Grace and love are inseparable in God’s character. You can’t have one without the other. Philip Yancey, in his book “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”, writes that grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and nothing we can do to make God love us less. That’s revolutionary in a world where love is usually conditional, earned through performance, behavior, or usefulness.
Culture teaches transactional love: I’ll love you if you meet my needs, if you’re attractive enough, successful enough, or entertaining enough. When you stop delivering, the love evaporates. But God’s love is unconditional and operates on an entirely different economy.
Romans 5:8 declares that God demonstrates His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. His love isn’t a response to your worthiness but a display of His grace.
Grace is God’s unmerited favor, giving you what you don’t deserve. Love is His affection and commitment, regardless of your failures. Together, they form the foundation of the gospel: you’re loved not because you’re lovable but because God is gracious.
You’re pursued not because you earned it but because grace compels Him to seek you. Every expression of God’s love is simultaneously an expression of His grace because you never deserved any of it.
These verses reveal that God’s grace and love are abundant, undeserved, and transformative, that they work together for your salvation and sanctification, and that they’re the model for how Christians should love others.
Bible Verses About God’s Grace In Love
1. Ephesians 2:4-5 – Because of His Great Love for Us
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
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2. John 3:16 – For God So Loved the World
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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3. Romans 5:8 – While We Were Still Sinners, Christ Died for Us
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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4. Titus 3:4-5 – When the Kindness and Love of God Appeared
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
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5. 1 John 4:9-10 – This Is Love
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
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6. Ephesians 2:8-9 – By Grace You Have Been Saved
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
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7. Romans 8:38-39 – Nothing Can Separate Us From the Love of God
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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8. 2 Corinthians 12:9 – My Grace Is Sufficient for You
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
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9. 1 John 3:1 – See What Great Love the Father Has Lavished on Us
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
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10. Romans 3:23-24 – Justified Freely by His Grace
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
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11. Jeremiah 31:3 – I Have Loved You With an Everlasting Love
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”
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12. Ephesians 1:7-8 – The Riches of God’s Grace
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding.
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13. 1 Peter 5:10 – The God of All Grace
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
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14. Romans 5:20-21 – Where Sin Increased, Grace Increased All the More
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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15. Zephaniah 3:17 – He Will Rejoice Over You With Singing
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.
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16. Romans 8:32 – How Will He Not Also Graciously Give Us All Things?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
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17. 2 Corinthians 8:9 – For You Know the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
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18. Psalm 136:1 – His Love Endures Forever
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.
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19. Hebrews 4:16 – Let Us Approach God’s Throne of Grace
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.
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20. John 1:16-17 – From His Fullness We Have All Received Grace Upon Grace
Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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21. Isaiah 54:10 – My Unfailing Love for You Will Not Be Shaken
Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
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22. 1 John 4:16 – God Is Love
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
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23. Romans 6:14 – You Are Not Under the Law, but Under Grace
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
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24. Lamentations 3:22-23 – His Compassions Never Fail
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
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25. 2 Timothy 1:9 – This Grace Was Given Us Before the Beginning of Time
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
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26. Psalm 103:8 – The Lord Is Compassionate and Gracious
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
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27. Acts 20:24 – The Task of Testifying to the Good News of God’s Grace
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
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28. Ephesians 3:18-19 – To Know This Love That Surpasses Knowledge
May have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
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29. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 – Loved Us and Gave Us Eternal Encouragement
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope.
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30. Romans 11:6 – If by Grace, Then It Cannot Be Based on Works
And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
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31. 1 John 4:19 – We Love Because He First Loved Us
We love because he first loved us.
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32. Psalm 86:15 – You, Lord, Are a Compassionate and Gracious God
But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
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33. Romans 5:5 – God’s Love Has Been Poured Out Into Our Hearts
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
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34. Hebrews 13:9 – It Is Good for Our Hearts to Be Strengthened by Grace
Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.
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35. Psalm 103:11 – As High as the Heavens Are Above the Earth
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.
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Our Thoughts On What the Bible Says About God’s Grace In Love
God’s grace and love are abundant, not scarce. Ephesians says He lavishes grace on us, that we receive grace upon grace, that where sin increased, grace increased all the more.
This isn’t a limited resource He parcels out reluctantly. Grace flows from who God is, not from what you do. His love is described as higher than the heavens, deeper than you can fathom, and impossible to separate from you. Nothing you do can exhaust God’s grace or deplete His love.
The motivation for God’s gracious love isn’t your worthiness but His character. He loved you while you were still His enemy, dead in sin, incapable of doing anything to earn His favor.
This is critical because it means His love doesn’t fluctuate based on your performance. On your worst day, His grace is just as available as on your best. You can’t make Him love you more through good behavior, and you can’t make Him love you less through failure. His love is constant because it’s rooted in who He is, not who you are.
The proper response to God’s grace in love is worship, obedience, and extending that same grace to others. You love because He first loved you. You forgive because you’ve been forgiven. You extend grace because you’ve received grace abundantly.
Christians who truly grasp God’s gracious love toward them become channels of that grace to others. Legalism flourishes where grace is misunderstood. Freedom and love flourish where grace is deeply known.
Say This Prayer
Heavenly Father, I’m overwhelmed by the reality that Your love for me is rooted in grace rather than my worthiness.
While I was still a sinner, dead in my transgressions, You loved me enough to send Jesus. I can’t earn that love, I can’t increase it through good behavior, and I can’t diminish it through failure. That’s almost too good to be true, yet You’ve demonstrated it through the cross.
Help me to truly grasp how wide, long, high, and deep Your love is.
Let me know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Break my addiction to performance-based acceptance and replace it with rest in Your grace. Help me to approach Your throne of grace with confidence, knowing I’ll receive mercy and find grace to help in my time of need.
Strengthen my heart by grace.
Let Your love be poured out in my heart through the Holy Spirit so it overflows to others. Help me to love because You first loved me, to extend grace because I’ve received grace abundantly. Keep me from treating Your grace as a license to sin, but let it compel me to live for You out of gratitude rather than obligation.
Thank You that nothing can separate me from Your love in Christ Jesus.
Let that truth anchor me when circumstances scream otherwise. Help me to live in the freedom and joy that comes from knowing I’m loved with an everlasting love and recipients of grace upon grace.
In Jesus’ gracious Name, Amen.