Introduction to Grace

The next few weeks we will be studying Grace, getting a general overview of Grace is all about. Tonight is all about the Introduction to grace. The studies that will follow :

Grace (outworking)

present=grace

credit=grace

grace as an act

grace as a system and how it leads to the Spirit

How honor leads to grace

What Is Grace?

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Grace (Old Testament)

Grace is the favor of God to human beings.

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Grace

The Greek word for “grace,” charis

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Grace

Hebrew word hesed, which means “loving kindness”—

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Grace

The Greek word for “grace,” charis, is equivalent to the Hebrew word hesed, which means “loving kindness”—a word frequently used by the psalmists to describe God’s character. In the New Testament, the word charis usually means “divine favor” or “goodwill,” but it also means “that which gives joy” and “that which is a free gift.”

Now grace is a gift of God. It is expressed in God’s actions of extending mercy, loving-kindness, and salvation to people.

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Grace

Divine grace is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14, 17). God’s grace manifested in Jesus Christ makes it possible for God to forgive sinners and to gather them in the church.

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Grace

During His ministry, Jesus repeatedly offered forgiveness to a great number of sinners and extended God’s succor for a variety of desperate human needs.

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Grace

Through teachings such as the father’s forgiveness of the prodigal son and the search for the lost sheep, Jesus made it clear that He had come to seek and save those who were lost. But ultimately, it was His redemptive death on the cross which opened wide the gate of salvation for repentant sinners so that they have access to God’s forgiving and restorative grace.

Let’s take a trip, pulling from the OT, ending in the NT.

Exodus 34:6–7 NKJV

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

Ex 34:

The OT tells us that there was only one type of people who has the gift of grace from God.

John 1:16–17 NKJV

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

When

Once before I had no opportunity of receiving the grace of God, but through Jesus Christ I have grace.

tt 2:11

Titus 2:11–12 NKJV

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Grace

This simple truth is formulated in the doctrine of “justification by faith through grace” (Rom. 3:23

Romans 3:23 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Titus 3:7 NKJV

that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained Grace

According to this teaching, God graciously provides life, through the death of Christ, to sinners who believe in Jesus. Jesus’ substitutionary death for all people enables God to pronounce a verdict of “not guilty” on repentant sinners and to include them in His eternal purposes. God’s grace manifested in Jesus also makes it possible for God to bestow undeserved benefits on believers.