Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - What is God's Grace? 5 Biblical Types of Grace Every Christian Must Know | Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

Discover the life-changing power of God's grace in this deep biblical study!In this episode, we explore 5 essential features of God's grace that every believer needs to understand:✅ God's Saving Grace - Why salvation is entirely by grace, not works✅ God's Sanctifying Grace - How grace transforms us into Christ's image
✅ God's Sustaining Grace - Finding strength in weakness through trials ✅ God's Serving Grace - How spiritual gifts are expressions of grace ✅ The Ordinary Means of Grace - Scripture, prayer, and Christian communityKey Bible Verses Discussed: • 1 Corinthians 15:10 • Titus 3:4-6 • Romans 5:15-21 • 2 Corinthians 12:9 • Ephesians 4:7-11Perfect for: • Bible study groups • New Christians seeking to understand grace • Anyone struggling with works-based salvation • Christians wanting deeper theological understandingTimestamps: 0:00 Introduction to God's Grace 5:30 Saving Grace vs. Works 12:15 Sanctifying Grace & Transformation
18:45 Sustaining Grace in Trials 25:20 Serving Grace & Spiritual Gifts 30:10 Practical Applications

Grace is not just God's unmerited favor. This is typically where we define it. What's grace? Well, God's unmerited favor to the ill deserving. That's true, but it doesn't stop there. God's grace is power so that we might be continually conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. The natural first fruits of that is there's no one

listening to this that is beyond grace. You don't need to wait for X, Y, Z to happen or to change X, Y, Z about your life before you kind of put everything down and come directly to him. God died for us while we were his enemies, not while we were his friends. And so it's appropriate.

Yeah, grace is available because as long as you think your own strength is sufficient, you never recognize your own insufficiency, which never compels you and propels you to rely on the sufficiency of God's grace. Hank, thanks for sitting down. In this episode, I wanna discuss the grace of God. The word grace is used 131 times in the New Testament and 86 of those times it's used by the apostle Paul.

And he says this in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, he says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And I think that's something that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree

that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that we can all agree that it's something we experience or receive once upon a time. But Paul is going to say in his ministry, in his life, he is what he is by the grace of God. And I think even that idea that grace is ongoing, maybe we would affirm theologically, but it kind of shatters this notion of, oh, we received God's grace when we got saved back then.

A one-time occurrence and we're maybe just neglect to meditate on it as much as we should be. Yeah, live by God's grace, which we'll discuss. But I like what Charles Spurgeon said. He said, between here and heaven, every minute that the Christian lives will be a minute of grace. And so our goal in this episode is to understand

why Paul says that he lives by the grace of God, why he would say in 2 Timothy 2, 1 to Timothy, you therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And so what I wanna do over the next couple episodes is I wanna look at five features of the grace of God. There could and would be more, but five main ideas regarding God's grace. It says, first of all, I wanna look at God's saving grace.

And this might be where our understanding of God's grace both starts and ends, but God's saving grace. I love the language in Titus chapter three, verses four through six. It says, but when the kindness of God our savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness.

I think when I was teaching yesterday, I just paused here and said, amen, right? I think this is so counterintuitive. It says, but in accordance with his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out upon us through Christ Jesus, our Savior, so that being justified by his grace,

we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. One just big idea is it says in Romans that we're justified by faith. And then here it says we're justified by grace. Maybe just take a stab at that. How do we reconcile those realities that on the one hand we're justified by faith,

but then it seems like here, well, even our ability to place our faith is a gift of God's grace. Yeah, absolutely. And so I think you made the distinction and it's also, it's always worth reminding ourselves whenever we come to scripture, scripture is never contradicting itself. And reminding ourselves whenever we come to scripture, scripture is never

contradicting itself. And so maybe if we come across two truths that either seem intention or in parallel, we need to consider them kind of throughout the greater narrative of scripture. Collectively. Yeah, exactly. And so you'd made the point, hey, maybe this faith

that saves us, there's actually almost like a seed that's happening before that faith takes root. And maybe that's the grace that Paul's calling out to us in Titus, is that right? Yeah, just faith is a gift from God. That's even what we see in Romans as well. So it says we're justified by his grace. So salvation from beginning to end is all,

that's why Spurgeon had that book that was written, all of grace, it's all of grace. Faith is not the first work that saves us. Faith is even an expression of God's grace working in our life to be able to, He makes us new, right? That's John three. He gives us new life, new birth.

