What is the definition of grace?

God’s grace is unmerited favour. It expresses itself in the fact that God’s attitude towards the sinner is irrespective of anything favourable in the sinner. It is blessing without conditions.

What does grace mean to you, my reader? People talk of grace and sing of being “saved by grace,” who are all the time trusting in their own righteousness and building their hopes for eternity on their own zeal and earnestness. They never seem to consider the meaning of grace; otherwise they would not use the word with their lips and by their actions deny it. Grace is the very opposite of merit. If I think of merit, I see only an eternal hell of woe before my guilty soul because of my sin (Romans 6:23). But when I think of grace, I turn from all thoughts of what I deserve and contemplate the matchless love of God which caused Him, the offended One, to give His only begotten Son to die for me, the offender, that, confiding in Him, I might be eternally saved. Thus I see that grace is not only undeserved favor, but it is favor shown to one who has deserved the very opposite. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9)—this is Paul’s own statement of salvation by grace. It was thus he was saved, and in the same way are they all who sail with Paul. It is my purpose in this pamphlet to trace out some of the precious truths Paul was chosen to make known for our eternal blessing. Only let each reader be sure he or she is one who sails with Paul, for to none other do they apply.

Divine grace, or the free and unmerited favour of God to undeserving objects, is the source of all our blessings. We were sinners, and justly exposed to the wrath of God; we were utterly unclean, and entirely unworthy of anything but judgment. It was when we were "sinners," and "without strength," that Christ died for us. All hope then, and confidence in God, is founded on divine grace; not that righteousness could possibly be excluded; hence it is written, "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5:21.)

To show how the law and the gospel are confused in the minds of people, a person who was told that if he was to be saved it was not by working for it, said, "Now I can prove to you from Scripture that we must do something to be saved" — he would not have it that a person could be saved without any works of his own — so taking a large Bible down from the shelf, he turned over the leaves, and found Ezek. 18:27, and read exultingly, "When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." "There!" he said, "is not that works?" He did not see that the whole of the passage was not the gospel at all, but the law, and God's dealings with Israel under law; also, that Gal. 3:10 says, "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse;" so, that if a person is on the ground of law-keeping at all before God, he is under the curse, because he is totally unable to keep it. It is astonishing how the mind of man tenaciously sticks to the idea that there must be something to do to be saved. "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" one said to the Lord when on earth. The jailor at Philippi again, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" But let us look at verse 4 of our chapter: "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." Grace means unmerited love and favour. If a person works or does anything for salvation, he makes God his debtor — he has done this and that, and he thinks that God owes him salvation for it; but this is not the ground of grace at all. In natural things it is the same principle. If a man works hard all the week, he claims his wages as his right; it is no act of favour of his master to give him what he has earned. So with salvation. If we had done the smallest thing to deserve it, it would not be of grace; for grace is favour bestowed upon one who does not deserve it. No; it must be one thing or the other — saved wholly on the principle of works, and thus earning salvation; or wholly on the principle of grace, as we read in Romans 11:6, which is the same principle: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." But the Scripture is as plain as possible on the point, and this fifth verse of our chapter is perhaps one of the strongest on the subject, "But to him that worketh not." No one could get over this plain statement of Scripture; and this verse not only clears the ground by telling us it is "to him that worketh not," but unfolds to us in few words — but how full and weighty — the whole plan of justification.

What is grace? I have never yet heard an adequate definition, and never expect to! For grace is the way God acts in showing His favour to sinners, who do not deserve it in the smallest degree. Grace is the way God acts, not as measuring and meeting our need as sinners, but who with lavish hand blesses us according to what He is in His very nature.

The word grace (charis) is one of those employed by the Spirit of God to convey a truth which is exclusively divine, and in consequence all human language is inadequate to express its meaning; to seek to define it is to seek to set bounds to the infinite. We may only by assiduous comparison of its varied usage in Holy Scripture obtain some glimmerings of the vast truth communicated by the word "grace." In its many occurrences it has many shades of significations, as indeed we may gather from Peter's expressive phrase — "the manifold (poikiles) grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10).

The term grace evidently conveys the idea of free gift, favour; without obligation on God's part, without claim on ours: or without raising the question of the condition of the one so favoured; it may be called the indulgence of love. (See John 3:16; 2 Cor. 8:9, where we have grace in its divine fulness.) But mercy always marks the receiver as a wrong-doer. To be "merciful" is to be ready to overlook or forgive a wrong, at the same time conscious that he to whom mercy is shown deserves a contrary kind of treatment. It answers to what is called among men a tender, forgiving disposition; only it is to be exercised by believers on the higher ground of having obtained mercy of the Lord themselves, and looking forward to obtain it more fully, they are "merciful" to their fellow men.

What is grace? Is it the particular goodness which visits and saves the souls of the elect? No. That is mercy. In Romans 9 and Romans 11, where election is the great subject, mercy is mentioned again and again. Grace is the mighty outflow of the heart of God towards the utterly sinful and undeserving. It shows no partiality. It knows no restrictions. It is a wide and deep sea. "All men" (1 Tim. 2:3- 6) are its only boundaries, and "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Rom. 5:20) is the only measure of its depth.

Let it be observed that the three colors on the upper side of the spectrum do not teach us God's moral character, but His greatness; while the three on the lower side denote His blessed moral characteristics. Grace is pure Divine favor -much as we have deserved the reverse, - and it grandly links together truth, holiness, and love on the one hand, with supremacy, authority and power on the other. For as well as having goodness and moral beauty in it, it must have ability or power, for it is the actual bestowal of favor. Blessed to know that our God has the desire to bless, the right basis on which to bless, and the ability to bless. All of this is sweetly involved in His grace. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" ( Eph. 2:8, 9). No more can our works merit the grace of God than that such works could succeed in bringing about the green beauty of earth in the springtime. It is the gracious and sovereign work of God. May we never cease to praise His glorious Name!

It was no transient vision, however momentous, as on the holy mount. It was a contemplation19 of His glory vouchsafed to His witnesses, not of an earthly conqueror, nor Messianic even, but glory20 as of an only-begotten from beside ( παρὰ ) a father.21 No sword girds His thigh, no riding to victory, no terrible things in righteousness: the incarnate Word dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. Such is He that was in and from the beginning, and thus known. He was the King undoubtedly, but not so portrayed here. He is infinitely more than King, even God, yet God on earth, man dwelling among men, full of grace and truth. So only could God be displayed, unless in judgment which had left no hope, but only destroyed to the bitter end at once and unreservedly. For infinitely different purposes had He come, as this passage itself declares in due season, perfectly knowing and feeling the universal evil of man. He tabernacled among us full of grace and truth. It was not a visit or a theophany, as in O.T. experiences. So He here manifested God, Who is love. But grace is more; it is love in the midst of evil, rising above it, going down under it, overcoming it with good.