What is In Defense of Grace About?
In Defense of Grace is first and foremost, a celebration of God and the Christian faith. It is also a comprehensive work of apologetics, explaining and rationalizing the beliefs and practices of Reformed Christianity. To those unfamiliar with the term, Reformed Christianity is a “denomination” that professes the Scriptures to be the primary and preeminent authority on Christianity. The purpose of this stance is two-fold:
First, it ascribes the authority of the Scriptures to God, since God specifically commands His doctrines to be written into Scripture for the purpose of edifying the church. The Bible sets the universal standard for moral objectivity, doctrine, and theology that all Christians and churches must abide by.
Second, the Bible is used to audit, rebuke, and correct the doctrinal corruption that was foretold to arise from within the universal church. We know the Scriptures are from God, so everything apart from the Scriptures (even if it originates from within the church itself) must be scrutinized by them.
In practice, Reformed Christianity exalts the study and application of the Scriptures as a form of worship to the Lord. Reformed Christianity also rejects extra-biblical doctrines, traditions, and rites – especially those that would alter Gospel truths. Reformed theology does not add anything to Christianity, rather it excises all of the extrabiblical noise that progressively corrupted Christianity over the centuries. In that sense, it is more of an anti-denomination, one that is meant to bring the universal church closer to what was originally intended by Jesus and the Apostles.
What are the Foundational Beliefs of Reformed Christianity?
Reformed Theology uses the Bible as their Catechism. When Christian theology is limited to what is outlined in the Scriptures, the faith has a very cohesive and practical set of foundational doctrines. These doctrines, when viewed as a greater narrative woven throughout the entirety of the Bible, center all theology, morality, and purpose within the world around God Himself:
All worship, reverence, and veneration is to be reserved for the Triune God alone. Only God alone is perfectly righteous. This righteousness gives Him a unique form of Holiness that separates Him from all of Creation.
1 Samuel 2:2: “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
Acts 10:25-26: As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet to worship him. But Peter helped him up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”
Revelation 15:4: Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Humans are wholly corrupted by sin and cannot achieve a level of righteousness sufficient for Heaven. Consequently, we are, by nature, separated from God. God loves us in spite our sinful nature and He intends to build a community of reconciled people for Himself.
Psalm 53:2-3: God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Romans 3:19-20: Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Jeremiah 31:33: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
God established Mosaic Law, including the Levitical Sacrificial system, to teach us the depth of our sinful nature and to point us toward righteousness. The more we understand sin (and the more we suffer by it), the more we yearn for God and His righteousness.
Galatians 3:19-22: Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Romans 5:3-5: Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Mosaic Law and Levitical sacrifices were never meant to be wholly sufficient for sanctifying mankind; God’s grace was always the predominant means of sanctification. No matter how many good deeds we do, we still have a heart that is intrinsically opposed to God’s perfect righteousness.
Exodus 34:6-7: The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Isaiah 43:24-25: You have not bought Me sweet cane with your silver, nor satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities. I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
Romans 3:20-24 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Jeremiah 17: 9-10: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
God sent Jesus into the world to show us that His concern for us was predominantly the matters of our heart, not sin and legalism. Jesus explained the true meaning of the Law and then died on the cross as the final Levitical sacrifice for our sins. On the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus explains that the origin of sin is not simply the action of breaking the law, but it is the wickedness of the heart (Matt 5-7). For brevity, we’ll use a few verses reinforcing the lessons from those chapters.
Matthew 15:8-9: ‘This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Matthew 22:37-40: And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Mark 7:20-23: And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Jesus’ singular sacrifice has forever paid the debt of all of our sin: past, present, and future. This meant that our pursuit of righteousness must come from our cognitive understanding of God’s objective morality and our genuine commitment to glorify and please Him. In other words, Faith. We must believe that Jesus is our Lord and Messiah, that He is the source of all righteousness, and that serving God is our ultimate purpose.
Malachi 3:16–18: “Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. ‘They will be Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.’”
John 17:6-8: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
Romans 10:9: That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
The Holy Spirit, the final member of the Trinity, is imparted to all believers who receive Jesus’ Gospel. The Holy Spirit counteracts our sinful nature and progressively changes our hearts and minds to be righteous. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot do anything “good” in the eyes of God. Once changed by Holy Spirit, we begin to produce good works and resist our temptation to sin.
Ezekiel 36:26-27: And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Titus 3:5: He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
John 15:5-8: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
All of these statements form the groundwork of the Gospel, which has been declared sufficient and complete in all matters pertaining to salvation and living for God. As God had appointed people for righteousness and wickedness in the Old Testament, God also takes a significant role in determining who can, and cannot, receive the Gospel in the New Testament. Consequently, we understand our receipt of the Gospel to be the ultimate form of grace.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4: Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For l delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
2 Corinthians 4:3-5: And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
Romans 915-18: For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.