And then as a result of that, we place our faith in Jesus Christ. But I love even the language in Titus chapter three. It says, but when the kindness of God, our savior, and His love for mankind appeared. In chapter two, it says, but when God's grace appeared, sometimes we think about these subjects of God's love and his mercy and his kindness and his grace

as abstract theological principles floating around in the ether. But Titus says that God's grace, God's love appeared. Yeah, it's a reality. And I think if you've grown up in the church, or even if you've been in the church for any length of time, we have the tendency to think about great truth just academically and theologically,

but God's grace, whatever God proclaims, he proves, and God proves his kindness, proves his grace, it says in his appearing. I wanna just look at, you know, we're talking about God's saving grace right now. Do you have Romans 5 open? Yeah, absolutely. I wanna just read Romans, you know, we're talking about God saving grace right now. Do you have Romans 5 open? Yeah, absolutely. Wanna just read Romans 5.15 for us

as we look to God's grace and salvation. Absolutely, so it says, "'But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. "'For if by the transgression of the one, "'many died, much more did the grace of God "'and the gift by the grace of one man, "'Jesus Christ, abound to many.'" It's just talking about the reality that sin entered the world of one man, Jesus Christ, abound to many. It's just talking about the reality

that sin entered the world through one man. And likewise, Jesus as the second Adam, he brings grace to all those who believe in him. And then continue reading in verses 20 and 21. Yeah, absolutely. So it goes on to say, now the law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

So that as sin reigned in death, even so, grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Just saying that where the law came in, transgression increased all the more, because what the word of God does in Galatians three is it functions like a tutor, like a net that traps us in sin

so that we see our sin more and more in the light of God's holiness. And so it says, wherever the law came in, transgression increased all the more, not because people sin more, but because they saw their sin for what it is in comparison with the Holy God. But as we see God, this is a big idea,

as we see God's holiness, we see our sin, but not only that, we see God's grace as necessary, right? The only people in this world that's seeing amazing grace are those that have a high view of God's character, but thankfully God extends and expresses his saving grace. That's why the words of the hymn, we sing grace, grace, God's grace, grace, that will pardon and cleanse within grace,

grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all of our sin. One of the themes in scripture is that we don't bring anything to the table salvifically or saved by grace. And one of the themes in scripture is that we don't bring anything to the table salvifically or saved by grace. And I've shared the story before, but one time I was asking someone what the distinction was between,

I was talking to a man in a new birth about what the distinction was between the Christian faith and the Mormon faith, and he told me a story. He said, pretend I wanna buy an iPad. You believe that the Father pays it all. I believe that I have my daughter work and work and work for a year, and at the end of that year,

she saved up 35 bucks, and then I go up and pay the difference. And that's what they believe, that God pays the difference, that's 2 Nephi. We believe that we are saved by grace, after all we can do. That's in the Mormon Bible. But in the scripture, we're not saved by grace after all we can do. That's in the Mormon Bible. But in the scripture, we're not saved by grace

after all we can do, because we read in scripture that there is nothing we can do. Those who are in the flesh, Paul says, cannot please God. I like what C. Samuel Storm says. He says, grace ceases to be grace if it is compelled in the presence of human merit. Meaning if we did anything to deserve or earn it, it's not grace.

But then he says also, grace ceases to be grace if it is compelled, if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit. Meaning God gives us his grace not because we deserve it. And if we didn't deserve it in the first place, there's nothing we're gonna do to lose it because it's not based on our own effort anyway. I think just one practical application,

if you're listening to this, the natural first fruits of that is there's no one listening to this that is beyond grace. And that is an unbelievably sobering and encouraging reality. I think it's an affront to people who have been trying to stack up good deeds their whole life. But also on the flip side of that is

Wherever you are listening to this just know that that your Savior loves you With a total purifying love and there's nothing you don't need to wait for XYZ to happen or to change XYZ about your life before you kind of put everything down and come directly to him just yeah worth drawing that distinction But keep going that's the first dominant grace. No, first even, like kind of what you're saying is a good point. Like we always kind of want to tether God's love to His grace, right?

If God's love is from everlasting to everlasting, then so is His grace. Meaning if God loves us before time began, then that means we know for sure that there was never anything we did to deserve that love in the first place. God died for us while we were His enemies, not while we were his friends.

And so it's appropriate. Yeah, grace is available. Secondly, I wanna look at God sanctifying grace. We've touched on this verse already, but in Titus, Titus is gonna say, but the grace of God appeared, and then it instructs us to deny ungodliness, sensuality, and to live holy and solely for the glory of God.

