As God placed this topic on my heart, I thought about how Christianity has been removed from schools. Many young people are missing out on hearing about God's grace. Often, the first time they hear of a higher power is in therapy or rehabilitation programs for drugs and alcohol. These programs admit that human will power is not enough. They say you need something greater than yourself.

But without the truth of God's grace in Christ, no program or book can truly transform a person. Human strength can reform behavior for a season, but only grace changes the heart. Leaders and politicians may not understand this, yet the Scriptures make it plain that without grace we are nothing.

1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

• Grace is not will power.
  
  

• Grace is God's Spirit working in us.
  
  

• Paul's ministry was proof that grace had already begun replacing the Old Covenant system.
  
  

Under the Old Covenant, people relied on the Law, sacrifices, and rituals. But Paul said all of that was passing away. The New Covenant of grace was being established.

2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

• The Law could not make anyone righteous.
  
  

• Only Christ, who fulfilled the Law and took our sin, makes us righteous.
  
  

• That righteousness was fully revealed when the temple system fell in AD 70.
  
  

Isaiah saw this day long before it came:

Isaiah 61:10 I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God, For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

When Jesus finished His work at the cross, the New Covenant was in place, but the Old still stood until judgment fell on Jerusalem. Once the temple was destroyed, God's grace was revealed as the only covering. The garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness were no longer shadows, but reality in Christ.

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

• Salvation was not tied to temple works, sacrifices, or Law.
  
  

• Grace came as God's gift through Christ.
  
  

• When the Old Covenant system ended in AD 70, grace was confirmed as the way of salvation forever.
  
  

Think about it. Did the early Christians endure persecution and sing praises in the fire because of their own strength? No, it was God's grace. Did the gospel spread across the Roman Empire by human will power? No, it was grace working as the Old Covenant collapsed and the New Covenant was established.

Isaiah 55:7-8 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts, And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.

Grace was never about human effort. It was about God's plan to replace the fading covenant with one that would never end.

CONCLUSION God's grace has placed us where we are today, living in the fullness of the New Covenant. In AD 70, when the temple fell and the Law passed away, grace was vindicated as the only way to God. No more sacrifices, no more rituals, no more shadows. Only Christ, only grace, only life in Him.

I know I cannot walk in this life on my own. That is why my wife and I pray each morning and night, asking for grace to guide us. When we live by grace, everything we do is filled with His presence and joy.

Let us not trust in human will power. Let us rest in the grace of God, the same grace secured at the cross, revealed in the first century, and standing forever in the New Covenant.