Question:

I understand salvation is by grace but how does grace apply to the experience of daily life with all of its imperfections?

Answer:

In thinking about the Pauline understanding of grace a simple grammar and usage review is elegantly instructive. The words continual and continuous are often and mistakenly used interchangeably but they are different in an essential way. Continual indicates duration that continues over a long period of time, but with intervals of interruption. Continuous, on the other hand indicates duration without interruption. For example, water flows over the Niagara Falls continuously, while water gushes from “Old Faithful” geyser continually. Grace is continuous for it never ceases to be the basis of our relationship with God.

 

So:

-grace is continuous from the cross forward

-grace as a state is continuous for it never ceases to be the basis of our relationship with God.

-grace introduces an individual to a continual desire to know Jesus and please Him which is dynamic and subject to fluctuations.

-grace is continuous on one hand in that it is ceaseless, but on the otherhand, it is continual for its effects intersect with time, change, and human will. So the experience of Grace is frought with interruptions, set-backs, lapses of judgement and other experiential variables.

-God’s view of man through Christ is by grace continuously.

-Man’s experience of God is by grace continually.