sin, is now the king over the Christian’s life — and grace will have the last word.
Wherever grace is preached, two errors crop up. The first is the old slander Paul had to refuse: that grace is a license to sin. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” (Romans 6:1–2). Real grace produces real holiness. A “grace” that does not is a different thing wearing the word.
The second error is softer but no less dangerous: that grace is mostly a vibe. A sentimental sense of God’s general kindness. A tone of voice the church should use. The Bible does not preach grace as a vibe. The Bible preaches grace as the historic, doctrinal, blood-bought favor of God shown decisively at the cross of Jesus Christ. That is what we mean when we say grace at this church.
Sentimentality cannot save a sinner. Grace can. Grace did.
“And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” — John 1:16
Grace Fellowship Church in Sarasota did not pick its name out of a hat. We carry the word because the word carries the whole gospel. From Genesis to Revelation, the people of God are a people who exist only because of grace, are kept only by grace, and will arrive in glory only by grace. “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10) is the only honest sentence any Christian has ever said.
The Christian who has tasted grace becomes, over time, a gracious person. Quick to forgive. Slow to condemn. Honest about sin without despairing of it. Patient with weak brothers. Hopeful for the worst sinner, because grace already saved a worse one — them.
If you have never received this grace, come and find it. It is freely given, and there is enough for you.
The same grace that forgives is the grace that forms. Paul writes that grace “teaches us” — to say no to ungodliness, to live soberly, to press on in hope (Titus 2:11–14). A believer standing in grace is a believer being quietly sanctified by it. Grace is not only what saves; grace is what matures.
— Sundays at 10:00 AM · 4350 17th Street, Sarasota, FL.