Mankind's Need of Grace

We have defined grace as God’s favour or gift given without condition, merit, or right to it on the part of the receiver. In other words, grace is simply freely given and freely received.

The question that arises is why is grace necessary in God’s ministry to mankind? The answer is plainly explained by the Scriptures. And it is all based on the original nature of every human being – the nature with which everyone is born into this world.

According to the Scriptures, the Fall of Adam and Eve, the first parents of all mankind, in the Garden of Eden when they disobeyed God, led to their death. This death was spiritual death with the physical body doomed to follow in eventual decay. This death was a direct consequence of the disobedience of Adam and Eve to God. We read in Genesis 2:15-17: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The Bible tells us the first parents of mankind, tempted and deceived by the devil, ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and consequently fell into death. Adam and Eve, as the first parents of the human race, transmitted this nature of death to their descendants, so that every human being born into this world is born in a state of spiritual death which eventually leads to physical death. The Scriptures reveal that all subsequent generations of mankind virtually sinned in Adam and Eve and thus inherited the sentence of death. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Since God is the source of life, death means to mankind separation from God. Thus born in a state of spiritual death, every human being is born spiritually separated from God. It is that state of spiritual death that renders every human being totally spiritually helpless from birth. Hence to be saved from this state of death, to be regenerated into life, mankind needs complete help from God. Born spiritually dead, human beings cannot make any effort or contribution toward their salvation. And it is in that condition of helplessness man needs the grace of God to be saved. If man is to be saved God must do it by His grace - total help from God without human effort or merit.

The Bible tells us in Romans 5:17: “For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” This is the amazing grace that brought us this great salvation from God. We will continue as we go on to explore its working in bringing salvation to mankind.

Father, help me to realize the condition of death in which I was born, and hence appreciate how it is your grace and grace alone that could have brought me salvation. I accept fully and thank you for your grace and the salvation it has brought to me and to all of mankind. Amen.