Paul draws attention to this in what he says in Ephesians. Having expounded the grace of salvation as experienced by God’s people collectively as the church in the first half of the letter, he goes on to show how this is worked out practically in its second half. The fact he begins this applicatory section with the exhortation to ‘live a life worthy of the calling you have received’ (4.1) is simply another way of saying, ‘live out the grace that is yours in Christ.’

The more we have explored the theme of grace as it unfolds in different ways throughout Scripture, the more we have discovered its variegated beauty and its far-reaching implications for our lives as Christians. It is more pervasive than we often imagine and, as we have noted in an earlier post, this is because grace is not a commodity, but is embodied in the incarnate Christ and is ours through our union and communion with him. There is therefore nothing static about grace, it is as living and vibrant and dynamic as is Christ himself. So, its outworking in our lives as his people – not just individually, but corporately – will display these qualities to the watching world.

Again, as we have seen already, even though the theme of grace has often been handled in a way that emphasises our passivity as we receive it in Christ, too often this leads us to overlook the fact it must be actively expressed in how we live. If, as J.I. Packer points out, ‘the evidence of conversion is covertedness’ – grace received salvation must be lived out in the new life of those who are saved – then the ‘newness of life’ that is ours in Christ is nothing less than the outworking of grace in all that we are and in the way we now live to serve him.

Paul draws attention to this in what he says in Ephesians. Having expounded the grace of salvation as experienced by God’s people collectively as the church in the first half of the letter, he goes on to show how this is worked out practically in its second half. The fact he begins this applicatory section with the exhortation to ‘live a life worthy of the calling you have received’ (4.1) is simply another way of saying, ‘live out the grace that is yours in Christ.’

The grace we have in him not only brings us into a new standing before God in Christ; it also enables us to reorient our lives to serve him and not ourselves, serve one another for his sake and also serve the world through the gospel to see his kingdom come. Paul puts this in a nutshell when he declares, ‘But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it’ (2.7).

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