Bible Discussion Thread

What is Grace? How does it act?

The short answer to the meaning of God's Grace is, 'God's unmerited favour or kindness shown to us'. That is, God has chosen to show us His Love & Kindness even when we were the 'last people on Earth' to deserve it. Actually, theologically, I like to look at it this way: God is a Merciful God (i.e. His very being of Love, Holiness, Justice, etc. also has Mercy as a very important integral part of the Being of God). So when God demonstrates His Mercy (that part of His Character) & sheds it upon us an undeserving people, we receive it as His Grace in our lives. I realize that often the words 'Mercy & Grace' are used by Christians interchangeably, but to help my understanding & when sharing God's Word, I like to show a differentiation between the two, though both are certainly vitally connected.

And God's Mercy, shown to mankind by His Grace, has always been the enjoyment & security of all those who are called by Him to receive it. To Israel, they were selected as God's chosen, for no other reason than to pour out His Love upon them as He had promised to their fathers, & to make them a special (holy) people (see Deuteronomy 7:6-9). And to us today, to as many as have been called to salvation & eternal life, God has persisted in that Love for all of us, by sending us His Son to be our Substitute to receive His punishment for our sins. There was no other way that God could justify in keeping the human race going on in sin. Just as He destroyed all but few in the Great Flood, so His Mind was that He would do it again for the volume of sins that were before Him. But at the appointed time to hold back that Wrath ( Romans 5:6), He sent Jesus to pay sin's price on our behalf & to avert (to change direction) His Anger against us ( 1 John 2:2, 4:10). So His Anger was then placed upon Jesus (as our sin-bearer) that those who put their trust in Him can be declared 'not guilty'. Such was the load that Jesus bore for us: our sin & God's Anger.

Such is God's Grace given to us.

Aye Chris, well said.

Concerning Israel, It is made evident that they were created by El Shaddai for the purpose of revealing Him to us who were/are not a part of that particular creation. I beg to differ with you when you say He chose them to pour out His love on them. His choosing of them was of a much higher calling than that. He "put His name in them," meaning He made them His family among the ungodly/mankind. They have basked in His favor and chafed in His anger. They have suffered at His hand that we might know His statutes and judgements, and they have rejoiced in His mercies that we might know the loving kindness of a Heavenly Father who loves His children. We are saved by the spirit of adoption, says Paul, and being of the wild olive tree are grafted into the tame olive tree, if so that we accept the redemption that came to them through the sacrifice of Christ and the resurrection that is theirs by their return to the Land of Inheritance and the acknowledging of their Creator.

When I was a teenager I received a citation for driving without a license. Upon appearing before the judge I had not yet obtained a license. The judge gave me ten days 'grace' to obtain my license. God's 'Grace' is a specific period of time to make right that which has been wrong. It is not an indefinite, never ceasing thing in which we can continue to do what we have always done and there be no judgement. His Mercy is the giving of a lighter sentence/punishment than deserved and His Judgements, according as we deserve, are without Grace or Mercy and are everlasting. Therefore, Noach found Grace and Mercy in the eyes of the Lord while the rest had only Judgement.

Dahg Melek, "God's 'Grace' is a specific period of time to make right that which has been wrong. It is not an indefinite, never ceasing thing in which we can continue to do what we have always done and there be no judgement." Your specific time frame is relative to our human station and responsibility. That is a narrow and limited definition of grace, that does not encompass the grace of God. To limit God's grace, is to limit God, which never or ever is possible. Only creation is limited to time specific. To contrast grace to judgement, you must first minimize both in your thinking, hence, the narrow and limited view you present. Both grace and judgement are everpresent qualities of God.