I didn’t genuinely understand grace until I became keenly aware of my need of it. An act of human mercy bestowed upon me by a dear brother afforded an indelible lesson about the power of grace.
A careless word to one leader, about a perception I had of another leader’s seemingly critical attitude towards a certain ministry, caused a needless confrontation, implicating an issue with the latter’s integrity. That leader called me to his office and asked, with furrowed brow, “Jan, have I ever talked to you about [the particular ministry in question]?”
“No, not really,” I stuttered, fearing what would come next.
That leader then recounted the angry confrontation with the leader of the offended ministry. I was the cause of that confrontation between those brothers by my own ill choice of words. I had no excuse. I should have known better. There I was, guilty of sinning against this man of God.
“Jan,” he said gently, “I know your heart. I know you didn’t mean to be hurtful. I forgive you.”
You can t begin to know how grateful I was to hear these words! He could have ‘unfriended me’ (to use the parlance of Facebook) right then and there. It was also within his power to bring administrative retribution upon me, but he didn’t. He spared me. He protected me. He let me go with a lesson learned, with a deep appreciation of the mercy that he had extended and with our relationship intact.This was relational grace extended to me from a mature brother in Christ. I didn’t get the ‘punishment’ I deserved.
Over the course of my Christian life I have had many such grace encounters and have been the happy recipient of God’s unmerited favor. Every one of those encounters so desperately needed and every one of them leaving the enduring mark of a good God on my soul. As British songwriter, Graham Kendrick, wrote:
“My Lord,what love is this? That pays so dearly? That I, the guilty one, may go free?Amazing love! Oh what sacrifice. The Son of God giv’n for me. My debt He pays and my death He dies that I might live. That I might live.”[i]
What then is grace, the grace that comes to us from God through Jesus the Messiah? Grace is the most fantastic expression of God to men, a manifold blessing from God. A gift of the highest order, from our loving Creator, that is matchless in its beauty, without equal in its power and setting at liberty the greatest of sinners.
It is an important enough a word, concept, doctrine and blessing that it needs to be adequately defined. In light of the current controversy about the modern grace message I think it is wise to start here, defining and exploring the scriptural meaning of grace.
Grace (charis)
“In reference to God we might understand [grace] as the absolutely free expression of His loving-kindness to men, finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of the Giver: His unearned favor and unmerited favor. Vital to this definition, however, is the understanding that for fallen man, such approbation (approval or praise) is wholly based upon the atonement for sins made by the death of Christ. In connection with salvation,grace is a state of affairs in Christ between God and men in which the favor of God, solely on account of Christ, has been granted to men…Strictly speaking,grace is the favorable disposition of God toward sinners on account of Christ.”[ii]
Let’s briefly ‘unpack’ the above definition. God’s motive for His “absolutely free expression of His loving-kindness to men” is not something that we deserve or have earned, His motive for this considerable gift is based on His own incredible “bounty (generosity, liberality) and benevolence (disposition to do good, kindness).” How beautiful and liberating it is to know that Almighty God’s disposition towards us is pure love, which is meted out to us freely and joyfully.
In the next few posts I would like to continue to explore the depths of the definition and application of grace and then turn my attention to Paul Ellis’ and Michael L. Brown’s books of the topic of the Modern Grace message.
Your comments, pro and con, are most appreciated.
[i]Graham Kendrick, “Amazing Love” Make Way Music, 1989.
[ii] Spiros Zodhiates ed., “Charis” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible: Lexical Aids to the New Testament (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 1996), 1686.
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