Sinclair Ferguson, in his 2007 Banner of Truth Minister’s Conference lecture, “Our Holiness: Abiding in Christ’s Love,” made the bold assertion that “There is no such thing as grace. There is only the Lord Jesus. Grace is not some appendage to His being; nor is it some substance that flows from Him. All there is is the Lord Jesus.”

There has been no small debate in recent years over the nature of saving grace and the role that it plays in the believer’s life–both in the role that it plays when individual Christians fall and fail as well as in what role it plays in motivating and animating the Christian’s obedience. I have found so much of what has been written to be extremely confusing at best and damaging at worst.

To be sure, we need to make careful categorical distinctions between what we might call “grace” before the fall and what the Scriptures refer to as “grace” after the fall. We want to make refined distinctions about the nature of grace in producing faith in our souls as the instrument of our justification and grace enabling us to work faith through love in the realm of our sanctification. Additionally, we certainly ought to emphasize the nature of redeeming, restraining, repenting and restoring grace–as well as the way in which grace shapes all of the other experiences of the believer’s life. However, one dichotomy that we do not want to draw is that of “grace” and the Person in whom grace becomes ours.

Sinclair Ferguson, in his 2007 Banner of Truth Minister’s Conference lecture, “Our Holiness: Abiding in Christ’s Love,” made the bold assertion that “There is no such thing as grace. There is only the Lord Jesus. Grace is not some appendage to His being; nor is it some substance that flows from Him. All there is is the Lord Jesus.” Under his exposition of the believer’s personal union with Christ, Ferguson explained:

The union that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ is a union with His Person…

Read More

[Editor’s note: One or more original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid; those links have been removed.]