Text: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” — Titus 2:11
Introduction
There are few words in the Christian vocabulary more beloved than grace. It is the melody of the Gospel, the foundation of hope, the root of all spiritual life. Grace is what awakens the dead, justifies the guilty, sanctifies the sinner, and glorifies the saint. It is the thread that ties together eternity and time, heaven and earth, the throne of God and the heart of man.
Yet for all its beauty, many still underestimate it. They speak of grace only as a pardon—as if grace merely wipes the record clean and then steps aside. But grace is more than forgiveness. It is power. It is movement. It is the very life of God poured into the soul of man. It transforms what it touches. It creates where nothing existed. It strengthens what was weak, lifts what was low, heals what was broken, and secures what was lost.
Let the world speak of effort, merit, achievement. Let religion exalt ritual and law. But let the church cry with joy, “Grace!” For everything we are, and everything we have, is because of what grace has done.
Today we consider this profound question: What can grace do? And we answer it not with shallow theory, but with the weight of Scripture, history, and lived experience.
I. Grace Can Save the Worst of Sinners
This is where grace begins—not with good people becoming better, but with dead people being made alive. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:5, “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).” Salvation is not a repair—it is a resurrection. Grace enters the tomb and calls out the name.
Paul himself is living proof. He was not a passive unbeliever. He was a persecutor. A blasphemer. A murderer of Christians. And yet in 1 Timothy 1:14-15, he declares, “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying… that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
If grace can save the chief of sinners, then there is no soul beyond its reach. It can enter the prison, the brothel, the boardroom, the gutter. Grace can find the angry atheist, the silent doubter, the religious hypocrite, the hardened criminal. There is no cave too dark. No heart too cold. Grace saves not because we are lovely, but because God is love.
II. Grace Can Change the Nature of a Man
Grace does not stop at forgiveness. It begins a process of transformation so deep that the Bible calls it a new creation. Second Corinthians 5:17 declares, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
What does grace do to the soul it saves? It gives new appetites. New desires. New power. New identity. The liar begins to love truth. The bitter begins to forgive. The selfish learns how to serve. The proud becomes gentle. The impure becomes pure in heart. These changes are not imposed from the outside—they are worked from within by grace.
Titus 2:12 tells us that grace “teaches us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” It teaches. It instructs. It disciplines. It is not a passive blanket. It is an active force.
Where law can reveal sin, grace can remove it. Where willpower fails, grace prevails. Where man gives up, grace begins its finest work. What human strength could never produce, grace accomplishes daily.
III. Grace Can Sustain Through Every Trial
Grace is not only for the mountaintop. It shines best in the valley. The same God who gives saving grace also gives sustaining grace—the power to keep going when life becomes too heavy to carry.
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul pleads three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed. God does not answer with relief but with revelation: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Grace is not always about removal. It is about resilience. It does not always change the circumstance. It changes the one who walks through it.
This sustaining grace is what carried Job through loss and silence. It carried Joseph through betrayal and imprisonment. It carried Daniel through the lion’s den. It carried Jesus through Gethsemane and Calvary.
Hebrews 4:16 invites us to come boldly unto the throne of grace, “that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Not just grace to forgive. Grace to help. Grace to endure. Grace to stand when others fall. Grace to hope when the world despairs.
IV. Grace Can Restore the Fallen
We speak often of grace for the lost, but there is also grace for the backslider. Grace that pursues the wandering. Grace that brings home the prodigal.
David sinned grievously. He fell into lust, deceit, and murder. Yet in Psalm 51, we hear his cry: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness… restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” Grace heard that prayer. And grace answered.
Peter denied Christ three times. He wept bitterly. But grace met him on the shore, with breakfast and three words: “Feed my sheep.” Grace did not discard him. Grace re-commissioned him.
Galatians 6:1 instructs the church to “restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,” because grace restores. It does not excuse sin, but it heals the sinner. Grace says, “You are not disqualified. Come back. Be cleansed. Be whole.”
There is no failure too deep for grace to redeem. If you have fallen, grace can lift you. If you have drifted, grace can call you back.
V. Grace Can Empower for Service
God never calls a man without equipping him. And His equipping is not found in talent or training alone—it is in grace.
Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace… was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly… yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Grace does not make us lazy. It makes us able. It energizes. It enables. It moves the hands and strengthens the knees.
Romans 12:6 says that we have “gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.” Your calling is wrapped in grace. Your spiritual gift is administered by grace. Your effectiveness in the kingdom flows from the measure of grace God has given you.
Grace is what makes the preacher preach, the intercessor pray, the evangelist weep for souls, the missionary endure, the deacon serve, the mother nurture, the martyr stand firm.
Grace is the power behind the servant’s hands and the courage behind the witness’s voice.
VI. Grace Can Unite What Was Divided
Sin does not only separate man from God—it separates man from man. Pride, bitterness, envy, and selfishness divide hearts. But grace reconciles.
In Ephesians 2:8-14, Paul explains that grace not only brings peace with God but makes peace between Jew and Gentile, between man and man. Grace tears down the wall of hostility. Grace builds bridges.
Colossians 3:13-14 calls us to forbear one another, forgive one another, and above all, to put on love, “which is the bond of perfectness.” But none of this is possible without grace. Grace allows us to forgive those who hurt us. Grace softens the heart and silences the voice of revenge. Grace teaches us to see others through the eyes of Christ.
Grace restores marriages. Grace heals families. Grace reunites churches. Grace brings enemies to sit at one table. The power of grace is not only vertical—it is also horizontal.
VII. Grace Will Carry Us Home
The final word of grace is not at conversion. It is at coronation. Grace not only begins the race—it finishes it. When the last breath escapes your lips, it will be grace that carries your soul into glory.
The aged Paul, having poured himself out, says in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” And what awaits him? “A crown of righteousness.”
Grace does not end at the grave. It walks through the valley of the shadow of death and ushers the saint into the presence of the Savior. Jude 1:24 says, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory…” This is grace at its highest point.
The same grace that chose you in eternity past, called you in time, sustained you in life, and restored you in failure, will carry you into everlasting joy.
Conclusion
What can grace do?
It can save.
It can change.
It can sustain.
It can restore.
It can empower.
It can unite.
It can glorify.
There is no wound too deep, no sin too great, no task too hard, and no distance too far for grace.
So come.
If you are broken, come.
If you are tired, come.
If you are empty, come.
If you are proud, come lower.
If you are weak, come closer.
Grace is not an idea. It is a Person. And His name is Jesus.
Let us worship the One full of grace and truth.
Let us follow Him in the power of grace.
And let us live and die in the confidence of what grace can do.
Amen.