A Fall From Grace
The necessary step of restoration
The news headline from just a few weeks ago read, “A Fall From Grace.” This headline is, of course, nothing new. A pastor embroiled in a scandal of moral failure, marital infidelity, and abuse of power, among other accusations, is something we’re practically numb to because of the regularity of this story.
The responses quickly fall into two categories:
Cancellation: This person deserves whatever punishment comes their way and they can no longer function as a spiritual authority.
Concession: This person may have made a mistake but God offers grace and he will carry them through.
Each of these responses feels inadequate, on the whole. Those who wish to cancel ignore God’s restorative power, and those who concede this one fault may move on too quickly, ignoring the damage done.
Upon seeing the story and headline my mind drifted to wonder whether a follower of Jesus can “fall from grace,” as the headline says. For instance, here’s the open verse from Chris Renzema’s 2023 song Hereditary (a beautiful song about original sin), which says:
I've seen a saint fall from grace
But I’m not sure that I'd use that phrase
So, if grace is something you can misplace
Then what's the point of it anyway?
Here we are introduced to the questions of: A) can someone truly “fall from grace”? and B) how does God handle sinful disobedience?
What is Grace?
To be able to answer these questions we have to first identify what grace is. Too often we think of grace in narrow terms. Grace is what is given to people when they mess up. Grace is a second chance. Grace is pardon, forgiveness, and having a debt paid off, or being let off the hook. Quite often the definition given for grace is “unmerited favor,” but grace is more than pardon and undeserved goodness.
When most people hear the word grace, they think of beautiful hymn Amazing Grace, which describes God’s grace as the thing “that saved a wretch like me.” Grace is wonderful, in part, because it saves the believer from the destiny of sinfulness: judgment leading to eternal damnation.
God’s grace is pardon and undeserved love, yes. But grace is more than just how God feels about you, or what God does for you on your behalf. Grace is also the gift of God’s presence with you, knowing you, loving you, and calling you.
Grace is not just God’s unmerited favor, it is God’s undeserved presence.
Grace is more than God forgiving it is also God enabling and empowering us for what He is preparing us for. Grace has been extended to you by Jesus merely making himself available to us. As Brennan Manning says, “all is grace.”
Runway vs. Airplane
Grace is often seen as a runway—a means of escape from sin, a way to get us off the ground and onto a better path. While grace certainly does rescue us from the weight of our failures, it is so much more than just a platform for personal lift-off.
If we only view grace as the means to leave sin behind, we may miss its full power and purpose. Grace is not just a safety net or a second chance; it is the very power that lifts us into a new way of living.
Grace is like an airplane, not a runway.
Grace is not merely a road for takeoff; it is what carries us into life with God. The same grace that forgives is the grace that sustains, transforms, and empowers. It lifts us beyond the limitations of our own strength and enables us to live in the presence of God, walking in His purposes.
Grace is not just the start of the journey—it is the journey itself, moving us into a life of faith, obedience, and deepening relationship with Christ.
When we understand grace this way, we stop treating it as a one-time event and begin to embrace it as the atmosphere in which we live. We are not just saved by grace; we are sustained by it.
Grace doesn’t just remove our sin—it reshapes our hearts, renews our minds, and equips us for God’s calling. It is the power that carries us upward, teaching us to soar into the life God has designed for us. Rather than just a way out, grace is the way in—to joy, freedom, and the fullness of life with Him.
The Gift of Grace
To help diversify the way we understand grace, seeing the use of the word grace in the New Testament is especially helpful. On one hand, grace is clearly an act of God’s saving work:
“It is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5,8).
But in Romans 12:6 we see grace focused around the giving of spiritual gifts:
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”
Elsewhere in the New Testament, Ephesians 4:7 focuses similarly:
“But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”
Interestingly, even though Paul (the author of both Ephesians and Romans) clearly identifies a similar idea in both verses, in Romans he specifically connects the Greek word charisma (gifts) to the word for grace, charis.
