What does it mean to cultivate an ethos that is Grace- Driven? It means that we live with an understanding that real transformation is motivated by what God has done for us in Christ and not by what we have to do to earn His favor or people’s approval. More than just understanding it, we want our lives to reflect the massive implications that being “Grace-Driven” has for how we relate not only to God, but to ourselves and others.
Being Grace-Driven produces a new way of relating to God.
The Gospel takes us from an impersonal “boss-employee” relationship with God where we work to earn favor from Him to a grace-driven personal “Father-child” relationship with Him—from a self-centered, fear-based motive to act morally to a love-based desire to delight in God. If we are saved by God’s grace at such an infinite cost to Him, then He can ask anything of us and it can still be a joy for us to obey.
Being Grace Driven produces a new way of relating to ourselves.
Being grace driven frees us to no longer base our identity on what others think of us—or even what we think of ourselves—but on what God thinks of us in Christ (1 Cor. 4:3-4). The Gospel produces neither an inferiority complex (since God sees us as beautiful in Christ) nor a superiority complex (since we know we are sinners saved only by grace). The transforming power of the Gospel simultaneously produces in us both confidence and humility.
Being Grace Driven produces a new way of relating to others.
The Gospel makes us a new people, united to Christ and to each other. Being Grace-Driven both humbles us and yet assures us that we are loved, making us now free from both envy and pride — both inferiority and superiority. We no longer receive our sense of worth through approval from people or through power over people. We neither use people nor are overly dependent upon them; rather we are free to serve, affirm, or confront others — whatever is best for them. Being Grace-Driven also removes cultural pride and diminishes race as a component of identity, making it possible to avoid idolizing one’s cultural strengths while appreciating those of others.