A few things grace never does:
1. Increase our self-confidence. Grace always teaches us to trust ourselves less and Christ more.
2. Increase our self esteem. Grace always teaches us to "esteem others more highly than ourselves" and to esteem Christ highest of all.
3. Promote light views of sin: Grace teaches us that all our sins, black as they may be, are atoned for. But grace never teaches us that our conduct is insignificant. Grace always promotes holiness of faith and holiness of life.
4. Move us to neglect the duties of the life of faith. Grace never moves us to neglect the Word, prayer, the assembly of the saints, giving, encouraging, forgiving, or witnessing.
Grace invariably moves us toward the goal which God has set before us. It conforms us to the likeness of Christ. Whatever does not do that is not grace. Are we "growing in grace?"