Hagbard Celine: Excellent choice of scripture with your point.
Seems that word, "grace" really throws folks for a loop, even nowadays. There's this thing in us humans that makes us want to have some responsibility or credit for the good gifts that have been freely given to us.
"Unmerited Favor = Grace"
Our only involvement in this wonderful bestowment is our willing, "wills" to submit to and accept that we are weak and miniscule in the presence of our Creator.
I've yet to find the verse, "God helps those that help themselves.".

We do need to cooperate, but often this quote is the "doer Christian's" mantra. It also often means that the Christian who lives by this motto, also doesn't wait on or surrender to, or ask for intervention from God before going, "head long, and head strong" into evangelism and other "brownie point" earning actions to get an "ata-boy" or "ata-girl" from God and their fellow Christian peers.
Relinquishing external and internal control:
This soulic position allows us to be fillable vessels, yet still leaky, and in need of refilling constantly at the altar of God through Christ our intermediator(prayer/submission/surrender).
I still find my most intriguing "read" is Romans of the N.T.. Paul really gets down to the nitty gritty of what it means to be a Christian. He systematically explains our new life in Christ, as a function of our total immersion into the crucified, ressurrected, and glorified life of Jesus. Our Old Man or Adamic life is left at the cross, and now we have this new life.
One small battle, yet it seems big.....we still have a very unredeemed body of flesh that still works against the very new nature that was given to us at our conversion. Paul goes into some very good first-hand detail in Romans chapter 7, as he referrs to himself as "Oh wretched man that I am....."......Yes the flesh is still a harbinger and propagator of sin if it ain't kept in restraint through constant reckoning of the truth of who we now are in Christ. Our inner man is safe, our outer man(flesh) is a battle ground.
How is it that we can yet be seated in the heavenlies yet still be physically on earth? Simple.......Christ's life seated at God's right hand in heaven is also the indwelling life(Holy Spirit/Comforter) that is in us as a gift, and pledge from God that we will not walk alone here on planet earth, even before we go to heaven.
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Wonderful book by a Multnomah Bible College, Portland, Ore., Professor by the name of David C. Needham. Title.. "Birthright: Christian, Do You Know Who You Are?".
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Hagbard Celine: Again, an excellent choice of scripture(Acts) in your response.