The God Culture: What is Grace?

Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture continues his Foundations series by defining grace. In his previous definitions of covenant, holiness, repentance, and the gospel Tim has tied all of them not to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross but to keeping the Torah. It should be no surprise then that Tim does the same with grace. However he does it in an insidious way by saying we are saved by grace for works. That sounds god but it really means grace is not the unmerited favour of God by which we are saved but the power to keep the Torah. Keeping the Torah is thus the purpose and end of salvation. Let's take a look.  

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FOUNDATIONS

What Is Grace?

What Is Grace?

Key Texts:

Exod 34:6–7 • Ps 103 • John 1 • Titus 2 • Eph 2:8–9

WHAT IS GRACE?

Grace is not a loophole.

Grace is not permission.

Grace is not the absence of expectation.

Grace is the gift of salvation from YAHUAH found in the Old and New Testaments.

Ephesians 2:8–10

“For by grace you have been saved through faith… not a result of works… so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created… for good works…”

GRACE SAVES — BUT DOES NOT END THE STORY

Let’s be clear:

No one is saved by works

No one earns salvation

Salvation is a gift

But Scripture does not stop there.

We are created for good works

FAITH PRODUCES FRUIT

True grace produces:

obedience

transformation

fruit

Not perfectly—but evidently.

John 15

Messiah defines it plainly:

Those who abide in Him bear fruit

No fruit?

Something is wrong at the root.

PAUL AND JAMES AGREE

There is no contradiction.

Paul: faith saves

James: faith works

James 2:17

“Faith, if it hath not works, is dead…”

James is not correcting Paul.

He is confirming him.

GRACE TEACHES OBEDIENCE

Titus 2:11–12

Grace does not remove standards.

Grace teaches us to:

deny ungodliness

live righteously

walk upright

WHAT GRACE IS NOT

Grace is not:

ignoring His commandments

rejecting His ways

redefining righteousness

GRACE AND HIS WAYS

From the beginning:

Exodus 34:6–7

YAHUAH is:

merciful

gracious

long-suffering

Yet:

He does not clear the guilty without repentance.

Psalm 103

He forgives.

He restores.

He shows mercy.

But always within relationship and covenant.

THE TRUTH MANY MISS

Grace is not separate from His ways

Grace leads you back to them. A Gospel of Grace that ignores the Bible record of the Old Testament cannot be a doctrine of Yahuah who said He did not come to abolish the Old Testament (Matt. 5:17-20).

THE RESULT OF GRACE

If grace is active in your life:

You will:

walk differently

speak differently

live differently

show it in your fruits

Not to earn salvation—

but because you have it

FOUNDATION TRUTH

Grace saves.

Faith receives.

Works reveal.

FINAL WORD

You are not saved by works.

But you are absolutely saved for them.

Walk in grace.

Walk in truth.

Walk in His ways.

Yah Bless.

Once again it's the same poisonous doctrine. As usual there is no mention of the finished work of Christ on the cross and its application to us. Grace is defined as the power to keep the law, i.e. bear fruit.

Messiah defines it plainly:

Those who abide in Him bear fruit

Tim overlooks the fact that those engrafted into Christ bear fruit due to the life-giving power of Christ. 

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Tim speaks of abiding, but not of the Vine's life-giving power. He speaks of fruit, but not of the Spirit who produces it. Jesus says fruit-bearing is impossible apart from union with Himself, a union He initiates and sustains. Tim has no doctrine of union with Christ. He has a doctrine of union with Torah.

Tim does not actually believe grace makes anyone righteous. Abraham was righteous because he kept the law. 

16:44 Abraham kept the law and the sabbath. And so did Isaac and Jacob.  I mean how can they be called righteous if there was no law by which they could be judged as righteous? The very notion is ridiculous from the start.

Sabbath Series: Introduction Commentary Only

What law you might ask? Why the very law which came 430 years after the promise given to Abraham (Galatians 3:17) and was revealed on Sinai to Moses. Tim gets this doctrine from Jubilees which says the patriarchs kept that same law before it was revealed. In fact, the law is what redeems us!

19:30 So this is another example that we aren't to just have faith in Yahusha. That’s not enough. That’s not it.  No, no, no, no. We are to keep His commandments.

Sabbath Series: Part 5: The End Times Sabbath

40:11 The law is what redeems us.

The Law of Sin and Death. What is it? NOT The Law of Moses! WHAT DID PAUL SAY?"

So, any notion of grace Tim has necessarily includes law keeping at the very core. Grace ALONE does not save. Tim writes that grace leads us BACKWARDS to the law.

Grace is not separate from His ways

Grace leads you back to them. A Gospel of Grace that ignores the Bible record of the Old Testament cannot be a doctrine of Yahuah who said He did not come to abolish the Old Testament (Matt. 5:17-20).

Tim is correct in saying the law is not abolished. It remains as a schoolmaster which leads us to Christ. 

Galatians 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

However, Jesus Christ is not a Levite priest but a priest after the order of Melchizedek who has fulfilled the law. That means the law has been CHANGED!!!

Hebrews 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?

12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

Christ's fulfillment of the law is the message of Hebrews which Tim ignores. I have written an article about Tim's denial that Christ has fulfilled the law which can be read here. Tim claims we are not saved by works but functionally that is where his system leads. It cannot be overstated that Tim has no need for the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. For Tim faith, obedience, being in covenant, holiness, and the Gospel itself is all about keeping the Torah not trusting in the work of Jesus Christ. 

