What is the definition of grace?
God's grace is spoken of everywhere in the Bible, yet it is one of those words people repeat without ever stopping to ask what it actually means. The short dictionary answer is "unmerited favour" — but commentators press further, asking where grace comes from, on what righteous ground it can act toward guilty people, and what it does once it reaches them.
The Standard Definition
The simplest statement is that grace is favour no one has earned. What makes it grace is that God's disposition toward the sinner owes nothing to the sinner:
A. J. PollockGod's grace is unmerited favour. It expresses itself in the fact that God's attitude towards the sinner is regardless of anything favourable in the sinner. It is blessing without conditions.
Beyond The Dictionary
That definition is a starting point, not a finished one. One writer argues that ordinary human kindness fits the dictionary meaning yet falls far short of what the Bible describes:
W. W. FeredayThe usual definition of grace — "unmerited favour" — does not go far enough as a description of the grace of God. A coin given to a beggar by the roadside is grace in the usual, human sense, but there is little in common between such a deed and the gracious ways of God revealed in the Gospel. We would prefer to define divine grace as the active exercise of love towards those who have no claim.
Law Requires, Grace Gives
Grace is best seen against its opposite. Law and grace run in contrary directions, and each reveals something different:
A. J. PollockThere is an immense difference between law and grace. The law demands everything and gives nothing, while grace gives everything and demands nothing. Nothing could be imagined more totally opposite in their principles. The law was given to show what man was. Grace has been put into exercise to show what God is.
Love At Work Where There Is Evil
Grace is not a mood in God that ignores wrongdoing; it operates precisely where wrongdoing is, and it does so without setting aside what is right:
J. N. DarbyGrace reigns over sin. Man is unable to get the mastery over Christ's love, but Christ's love overcomes man… Grace reigned on the cross, yet righteousness was there. Grace reigns in the subjection of our hearts — where sin did reign, grace reigns. Grace means love working where there is evil. How? By the obedience of One; and so it is through righteousness.
The Ground On Which Grace Acts
If God simply overlooked sin, His justice would be shelved. Writers insist that grace has a cost behind it and a legal basis under it:
H. Forbes WitherbyRighteousness has enthroned grace and given it its sceptre and rule. The very being of God is now glorified by the satisfaction Christ made for sin, and so, without in any way setting aside the eternal claims of His throne of justice, God's heart of love can go out in grace to the vilest of sinners and the most determined of His enemies. Whenever we speak of the grace of God to ruined man, we must remember that His grace is seen in the blood, the death, the empty grave of Jesus — in other words, the righteousness.
Grace Came As A Person
Grace is not only a principle. It arrived in the world in someone you can look at:
J. T. MawsonThe Lord came and lived among men "full of grace and truth." He came down to the deepest depths of our need to meet it. That was grace. And He came from the highest height of God's glory to reveal it. That was truth. And from the highest height to the lowest depths we behold His glory.
The Measure Of The Favour
Grace does more than cancel a debt; it fixes the standard by which the believer is now treated:
H. J. VineThe dictionary tells us that grace is unmerited favour, but God's grace to the sinner who believes is more: it is favour for the one who deserved judgment… The fact is, we are treated not according to what we deserve, but according to what God's beloved Son deserves.
Grace As A Teacher
Free favour is sometimes feared as an excuse for loose living. Commentators answer that grace itself takes over the training of the one it saves:
William KellyWhile His grace presents salvation to all, it is also said to be educating us. The change from "all men" to "us" is important and should not be overlooked. The one is the universal message of God, which may or may not be received. The other is the definite effect whenever souls receive that message in faith.
Summary
- No claim. Grace begins where merit ends: it is favour shown regardless of anything good in the one receiving it.
- Love acting. More than a dictionary phrase, it is love in action toward people who have no claim — and it works exactly where evil is.
- Righteous ground. Grace does not bypass justice; it reigns through righteousness, resting on the blood, death and empty grave of Jesus.
- A Person. Grace came down to the depths of our need and out from the height of God's glory, seen in Christ, full of grace and truth.
- A new measure. Those it reaches are treated not by what they deserve but by what God's Son deserves — and that same grace then trains them how to live.