Someone once explained the grace of God by telling the following story:

Suppose you lived in a place where a king ruled the land. Now suppose that you rebelled against the king. In response to your rebellion, the king sent his son, but you killed the king’s son.

Now suppose that, instead of condemning you for your action, the king forgave you. And not only did he forgive you, he also made you an heir to all of his riches. What would you do? Would you save up a lot of money and bring it to the king and say, “Here, now we’re even?” Of course not! What an insult that would be!

In the same way, we could never pay God back for what he has done for us through Jesus. Oh, we live our lives for him, but it is not to “pay him back”. We could never earn our salvation. We do not deserve his grace. We must humbly accept the forgiveness that we could never bring about on our own.

That’s what grace is all about.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”—Ephesians 2:8-9.