Now we must ask a crucial question: what is grace? When I was young, I was taught by some great teachers that grace means that we do nothing and that God does everything for us. According to this teaching, anything we do is work, not grace, but whatever the Lord does for us is grace. For example, there is no need for us to do anything for our sins. If we do this, it is our work. The Lord Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and that is grace. Are you satisfied with this definition of grace? For a while, I was satisfied with it. But as a result of considering certain verses in the Bible, I began to question it. John 1:17 says that grace came through Jesus Christ, and John 1:16 says, “Of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace” (Recovery Version). In 1 Corinthians 15:10 the Apostle Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” One day, as I was comparing this verse with Galatians 2:20 where Paul says, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me,” I realized that grace is just God in Christ dispensed into our being for our enjoyment in our experience. It is not only the work the Lord does for us; it is the Triune God Himself dispensed into our being and experienced as our enjoyment. In brief, grace is the Triune God experienced by us. According to the entire revelation of the New Testament, grace is nothing less than God in Christ dispensed into our being for our enjoyment. Firstly, He is dispensed into our spirit, and then, as He spreads into our inward parts, He becomes our enjoyment. This grace has come to us through Christ (John 1:14, 17), and it is the grace of Christ (2 Cor. 13:14; 12:9), even Christ Himself (Gal. 6:18; cf. 2 Tim. 4:22).
To fall away from the grace of God is to fall away from Christ. When we are “fallen from grace” we are “severed from Christ” (Gal. 5:4, Gk.). In this matter Paul warned the churches of Galatia, which were in the same danger as the Hebrew believers, not to be “severed from Christ” by being turned aside to the law of the Jewish religion, lest they fall away from the grace of God which is Christ Himself. We should not fall away from grace, but rather “have grace” (v. 28), “be confirmed by grace” (13:9), and “stand in grace” (Rom. 5:2). Both Galatians and Hebrews close with the blessings of grace (Gal. 6:18; Heb. 13:25).
According to the Greek, to be severed from Christ means to be cut off from Him like a branch is cut off from a tree. We all have had this experience. A number of times when we were cut off from the fellowship with the living Christ, we also had the sense that we were severed from grace. On the contrary, when we are in intimate fellowship with the dear Lord, we have the deep sense that we are in grace, having grace for our strength and enjoyment and for our every need. If we need life, grace is life. If we need strength and comfort, grace is our strength and comfort. Thus, in an experiential way, not in a doctrinal way, we clearly see that grace is Christ Himself.
For the Hebrew believers to fall away from the grace of God was to give up the enjoyment of Christ in the new covenant way and to return to their old religion. The arrangement of the furniture of the tabernacle is a revelation of the enjoyment of Christ. At the altar, we enjoy Christ as our sacrifices, and at the laver we enjoy Him as the life-giving Spirit who washes us. At the showbread table we enjoy Christ as our daily supply, at the lampstand we enjoy Him as our light of life, and at the incense altar we enjoy Him as the resurrection fragrance by which we are accepted by God. Then at the ark of testimony within the Holy of Holies, we enjoy Christ as the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the law of life. This is the enjoyment of Christ according to the new covenant way. If the Hebrew believers had given up this way, they would have fallen away from grace. We should not understand 12:15 in a superficial way. If we plunge into the depths of Hebrews, we shall realize that what the writer meant by not falling away from the grace of God was not giving up the new covenant way of enjoying Christ. In other words, the writer seemed to be saying, “Hebrew believers, do not go back to Judaism. If you do, you will be giving up the way to enjoy Christ as your grace, and you will fall away from the grace of God.”