In Ephesians the point jumps out even clearer when verse 6 is connected to the above verse 7. In verse 6 the emphasis is on the God who is “over all,” whereas verse 7 is focused on “each of us.” The shift is moving from God's saving grace (Ephesians 2:8 “by grace you have been saved”) available to all, to the gifts bestowed by God’s grace, given individually.
Simply put, grace both saves and equips.
(Re)learning the Rhythm of Grace
With all this in mind, we can start to see that in our own sinfulness, we can get out of the rhythms of (equipping) grace, all while saving grace still covers us. That phrase “rhythm of grace” is usually attributed to Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase of the Bible, as he summarizes the conclusion of Matthew 11:
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
Sin pushes us away from walking with the Lord, where we follow our own rhythms that ultimately deceive us instead of walking in His grace. Learning to walk these unforced rhythms of grace has two important lessons for us:
You have to learn the rhythm of grace. Experiencing saving grace through faith is a monumental shift with eternal implications, but it also means we have to learn how to walk in God’s equipping grace. Within this is a lifetime of maturing in the faith.
Pride is the greatest enemy to learning the rhythms of grace. The greatest obstacle to grace isn’t effort—it’s the belief that you don’t need it. Grace isn’t a crutch; it’s a foundation for those willing to be honest. IYou don’t just need a little help—you need a new heart. Grace doesn’t just hold you up; it completely transforms you. We resist grace through pride, because deep down, we’d rather take the credit ourselves.
If God’s invitation through saving grace is for us to walk in the rhythm of his equipping grace, our sinfulness means we often need to relearn those rhythms again. When we deny sin or just call it something in the past, we also refuse ourselves the opportunity to relearn the right rhythm again.
Restoration to the Right Rhythm
Now we can land this (literal) plane of grace. While I understand the sentiment that would cause Chris Renzema to say he “wouldn’t use that phrase” in regards to the idea of a fall from grace, it’s apparent how easily we can fall out of step of God’s equipping grace, while still being connected to him by saving grace through faith.
This is why Paul puts great emphasis on discipline to develop a life in step with the rhythms of God’s grace: “I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1st Corinthians 9:27).
Paul wants to make sure both he and the Corinthians he’s writing to are not disqualified by not living into this equipping grace.
In my role as a pastor I have witnessed many pastors who have disqualified themselves (the qualifications for leadership in a church are quite clear In 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:6–9) and many Christians whose lives have gone astray through sin. When consequences are connected to sin a response I often hear is that this judgment against the sin by a church shows a lack of grace. This could not be further from the truth.
Now certainly, the “judgment” of church discipline must be mixed with genuine care and love, as Galatians 6:1 outlines specifically. But judgment against sin is an invitation to begin a process of restoration to relearn the rhythms of grace that had been lost in sin. At times, this restoration process must be lengthy, think years not months or weeks.
This is why John Piper describes the need for lengthy restoration when it comes to disqualifying sin from Christian leaders:
“Forgiveness comes quickly, expensively, and immediately, on repentance. But trust doesn’t, cannot.”
Though some may view a period of restoration as punishment, it is actually a form of God’s grace, taking us somewhere we cannot go on our own.
If you have stumbled in your walk with Christ and seek restoration, do not see the discipline or time away from certain roles as a sign that grace has been withdrawn. Rather, it may be the very place where you come to understand the depth of God’s grace more than ever before.
True restoration is not found in reclaiming a position or a platform, but in allowing God to renew your heart and sustain you in ways you may not have imagined. His grace is not limited to public ministry or visible service—it is vast enough to meet you in the quiet, the hidden, and even the broken places of your life.
Rushing back to a role or seeking validation through recognition may only diminish your ability to fully embrace grace's sustaining power. If you measure restoration only by external reinstatement, you may miss the greater work God desires to do within you. His goodness is not confined to a title or a position—He is more than enough to supply your every need.
Let grace do its full work, not just to restore what was lost, but to strengthen you in ways that will sustain and equip you for what lies ahead.