Grace for Beginners
God's Most Precious Gift
Teaching Strategy
The focus of this lesson is on the benefits we receive from God’s grace. Of special note is how we are blessed and how we should use these blessings to help others discover God’s grace.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Know: Comprehend the benefits to one’s life produced by God’s grace.
- Feel: Value the benefits produced by God’s grace.
- Do: Demonstrate our knowledge of grace by living faithfully and helping others discover the benefits produced by God’s grace.
Body of the Lesson
Discussion Questions
Below are suggested questions to use during the guided discussion portion of the lesson. There are also suggested responses to questions to help students grasp the various concepts. These are provided to assist the discussion and are not considered as “right or wrong” responses.
1. Summarize what you know about the power of grace and how that makes you feel.
Answers will vary but look for responses related to our obedience, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, our service and relationship with God. Also, the idea that grace empowers me to want what God's wants more than wanting what I want.
2. Cite some examples of God's grace from the Old Testament.
Look for responses where God expressed His love for humanity seen through forgiveness and salvation. Some expected examples include David, Adam/Eve, Moses, the Israelite nation, God's plan to redeem mankind through Jesus, etc.
3. Summarize the four main gifts described in the text and state the importance of each.
Two types of gifts from the Holy Spirit: Empowerment – given to those in the early church to help make their witness confirmed with miracles, and to strengthen and encourage the church.
The other is the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each convert (Acts 2:38). This gift helps guide and encourage us to faithfulness and will one day raise us from the dead.
God equips individuals in the church to strengthen and help guide us. These are in the form of prophets, teachers, elders, evangelists and such. These individuals are valuable in that we learn God's will from them and how to remain faithful.
Each of us are gifted by the Holy Spirit so that we can not only learn and remain faithful, but so we can show others the way to experience God's grace and salvation. These are important because they are there to help serve the Lord and each other.
The gift of grace is seen in our salvation. God did not have to redeem man but He chose to do so. Grace and the salvation it brings is a gift because we cannot earn or qualify for it. It is given freely by God through Jesus Christ. This is important to us because without it we would have no hope for salvation and eternal life after death.
4. Read Ephesians 1:3-14. List the gifts God has blessed us with.
Paul states we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
These include: God choosing us from the beginning, predestining us for adoption, redeeming us through Jesus, forgiving our sins, lavishing grace upon us, making known His will for us, giving us an inheritance and guaranteeing our hope.
5. Share a time when you've received a gift that left you breathless with joy and appreciation. How does this compare with the gift of grace?
Answers will vary but look for responses that relate to an overwhelming sense of gratitude and love for the one giving the gift. Also note that without the gift of grace, all other gifts would not be possible or hold value.
6. How is grace expressed in our lives?
Grace motivates us to obey God. Faith is only a concept that becomes real through our repentance, baptism, service, faithfulness, pure living and other expression of submission to God. Paul expressed this in Ephesians 2:7 "so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus."
7. What does the gift of grace give us?
Responses will vary and come each student's perspective but look for the following responses: produces our salvation, produces righteousness, produces life, produces gratitude which moves us to seek righteousness.
8. Provide an explanation of the following gifts given by grace.
Our salvation
We have no hope of salvation without grace. Like Paul stated in Romans 7, we know what to do but don't do it and we know what not to do, but do it anyways.
This summarizes why we need God's grace for our salvation.
Produces righteousness
Righteousness is defined as the quality of being morally right or justifiable.
We cannot achieve righteousness by ourselves. God grants us righteousness through His grace. He did this through the gift of Jesus Christ. There is another concept describing how righteousness is obtained, it is the word, "imputes." This term means to credit or ascribe something to a person. In our relationship with God, we stand before him unrighteous because of our sins (Romans 3:23). God, through His grace imputes, or ascribes righteousness to us. To put it all together, God justifies us through His Son, Jesus. We cannot possibly earn or justify ourselves, but He grants salvation to us. Paul explains this in Romans 3:21-23. Through our faith in Jesus, the righteousness of God is given to us (or ascribed to us). See also II Corinthians 5:21.
Produces life
Grace not only produces life everlasting but produces life now. It adds the quality of blessedness to our lives as we work and exist as God's children today. We see this as "fruit of the Spirit" outlined in Galatians 5:22-24. These should not only be seen by us, but should be evident to others as our witness of being God's children.
9. What is meant by falling from grace and what is the tragedy of it happening?
Falling from grace is the result of one who is saved but rejects God's gift. The tragedy is that once redeemed and saved from eternal punishment, this person turns back to sin and disbelief. In doing so they reject God's gift and thus have no hope of salvation.
10. How can we keep from falling from grace?
Answers will vary but look for expressions related to working out our salvation (faithful living), respect and deference to God seen as "fear and trembling" keeping focused on our Lord Who guarantees salvation (Ephesians 1:14; Hebrews 12:1-2).
11. Read Romans 6:1-11. How does Paul explain the idea that we should no longer sin deliberately?
Paul states that we must not sin so that grace abounds. He states that because of our salvation we are dead to sin. We are a new person (newness of life). Our old person dies when we are raised as Christ was, symbolized through our baptism. In verse 11 Paul completes this thought by comparing that as Jesus was buried and raised a glorified being, we too are dead to sin through repentance and, buried and raised to a new life with Christ through baptism.
12. How does this lesson help you and others build a greater relationship with Jesus and grow spiritually?
When we fully understand the nature of God's grace and what He does for us through it, this should compel us to obey His will as a demonstration of our faith, as well as love and gratitude for His gift. Part of our gratitude is seen as we help others learn of God's grace and salvation.