So grace is not just something we receive. Grace, Paul says to Titus, is power to change. It instructs us to deny ungodliness. So on the one hand, we receive God's grace, we are justified by faith, meaning we're declared reckoned righteous. But then Paul kind of turns that corner even in Romans six, he says, shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?

He says, no, no, no, may it never be. If you're the recipient of God's grace, then you're not gonna go and abuse God's grace like a credit card as a continual license to sin. So grace is not just God's unmerited favor. This is typically where we define it. What's grace? Well, God's unmerited favor to the ill deserving.

That's true, but it doesn't stop there. God's grace is power so that we might be continually conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. That's God's will for our life. One of the questions I think we've covered in a previous episode is, you know, what's God's will for our life? And God's will for our life is to be sanctified,

which just means to become more and more like Jesus. And he does that through what we've referred to in church history as the ordinary, not that I'm a part of church history, but just. Just you know, church history. Just me and John Owen. What we've referred to as the ordinary means of grace. What would those be, just when we're talking about

the ordinary means of grace? Yeah, so it'd be starting with the scripture, right? Continue. Oh yeah, starting with the scripture. The word of God itself is called the word of his grace in Acts chapter 20 verse 32. I don't know if people think about this, when they hold the Bible in their hand,

but this is not just a book according to God, this is God's grace, his word. And God sanctifies us as we submit our hearts and minds to this truth because we're warned about the dangers of sin. We come to find out how much love God extends to us, his forgiveness, his grace, which makes us want to live in light of that. That's why Paul says, the love of Christ compels me.

And you can't know God's love if you don't know God's word because all those things come to us in God's word. That's Psalm 119 verse 41. May your loving kindness come to me according to your word. Meaning that if someone wants a deep understanding of the love of God, they need to have a deep commitment to the word of God. So this is one of the ordinary means of grace.

Prayer would be an ordinary means of grace. Says in Hebrews 4.16, that we are to boldly approach the throne of grace and time of need so that we can receive help. Meaning when we pray, it's not just this one way transaction, it is God deploying his grace to us. And every single day we use and avail ourselves

with these means of grace because every single day is a renewed expression of our dependence on God. We're also sanctified by God's people. I don't know if people think about it that way, but when you're a part of the local church and you're serving and committed there, that is a means of God's grace in your life.

So those would be the three ordinary means. And we call them ordinary, not because they're unremarkable, but because they're the routine, regular, established rhythms that God has implemented for the life of a believer. And set aside and blessed for our pursuit. And so also we just, we moved quickly through it, but I wanted, it was such an important point

that where you can find, where is God's will for your life that you'd be sanctified in 1 Thessalonians, is it four? Yeah, four three. Four three. Yeah, that's the will of God. And that's just a little Easter egg for people listening. I think that's a fantastic verse that should move to the top of the list

for committing to memory. Cause it is, I feel like you find yourself sitting down with brothers and sisters all the time and asking like, oh man, I don't know what God's will is for my life. Having it grounded in, well, 1 Thessalonians 4.3, the will of God is the pursuit of your sanctification that you be made more like Christ from day to day. So anyway, keep moving here, Johnny.

No, that's helpful. Yeah, and God's word is what refines us into the image of God's son. made more like Christ from day to day. So anyway, keep moving here, Johnny. No, that's helpful, yeah. And God's word is what refines us into the image of God's Son. The other thing just under this God's grace and sanctifying us, that's again, his power to change us. The Galatians were a group of people that thought they were saved by grace and through faith,

but thought they could be sanctified in their own effort. And Paul says, you're foolish, right? We're not saved by grace and then renewed by effort. We're saved by grace and we're sanctified by grace. And one of the instruments that God uses in our life to sanctify us is trials too. I don't know if people ever think about the trials that they walk through as the grace of God,

but there's truth in that, right? I mean, you'd have to ask the question, why does God allow trial and trouble into our life? And it's because faith is fostered more in times of difficulty and pain and trial and trouble than it is when you're on the mountain. He teaches you about himself, your dependence on him when you're walking through the valley.

And there's a reminder for us, even when God sanctifies us, because if it's God's will for your life, then it means Philippians one, right? He who began a good work in you is gonna carry it out to completion. God, you're his workmanship, Ephesians 2 10, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that you would walk in them.

