TEXT: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).

IDEA: A covenant marriage needs grace.

PURPOSE: To help listeners see how grace works in a marriage relationship.

When we say that we are “saved by grace,” what does that mean?

Would you agree, then, that we are saved by grace, but after that we are responsible for keeping the law?

I. Grace and law-keeping are two completely different systems.

Law-keeping is always keeping score. I do this for God, therefore I deserve what God gives me.

Grace responds to God in love. It recognizes that God does not love us because of what we do, but in spite of what we do. When we realize how much God loves us, then we respond in worship, obedience and service.

II. Grace, and not score-keeping, is foundational for growth in covenant marriage.

Think of a spiral.^[1] At the beginning of the spiral, think of LOVE. As you come around the circle, think of GRACE. Love produces grace. Next on the spiral, grace produces an attitude of SERVING. As you continue around the spiral, your grace and serving produce INTIMACY. And intimacy deepens love.

Look at how grace, serving and intimacy grow out of love and then produce it in a deeper way.