What's Grace Gospel then ?
The gospel our Lord proclaimed to Adam, Abel, Abraham, and later revealed through the Apostle Paul is called the Grace Gospel. It is centred on Christ's finished work alone, received by God's grace alone through faith alone, entirely independent of human works. This gospel is for those who, through obedience to the Scriptures, come to realize the futility of their own standard of righteousness before God's law. Since the whole human race fell through Adam’s disobedience, humans possess a fallen nature in a fallen world(Romans 5:12).
HUMAN NATURE
Our human nature, called the self, can never be changed either through rehabilitation or by keeping God's law (Galatians 3:11). It remains the same, still sinful, even after believing in Christ. This condition continues until Christ's second coming, when the salvation of the body will take place and a new spiritual body will be given to the redeemed (2 Corinthians 5:1–5). However, within our sinful self, the soul requires redemption. At the moment of redemption, God gives the Holy Spirit as His gift to the believer. As the redeemed continue in constant fellowship with God through His Word, the Holy Spirit works within them, bringing a temporary and partial influence over the self while they await the complete redemption of the body.
The ten commandments which was actually a tool for the purpose of exposing the human nature(Galatians 3:24) which is fallible when it comes to God's standard of righteousness and not as a requirement for eternal life has greatly been misunderstood by both Israel and in today's religious communities. "... that sin by the commandments might become exceeding sinful"(Romans 7:13).This nature can never fulfil God's redemptive requirements of justification through the law. "But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness are as filthy rags;...." (Isaiah 64:6). "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"(Romans 3:23).
Therefore, the true justification of the souls of men before God can only be accomplished by His grace through faith, according to His mercy alone, without any contribution from human works. The Apostle Paul affirmed this truth in his letter to the Ephesian churches, explaining that man's fallen nature can never coexist with a holy God and therefore stands under the full penalty of sin, which is death. "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8)
As saints, the redeemed should live in constant study of God's Word. As they do, the Holy Spirit increasingly dominates the self, producing His fruit. However, when little time is spent in the Word, the sinful nature gains dominance, producing carnality and bringing much spiritual discomfort as the self overpowers the Spirit's influence. This struggles goes on until the time of rapture. "For I know that in me, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not" (Romans 7:14).
"And not only they, but ourselves also which have the first fruit of the spirit, even we ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of the body" (Romans 8:23).
So, from the above, we see that a saved person possesses the first fruits of the Spirit while still living in a sinful self. Therefore, the believer does not depend on the self but on the promises of God through the guidance of the Holy Spirit until Christ's second coming, when the promise of the redemption of the body will be fulfilled.
"In the moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed"(1 Corinthians 15:52).
Hallelujah.