This is God's heart for you, is that you be changed and transformed. And he does that through difficulty, and every single Christian is gonna reach the shores of heaven. that you be changed and transformed. And he does that through difficulty. And every single Christian is gonna reach the shores of heaven, but in God's grace, no one's gonna reach the shores of heaven on a sea of glass.

He loves to transform those whom he loves, and that's a part of his grace. And that's, back to your earlier point about considering scripture in light of all of scripture. I mean, that's Paul and Titus, Ephesians, Galatians, Romans. That's Peter in 1 Peter 1. We looked at that as a community group a few weeks ago. Pastor Harry taught on that and that's James.

That's James 1, that's James 4. It's just replete. It's throughout the entire New Testament and Old Testament reading of scripture. Anyway, keep rolling here. Well, third here, I wanna look at God's sustaining grace. God's sustaining grace. I wanna just consider the life of Paul for a moment.

Yeah. You know, it's pretty crazy. We're talking about all those letters you just mentioned. 13 of the 27 books of the Bible were written by the apostle Paul, and this is a guy who said that his entire life was being poured out like a drink offering. You know, sometimes people ask about work-life balance.

Paul said, no, no, no, my life is being poured out like a drink offering. You know, sometimes people ask about work-life balance. Paul said, no, no, no, my life is being poured out like a drink offering. And he suffered immensely. Paul the apostle was given 39 lashes five different times. If you know anything about 39 lashes, it's one short of what they believed would be lethal. At 40, you were dead. At 39, your vital organs were showing.

You're just being held up by a pole covered in a pool of blood. And he received that five times. Three times Paul was stoned to death. I mean, huge boulders crushing his body. At one point in Lystra, they leave him in a pool of his own blood. They presume him to be dead.

And he gets back up and goes and preaches the gospel. He spent five to six years of his life in prison before he was beheaded. He suffered abandonment and rejection and cold and hunger and sickness and bandits, everything. And Paul took stock of it all and said that this is 2 Corinthians 4. This is all light and momentary affliction

that is preparing for him an eternal weight of glory. Now, one of the things that's interesting is Paul suffered all that and said light and momentary, but there was also an event in Paul's life, his thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul battled something. We don't know necessarily and exactly what this is, but many people believe it either to be a physical infirmity

like blindness or spiritual oppression. And it was something in his life that he said, I am begging God, pleading God. He said, I implored the Lord three times to remove the thorn in my flesh from me. And each time God responded by saying no. And then Paul says something really, really interesting. He says that he's considering basically the rejection

of his request. And he ends up thanking God for the reality that God has says no. And he says in 2 Corinthians 12, nine, and he said to me, that's God. God says to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast

about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. You know, one of the things that we see from Paul's life, let's just say hypothetically, let's say God answers Paul's prayer the first time, Paul would have never learned to say, God's grace is sufficient for me and God's power is perfected in human weakness.

Because as long as you think your own strength is sufficient, you never recognize your own insufficiency, which never compels you and propels you to rely on the sufficiency of God's grace. And so God's grace sustains us when we're walking through unimaginable pain, when we feel like we can't take another step. And Paul says, no, no, I had to come to the end of myself

so that I learned the magnitude of God's power because God's power shines on the stage of human inadequacy and weakness. Well, and I'm just thinking about being raised in the church and thinking through verses like, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and how I was often- Steph Curry.

Yeah, I literally was thinking though. Deep three. It's often tied to our greatest successes, athletic endeavors, whatever it is, and how that's actually just such an inadequate view of God's grace, to your point, that without this anchoring principle through times of hardship,

which every Christian is indeed promised, in their walk in sanctification until the Lord calls us home, without that third principle that, no, it is all grace that actually sustains you. Again, it's- Yeah, beginning to end, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

It's just, we can fall, pray if we're not, those trials are actually perfecting our faith, back to your prior point. Yeah, and without those trials, we were self-reliant, we're self-sufficient. Be deceived by a false faith in ourselves. Spurgeon says, Satan's net catches men who are self-sufficient. And he says, the way to grow strong in crisis

to become weak in yourself, God pours no power into a man's heart till that man's power is all poured out. I love that. And I love this poem by Annie Johnson Flint regarding God's sustaining grace. She says, he giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more grace when the labors increase.

