This is part of a sermon by Dr. J. Vernon McGee about grace, this is to people who are saved, not unbelievers:
"Two words here are important: teaching and live. The grace of God teaches us, and the grace of God teaches us how to live. In this verse God is not speaking to all men. He is speaking only to those who have come through the first time zone. He is speaking to those who have been saved by His grace. Now as we come into the present where we are today, God says, 'I have something more for you. The grace of God will not only save you, the grace of God will teach you--teach you how to live.' And it is the only thing that will. If you have been saved by the grace of God through the merit of Christ, then God has some demands to make upon you. But remember, He is not talking to the world now. Will you hear me carefully? I want to be kind but I want to be very firm. God is not trying to reform the world; He is redeeming men who will accept Christ. God has no good advice to offer unsaved men; the gospel is not an appeal to Christ-rejecting men to do better. I asked a man who came to me if he wanted to accept Christ. He said, 'Well, I'll talk to you later about that. You know, I'm going to try to do better.' I think I shocked him by saying, 'You are a liar. You are not going to try to do better because if you are honest you know you have tried before, haven't you?' 'Yes' he admitted.
'How did you come out?'
'Well, I didn't do it.'
'Neither will you do it this time. And I have news for you--God is not asking you to do better!' No, He is not. God has not asked the unsaved man to reform. I want to say this: If you have rejected Jesus Christ, if you have never accepted Him as your Savior, and you are trying to work this thing out yourself, you should try to get all you can out of life. The government at this moment is attempting a health education program and is asking you to give up cigarettes. But God is not asking this of you. No, He is not. Eat, drink, smoke cigarettes, for tomorrow you'll die of lung cancer, and they will put you in a flip-top box. Just to reform will not save you, so go ahead, get all you can out of this life, because you are lost. However, God is calling those who are His own, whom He has redeemed by the blood of Christ, to live for Him. He is teaching them to live. The word teach means to train a child, to educate. It is a process. The reason He saved you and left you in this life is that He might train you, that He might develop you.
There are two specifics concerning the teaching of grace that I want to mention.
The first specific is that the standards of grace are immeasurably higher than the standards of the law in the Old Testament. Someone asks, 'How could David get by with sin?' My friend, if you read the record right, you will find that he did not get by with it. And if you have been saved by the grace of God, you won't get by with sin. You have been called to a higher plane than were the men of the Old Testament. The Mosaic Law said, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.' Now listen to the law of Jesus:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. (John 13:34)
He has called you to a much higher plane. Love your neighbor, not as yourself, but as Christ loves him! He repeats this standard:
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (John 15:12)
Paul was confronted by this new standard. Paul was a Pharisee, proud as a peacock. He kept the Mosaic Law, and he said that he could stand blameless before God. But he was filled with pride--pride of place, pride of race, pride of face, pride of grace. That is the quartet that moves in upon all of us. Pride of place--he said, 'I am a man of Tarsus, a citizen of no mean city.'
Pride of race--'I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews.' Pride of face--'I am a Pharisee,' a religious ruler, probably the most brilliant man of his day. Pride of grace--a cultured gentleman, a Roman citizen, and educated in all of the Greek philosophies. With all of this, he was lost. And when he came to Jesus Christ he found that there was a new standard altogether. He mentions it:
In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. (Philippians 2:3)
These commandments are on a higher plane than was ever presented under the law. It is so high that you may say, 'that is a superhuman standard, and I cannot measure up to it.' You are right. It is superhuman. God knows you cannot live up to it, and that brings me to this second specific of teaching us to live today.
Not only is the standard superhuman, but He has given supernatural enablement to live for Him. Listen to His provision:
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2:12)
And to those who were carnal believers:
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20)
Also he points out this to the Galatian Christians:
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:2, 3)
And through the beloved apostle John He writes:
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. (1 John 3:24)
God, you see, has provided a supernatural enablement so that His child is not left to his own devices. God has given to him the Holy Spirit whereby he can live for God. He not only has delivered us from the penalty of sin, but He has delivered us from the power of sin. No wonder John Newton could say, 'I am what I am by the grace of God.' God by His grace provides the power to live for Him in the here and now."
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