Right, but…
A Christian Guidebook: What Is Grace? (1)
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2.8, 9
Words without meaning?
During a recent meeting of his leadership team, a pastor friend of mine asked what would seem to have been a good conversation-starting question: “What is grace?” No one in his group could explain it.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…” “Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within…” “Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus…” “More of His grace to others show…” We sing about the grace of God, and we feel certain that we stand secure in grace. But if we’re not clear about what grace is, how can we expect to know the benefits and obligations grace brings with it?
In the Christian community today, we are guilty of using words without fully understanding their meaning. We have many words, words that we bandy about all the time, yet which, if asked to define them, we might stammer and stutter embarrassingly. Words like praise, worship, discipleship, Kingdom of God, salvation, revival, and above all, grace.
It’s time we stopped using such meaning-full words in meaning-less ways. Chief among these being the word grace.
What we know about grace
Of course, every believer knows something about grace. Just as most people know something about St. Patrick. That he was a great Irish saint. Or that he taught the Trinity using a shamrock and drove the snakes out of Ireland.
None of which, of course, is true.
So also with grace. We know just enough about grace to be able to use the word with a measure of confidence. We’re saved by grace. We can pray for grace to help in our time of need. God’s grace sustains us, and that’s a good thing. Certain people seem to have more grace than others. We know just enough about grace like I know just enough Latin to understand the derivation of certain English words and translate a few ancient titles. But I would very quickly be at sea amid the pages of a theological tome in Latin, misunderstanding word order and most of the vocabulary. Which is why I never claim to know Latin and seldom use Latin phrases in teaching or writing. Just so, we are at sea much of the time when it comes to grace. We’re just hearing and using a term without really knowing what it means.
Most of what we know about grace is only partly true, and some of what we know may be entirely wrong.
And for a people who claim to be saved by grace, and thus to be a people of grace, that doesn’t bode well.
Grace for your time of need
Our focus in this part of A Christian Guidebook is on grace. We will seek to establish a working description of grace as a foundation for a life of grace in the Kingdom of God.
The writer of Hebrews encourages us to seek mercy and grace from God for our times of need (Heb. 4.16). A frequently heard explanation of the difference between these two terms has it that mercy is not getting what you do deserve (judgment, wrath, punishment), while grace is getting what you don’t deserve (forgiveness, eternal life, God Himself). There’s a good bit of wisdom in that distinction, especially where grace is concerned. Grace is entirely undeserved. We can’t earn it, as if we could work hard enough or be good enough to deserve it. There is nothing inherent in our being human that demands grace should abound to us. We don’t deserve grace, and nothing we could ever do will change that.
And yet there it is, grace abounding to chief sinners such as we. What a wonder! What a miracle! What a mystery! And what an infinite bounty of grace awaits us, if only we know what it is, what it’s for, and how we may obtain more of it.
Let’s begin with a working definition: Grace is a divine disposition, leading to divine communication, that issues in divine power for living in the Kingdom of God unto His glory.
Let’s just briefly note the following:
(1) Grace begins in God, in the deep, secret, mysterious counsel of the divine Trinity, where the thoughts and decisions of God can be known only perfectly and completely to Him. So if we ask, “Why grace?”, the answer will always only be “Because God”. You cannot know grace—at least, you cannot appreciate grace or increase in it—unless you know God and believe in Him.
(2) God does not keep grace to Himself. He communicates it. But to whom? How? And with what in mind? And how can we know if He’s communicating grace to us?
(3) Grace brings with it divine power, and divine power always accomplishes holy spiritual work. You cannot work for grace, but you cannot do gracious work without it. The people who know God and His grace have been saved unto good works, for which incessant and increasing measures of grace are required.
(4) Grace at work results in Kingdom living which brings glory to God. The telos—the goal, the end—of grace, in other words, is worship. Grace is unto worship, because worship is what God deserves and what we’re made for as human beings, and the good works we do provoke us and others to glorify God for His grace.
We want to examine this definition more closely, but before we do, we need to clear up some common misconceptions about grace. We need to see what grace isn’t before we can begin to understand what it is.
Search the Scriptures
1. Meditate on Ephesians 2.8-10. How can you see all three parts of our definition of grace in these verses?
2. Now look at 2 Corinthians 4.15. How does the grace of God work in and through the people of God? To what end?
3. How do you experience the grace of God throughout the day?
Next steps—Transformation: How would you explain grace by referring only to God’s work in your life?
T. M. Moore
Additional Resources
If you have found this study helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
This part of our study of A Christian Guidebook is adapted from our book, Grace for Your Time of Need. You can order this book by clicking here or download a free PDF by clicking here. And while you’re at it, download the Leader’s Guide for teaching Grace for Your Time of Need by clicking here.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
