GRACE

"For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
The Apostle Paul, Ephesians 2:8; The New Revised Standard Version]

Word Study: Grace is a translation of the Greek term charis meaning "what delights. It may be a state causing or accompanying joy. It is joyous being or charm, the element of delight in the beautiful, the favor shown by fortune, i.e., what is pleasing in it. As a mood charis means sympathy or kindness, with a reference to the pleasure that is caused....What is in view is the process whereby one who has something turns graciously to another who is in need." [Kittel, Gerhard, and Friedrich, Gerhard, Editors, The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 1985.]

I have wronged God. I have sinned against His Holy Name and have become separated from Him by my own sins {Romans 3:9-18; Ezekiel 18; Isaiah 59:1-2}.

God's response is to bring reconciliation between us through the offering of His sinless Son. I have done nothing to earn, deserve, or demand Christ's substitutionary sacrifice for myself. God did this, not because of good deeds I had done, but purely out of His love for His creation. While I was His enemy, He died for me. {Romans 5:6-11; 4:4}. Hence the meaning--"unearned favor."

This is God's free gift. As with any gift, though, to benefit from it I must accept it. Should someone bring me a gift and I leave it unopened and unused, how can I receive the blessings of the gift? The Bible says that those who benefit from Christ's blood are those who have accepted the free gift through faith {Romans 3:21-26; 5:17; John 1:12; 3:3-5,16-18}.

I understand that there is more to Biblical faith than mere mental acceptance of an idea {Hebrews 11; James 2:14-26; 1:21-25}. I was saved by faith, not by works, but I was created anew in Christ Jesus to do good works {Ephesians 2:8-10}. In accepting God's gift of Grace, I accept the responsibility to submit to the Lord and obey His teachings {Matthew 7:17-27; John 14:15,21,23-24, 1John 2:2-6}. This is why the Bible says I am saved by grace and judged by my deeds (i.e. `fruit') {Jude 15; 1Peter 1:17; Revelation 20:12-13}.

Yet I can never do right enough to repay God for the death of His one and only Son anymore than a person could repay me if they were responsible for the loss of my child. Not speaking of grudges, but speaking of the simple fact of the loss. Therefore, I cannot repay what Christ did, I cannot earn my way to heaven {Romans 7:15-25; 4:4-6}. So after all is said and done, I find that no matter how obedient I have been, no matter how faithfully I have walked, I have still not earned the right to be God's child. It is still His gift and faithfulness is merely the way of courteously accepting and putting to use that gift. In the end I am still dependent on Grace {1John 1:7-2:1}.

Summary: Grace is the wonder that I can even be saved in the first place, for I am undeserving of all God's overtures of Love. I courteously accept God's gift through faith, walking in the Light. I am free from the burden of trying to earn my way to heaven, so can serve God purely out of love and gratitude instead of being motivated by some self-centered `point system.' Yet I will never walk unerringly and perfectly in the Light. So in the end I must still depend purely on God's undeserved favor that is Grace. In short, it is Grace that forms the bookends of my life, holding it together and in order.