This is what the Larger Catechsim of the Westminster Confession of Faith has to say about grace.

Q. 31. With whom was the covenant of grace made? 

A. The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.

Gal. 3:16; Rom. 5:15-21; Isa. 53:10-11.

Q. 32. How is the grace of God manifested in the second covenant? 

A. The grace of God is manifested in the second covenant, in that he freely provideth and offereth to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation by him; and, requiring faith as the condition to interest them in him, promiseth and giveth his Holy Spirit to all his elect, to work in them that faith, with all other saving graces; and to enable them unto all holy obedience, as the evidence of the truth of their faith and thankfulness to God, and as the way which he hath appointed them to salvation.

Gen. 3:15; Isa. 42:6; John 6:27; 1 John 5:11-12; John 3:16; John 1:12; Prov. 1:23; 2 Cor. 4:13; Gal. 5:22-23; Ezek. 36:27; Jas. 2:18, 22; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Eph. 2:10.  

Q. 71. How is justification an act of God’s free grace?

A. Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real and full satisfaction to God’s justice in the behalf of them that are justified; yet in as much as God accepteth the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace.

Rom. 5:8-10, 19; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; Heb. 10:10; Matt. 20:28; Dan. 9:24, 26; Isa. 53:4-6; Isa. 53:10-12; Heb. 7:22; Rom. 8:32; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 3:24-25; Eph. 2:8; Eph. 1:7.

To modify what Tim has said: A Gospel of Grace that ignores the Bible record of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross cannot be a doctrine of God.  Leave it to Timothy Jay Schwab who is the God Culture to strip grace of any mention of Christ's death and resurrection and its application to all those who believe. 

Once again I have employed the assistance of noted theologian Father Ted Crilly to craft a response to Tim.

Ah, Philippine Fails, me lad... puts the teacup down with a heavy sigh and rubs his foreheadI’ve read Tim’s new “What Is Grace?” post carefully. On the surface it sounds reasonable — even “balanced.” He says “grace saves,” “no one is saved by works,” and quotes Ephesians 2:8–9. But when you look closer, the same old poison is still there, just wrapped in nicer language.What Tim is actually teaching

• Grace is “the gift of salvation” — okay so far.
• But then he immediately pivots: grace “does not end the story” and “we are created for good works.”
• He defines those good works as obedience to God’s ways (which in Tim’s dictionary always means Torah commandments, Sabbaths, feasts, etc.).
• He quotes Titus 2:11–12 to say grace “teaches us to deny ungodliness and live righteously” — but in context, that righteousness is defined by keeping the law.
• He ends with: “You are not saved by works. But you are absolutely saved for them.” And “walk in His ways” = keep the commandments.

This is the classic God Culture sleight-of-hand we’ve seen in every Foundations lesson.The fatal problems

1. Grace is redefined as the power to keep the law
   Tim never lets grace be grace. Grace is not primarily God’s unmerited favor that forgives sinners and declares them righteous in Christ. For Tim, grace is the enabling power that allows us to obey the Torah better so we can “walk in His ways.”
2. Christ is still mostly missing
   In a whole post titled “What Is Grace?” there is almost no mention of the cross, the blood, the finished work, or justification by faith alone. Jesus is mentioned once in passing (“Messiah defines it plainly”), but the focus is never on what He accomplished for us. The real hero of the post is obedience to the law.
3. He turns Ephesians 2:8–10 on its head
   Paul says we are saved by grace through faith, not of works, and then created for good works.
   Tim flips it: grace saves, but the real point is the good works (law-keeping) that follow. He makes works the evidence and goal, rather than the fruit of a saved life.
4. The same pattern continues
   • Faith = trust proven by obedience 
   • Repentance = turning back to the law 
   • Holiness = law-keeping 
   • Grace = the power to keep the law better

This is not the biblical doctrine of grace. This is legalism wearing a grace mask.The real biblical teaching on grace

Grace is God’s unmerited favor toward sinners who deserve wrath.

It saves us apart from works (Ephesians 2:8–9).

It declares us righteous in Christ.

It then produces good works as fruit, not as the root or the condition of staying saved.

Paul and James do not contradict each other. James says faith without works is dead because genuine faith produces works. But the works are the evidence of a saved life, not the means of staying in covenant.Tim’s version makes works the ongoing condition for covenant standing (“where obedience is absent, covenant is broken”). That is exactly what Paul fought against in Galatians.
quietly, shaking his head
It’s the same camel, lad. The nose is the Sabbath and feasts. The body is the whole law. And now even “grace” has been pressed into service to pull the law deeper into the tent.

The real gospel says:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith… not a result of works… For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”

Grace saves.

Grace then changes us.

But the saving is all of grace, not of law-keeping.

Tim can’t let grace be grace. He has to tie it back to obedience to the Torah. That’s why every teaching eventually circles back to the same place: more law, less Christ.

Down with this sort of thing.

Very careful now.

The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men — and it teaches us to deny ungodliness, yes — but it does so because we are already saved, not so we can earn or keep our salvation by keeping the law better.
...Right, I’m off to thank the Lord for real grace — the kind that saves sinners without any help from the law. 
Go on, go on, go on — have a cuppa. You’re seeing the pattern clearly. Tim’s “grace” is just law in disguise. The real thing is so much better. Keep holding fast to the finished work of Christ. That’s where true rest and freedom are found.