Grace is an awesome thing. Grace is a confusing thing. God’s grace often doesn’t make any sense to any of us.
Vine’s Dictionary tells us this about grace:
on the part of the bestower, the friendly disposition from which the
kindly act proceeds, graciousness, loving-kindness, goodwill generally, especially
with reference to the Divine favor or "grace," in this respect there
is stress on its freeness and universality, its spontaneous character, as in
the case of God's redemptive mercy, and the pleasure or joy He designs for the
recipient; thus it is set in contrast with debt, with works, and with law.
on the part of the receiver, a sense of the favor bestowed, a feeling of
gratitude, ("thanks"); in this respect it sometimes signifies
"to be thankful,"
I have often heard of grace defined as unmerited favor. To
truly define grace, we must turn to Scripture and let God tell us about His
grace. Exodus 34:6 is an important place we see grace defined. Here, God is
meeting with Moses and giving the Ten Commandments (the second time around
after Moses shattered the first set). God comes before Moses and tells Moses
about Himself:
Then the LORD passed
by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate
and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who
keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and
sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty
unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the
grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." Moses made haste to
bow low toward the earth and worship.
Did you notice what God said about Himself? He is
compassionate & gracious. He is slow to anger. Did you notice Moses’
response? He made haste to bow low. God defines grace in Himself. It is His
character. When we look at God’s Word we see grace in God’s character: Noah
& the Ark, Saving Lot out of Sodom, giving Moses the 10 Commandments, choosing
Israel as His chosen people, the giving of the Temple as a place of worshiping
God & offering sacrifice, the giving of the land of Canaan, God as a
warrior going before His people in battle, etc. Over and over again, we see
God, who is grace.
In John 1:17, we see something else: For the Law was given through Moses; grace and
truth were realized through Jesus Christ. In John, we see grace was
realized through Jesus.
Paul talks about grace through Jesus further in Romans 5. In
this chapter, Paul defines grace. He tells us how grace came about and what it
is. He says that while we were helpless, Christ died for us, He justified us by
His blood, He reconciled us to God through His death, and He gave us life. Grace
is what Christ did for me on the cross. Grace in Jesus is that while I was yet
dead in my sin, Christ made me alive with Him. Grace in Jesus is that while I
earned eternal death because of my sin, Christ gave me eternal life in Him.
How can we know what grace is? Grace, can only be defined in
God and through Jesus. To know grace, we must know Him.
Grace defined…this is just the beginning. Join me next week
as I talk about walking in grace.
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