Skip to main content

The Divine Progression of Grace




The Divine Progression of Grace by Bob Santos

We hear it repeated throughout the halls of church that men and women are saved by God’s grace, not by the efforts of their own hands, and yet there is more to grace than this.  Founder of Search for Me Ministries Bob Santos has written The Divine Progression to seek to draw out how grace is not only for salvation for all of the Christian life.  His book is winsome, full of wisdom, and careful in understanding a key biblical truth, namely that God’s grace is evident in God saving us and also in God sustaining us in this world as we work for good and His glory.

In seeking to understand grace for all of the Christian life, Bob focuses his efforts on grace as God’s unmerited favor, transformation grace, and empowering grace.  Each stage is part of the plan of God for believers to grow up in Christ.  Whereas God’s unmerited favor or grace is God drawing us to Himself in salvation, transformational grace is the life-blood of God that produces the fruit of the Spirit while giving us victory over sin.  Further, empowering grace is that grace that God gives us supernaturally to advance God’s kingdom (51).  Bob uses these last two kinds of graces differently, namely that transformational grace is formative, those avenues that we practice and develop that bring us along to maturity (prayer, fellowship, Bible reading, etc.).  But, empowering grace is those activities and actions that we could in no way come up with, for they are imbued with the supernatural work of God. 

Bob is careful to note that success in the Christian life cannot be divorced from fruitfulness.  What does he mean by fruitfulness?  Namely, that fruit that exhibits humility.  Further, true fruitfulness is a life given over to self-control, love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faithfulness, and truth.  By abiding in Christ are able to nourish and produce the fruit that God is calling forth from our lives.  Yet, as Bob hints at, we cannot grow in grace without realizing that our motives stink without Christ’s divine influence upon our hearts.  I would add that it is the Spirit’s work of opening our eyes to sin and to repentance that helps us along the way to Christian maturity.

Lastly, Bob is right to call us to believe, stand on, and live out the gospel not just in our initial moment of salvation but every day.  Yielding to the Savior in salvation, realizing that our efforts only bring about ruin, and then living daily by the freedom that God provides in Christ is the remedy for our souls. 

I think many will benefit from reading this book, including those who need a reminder that God’s grace is for every day.


Thanks to SfMe Media and Book Crash for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saving Casper

Saving Casper: A Christian and an Atheist Talk about Why We Need to Change the Conversion Conversation by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Casper-Christian-Conversion-Conversation/dp/1414364881 Many readers will quickly know the authors of this book from their previous release Jim and Casper Go to Church.  Jim and Matt’s new book entitled Saving Casper focuses on the way we talk about conversion in the church and the devastating ways we have pushed away atheists and other non-believers by our posture.  Both Jim and Matt traversed the national landscape, meeting in churches and asking hard questions about faith, conversion, and life. The basic premise of the book and travel is laid out here in their words, “Part of what Casper and I are trying to achieve when we speak to a group of Christians is to help people move a little bit on their “judgment meter.”  This capacity, while intellectually and often theologically uncomfortable,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Essential Christian Doctrine

  Essential Christian Doctrine , General Editor John MacArthur Pastor John MacArthur has for years been teaching the Word of God in both pulpit ministry, books, and conferences with an aim to displaying God’s revelation to his listeners in a winsome and foundational manner.  This new book, Essential Christian Doctrine takes an entire life of teaching and preaching and encapsulates the main contours of the Christian faith for its readers.  John in a systematic way highlights the most necessary teachings from Scripture including God’s Word, the Trinity, while also including sections on Man and the Future. One of the most helpful ways the authors bring to light biblical truth and theology is the way in which they group together particular themes.  In the section on the Holy Spirit, instead of a complex discussion of personhood, word pictures of the Holy Spirit are introduced in a discernible and profitable manner.  The metaphors for the Holy Spirit include fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

God's Grace for All of Life

The Romance of Grace by Jim McNeely III To be honest, when I received this book in the mail I had visions of what it might be like with a title like, ‘The Romance of Grace.’  The emotional rollercoaster and one-sided perspective on how our emotions fuel our faith was my presumption about the book, but this was the furthest thing from the truth as I started reading.  The Romance of Grace by Pastor Jim McNeely III is a careful look at the movements of grace in the way God pursues us with his love and his desire to get us to love him back.  McNeely writes, “We are entering a cosmic romance with a passionate lover, and He is interested in our heart’s truest desire.  His deepest objective isn’t to make us more moral; it is to get us to love Him back.  Virtue is the fruit, not the root” (18).  Why is this helpful?  For one thing, beginning with God’s initiating grace frees us from starting out on the wrong foot in the way we tell the story and...
2 comments
Read more