To added afflictions, he addeth his mercy. To multiplied trials, his multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed, ere the day is half done, when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father's full giving has only begun. His love has no limits, His grace has no measure, His power has no boundary known unto men,

for out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and giveth and giveth again." And I love that idea that when we come to the end of ourself, when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, God's lavish provision of his grace has only begun. Just fourth and finally in this episode, I wanna talk through God's serving grace or equipping grace. We've covered God's saving grace, his sanctifying grace,

he transforms us, sustaining grace in the midst of trials and difficulty, but that God's grace is's saving grace, His sanctifying grace, He transforms us, sustaining grace in the midst of trials and difficulty, but that God's grace is a serving grace, meaning that it's given so that those who are in the body of Christ might be able to serve and equip. Would you turn over to Ephesians four and I'll turn to Romans 12. God has given every single person in the church

as an exhibition of His grace, a spiritual gift. It says in Romans 12.3, for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. And he's about to talk about spiritual gifting. And then he says in Romans 12.6, since we have gifts that differ

according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly. And then he goes into this list of gifts. And so whenever we think about our spiritual gifting, it is actually something given to us by the grace of God. And every single ounce of gifting we have for the edification of the body of Christ is not a derivative of our achievement.

That's why in Romans 12, three, it shouldn't produce any pride. It's a gift from God because he's so gracious. Do you have Ephesians 4.7? Yeah, absolutely. So it says, but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Now, and then maybe continue to read in verse,

when we got here, 11. Yeah, and he himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. You can pause there. It just, in verse seven, he says,

each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gifts. So God's grace is given, beginning and end is the main idea here as we land. God's grace is what saves you. God's grace is what sanctifies you. You're not saved by grace and then sanctified through human effort.

Obviously, we do work out our salvation with fear and trembling, right? But what are we doing when we're working out our salvation with fear and trembling? Well, it's the next verse, for it is God who works in and through you, right? So when we are, we do strive to become more like Christ, but how we strive is by availing ourselves of the resources,

acknowledging our dependence on God's grace. So he sanctifies us by grace. Anything to add there? I would just maybe to cue up one more final question before we close. I think it's a helpful, maybe some folks have heard it, but for those who haven't, could you differentiate? Maybe we're talking a lot about grace.

What would be the difference between grace and mercy? And then maybe we can tie in how that relates here to the gifting God pours out on us. Yeah, well, I think if you're starting back in regards to God's saving grace, mercy is not receiving what you do deserve. Grace is not only not getting what you do deserve, but getting lavish gifts on top of it.

So the judge says to someone who's guilty, you can go free. But grace is, you don't just go free, come here. You can live in my house, be adopted as my son, and I wanna bestow on you the riches of my family name. That's God's grace. And he does that in salvation because we're adopted into the family of God. But then he continues to express his grace

and giving us power to change. You don't have the power to change any of yourself. Then he sustains us when we're walking through the valley of the shadow of death. He's not only with us, he sustains us. That's why Psalm 139, his right hand holds us fast because we feel like we're gonna fall over. And then he not only allows us into his kingdom,

he gives us gifts to be agents of influence in his kingdom. And that's what we just read about in that serving grace, were allowed entry, but then he says, no, no, no, seek first the kingdom of God, use these gifts for the building up of the body of Christ, which is just an amazing testament that God is not rationing off his grace. He's lavish in his grace.

It's just, that's why Romans 520, it's super abounding grace over the top. Yeah, well, I just, I think at times it can be a false sense or a malnourished view of the grace is what I find in my own heart, leads me towards a spirit of arrogance when I'm applying maybe my spiritual gifting in a serving context.

And so I appreciate you making that distinction because I think it's, when we have a proper view of grace, it's a safeguard against us creating a counterfeit or self-absorbed view of our own gifting because it's such a wild reminder of God's free gift to you. And I can't be arrogant or boastful about something that's been totally credited to my account. And I'm using what gifts?

Is that anything I did to deserve it? 100%, what gifts am I using? I'm using what gifts? Is that anything I did to deserve it? 100%. What gifts am I using? I'm using the gifts that God gave me to build His kingdom. And so anyway, just to help. And they're not even my gifts, like they're on loan from God. They're gifts that I'm called to steward on His behalf

for His kingdom, for His purposes, in the context in which He's placed me. Yeah, no, that's so good. And in the next episode, I just wanna talk about God's sealing grace. And just to kind of punctuate the reality that God is not only gracious in this life, but we're gonna look at it in the next episode,

heaven is the lavish, it's the only word I can think of, expression of God's grace, not just for the 50, 60, 80 years we live in this life, but for all of eternity, and we'll look at that next. Yeah, awesome, looking forward to it. Thanks, Joni. Thanks, Hank. ["The Time Is Now"]