"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men," (Titus 2:11, KJV) "It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age," (Titus 2:12, NIV) The Bible was very specific about the purpose of grace. I like how God doesn't play hide and seek with the basic things of our faith. While God may find pleasure in making hidden the higher things about our faith, the basic things are expressed in child-understandable language. It says clearly, "The grace of God whose purpose is to bring about salvation has appeared to everyone". Today, I hear so many people talk about the grace of God, how the grace of God helped them do this or do that. But my Bible teaches me that you cannot talk about grace without talking about salvation. Today, criminals are stealing successfully "by the grace of God"; corrupt politicians are rigging elections and looting people's money "by the grace of God", etc. The grace of God has become a cliche, a polite excuse for making it seem like we are honouring God. But the greatest honour to God is to let grace fulfill it's purpose in our lives: salvation.
The next verse tells us what grace will do for us. It will teach us to say, "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives. That is what grace is supposed to accomplish in our lives. Before, we can talk of anything else that the grace of God has done for us or enabled us to do; we must first be bold and sure to say that grace has brought us salvation and made us live a self-controlled life.
Grace is useless if it can't produce in us the self-control that is needed. God intended for grace to give us the knowledge and boldness to say "No" to bad things, bad friends, bad suggestions, bad communicaions. Grace teaches us to say "No".
If all you know how to say is "Yes", then you are a sycophant christian, or at best a conformist. Grace tells you when to politely refuse. If you are operating in grace, then everything is not for you. Somethings are meant to be sad no to. As you go about today, appropriate the grace of God and let its purpose be fully accomplished in your life in Jesus name. Amen.