With the Gospel delivered, Jesus remains in Heaven as our singular Chief Shepherd and High Priest. Jesus will only return to usher the events of Revelation and the Final Judgement. After this period, the earth will be reformed into the New Jerusalem, where the Triune God and the universal church will live in communion for eternity.
Hebrews 4:14-16: Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 10:11-14: And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
2 Peter 3:10-13: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
All of these details were intentionally written into Scripture, which has been faithfully preserved for our edification. The Scriptures have been under sustained attack for much of history, but they have survived by God’s will for the purpose of teaching believers and protecting the universal church from corruption.
Deuteronomy 17:18-20: “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.
John 20:30-31: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
1 Corinthians 4:6-7: I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
Each of these principles will be explored exegetically in far greater detail throughout the statement. For now, these verses simply provide a basic awareness of the true Biblical meta-narrative. Every covenant, every doctrine, and every commandment throughout the entire Bible continuously establishes that God is Sovereign and man is insufficient.
The more we understand the Bible, the more we see that Christianity is predominantly relational, not simply legalistic. It is not just about our actions being righteous, we must be morally and cognitively righteous as well, and that is more dependent on God than it is on us. Only by understanding these principles can we begin to see how righteous, loving, and gracious our God truly is.
A fair amount of these principles are often distilled into concise proclamations and practical acronyms, such as the Five Solas and TULIP. We will actually be discussing the Five Solas shortly, as they provide an excellent framework for understanding how the greater narrative of the Bible defines its doctrines. However, it is important to remember that these are just tools, tools that are ultimately subservient to the Scripture.
How Does In Defense of Grace Approach Scripture?
In Defense of Grace takes a comprehensive and holistic approach to analyzing the Scriptures and interpreting doctrine. The Bible is meant to be read and analyzed as a whole, not as a collection of books or isolated verses. When people take too narrow of an approach in evaluating Scripture, they lose important context and risk misconstruing its intended meaning. Entire denominations have risen and fell on misappropriated Scripture, and there are many sects of Christianity remaining today that confidently preach a perverted Gospel.
In Defense of Grace aims to mitigate this problem by taking a highly structured approach to teaching doctrine. If the Scriptures are predominantly written by the Lord’s anointed, then they must be highly representative of God’s laws and values. If God is omniscient (all-knowing) and immutable (forever unchanging in character), then His logic, values, and methodology must be perfectly cohesive throughout the entire Bible.
Consequently, every doctrinal statement is comprehensively contextualized with a significant amount of Old Testament and New Testament Scripture. The more we understand about the Bible, the less room there is for incorrect interpretation of its contents.
A Word on the Site’s Health
In Defense of Grace is approaching its fifth year as an apologetics site and it has been an amazing ride. Since its inception, it has reached over 42,000 people. Without purchasing any ads, it climbed to the top spot of the Google search engine under “In Defense of Grace”, and has reached people all over the world, including China, Russia, and Germany. I did not design this site with SEO in mind; I know this is all by the grace and providence of God.
In the Fall of 2025, I began moving this website to a new hosting service. The old service had developed some significant issues will maintaining its SSL certificate. Consequently, the website was regularly marked as unsafe, even though it had not be compromised in any way. I’ve recently moved it to a new service. The has undone much of the search engine traction the site had gained over the years, but has significantly improved its security. This a fair trade off in my eyes, though I dearly hope it remains an effective tool for spreading the Gospel.
I am also in the process of writing a new version of In Defense of Grace. I recognize that much of this current site is framed around Apologetics, and that comes at the expense of intuitively communicating doctrine to people not deeply involved in Protestantism or Roman Catholicism. Consequently, I am currently overhauling the site’s contents to appeal to a significantly wider demographic of people, regardless of their current understanding of Christianity. I will regularly post updates here detailing this progress.
–Change Log–
September 2025: In Defense of Grace has been moved to a new hosting platform. The SSL certificate has been replaced and site security has been vastly improved.
October 2025: The homepage has been updated and the first four chapters of the revised faith statement have been written. These chapters detail the authorship and canonization of the Bible, a introduction to Hermeneutics, and the introduction to a new expository series of the Old Testament, framed through the major Covenants. These will be uploaded as a finalized series in the future.
November 2025: The first three chapters of the site are being updated to better reflect the progressive restructuring of the website. The older version of the website is still available here: In Defense of Grace (2023)
January 2026: The revision is still going strong, just a little more slowly than before. The Lord has delivered new career to me in December, and I’ve had to invest some more time into stewarding this new blessing.