The True Grace of God

1 Peter 5:12

Introduction

The word grace is perhaps the most expounded upon word in all of religious literature.

It is regularly regarded by heretics and the faithful alike as the most important word in scripture.

With all these words written and spoken, Proverbs 10:19 comes to mind.

I’m going to be pushing back in multiple directions, but more in one direction than others.

On the one hand we have Calvinists who say things like, “The overarching claim about this meaning of grace that I want to make is this: it refers to the truth that God, and God alone, is the decisive cause at the bottom of our election, our new birth, our justification and our daily life of faith and obedience. And by decisive I mean that no human influence — no human distinctive, no human willing, no human feeling, no human acting, nothing outside God whatsoever — is at root decisive in bring about our election or new birth or justification or daily life of faith and obedience.” - John Piper

On the other hand, you have men like Roger Olson who say they agree with Calvinists on Total Depravity and Preservation of the Saints but only want to add that we are made able by something called prevenient grace to respond to the gospel call. Then God takes over from there and the doctrines of Arminianism and Calvinism are pretty much lockstep after that.

So when even the opponent of Calvinist grace agrees with most of Calvinist grace, we are left to push back in mostly one direction against what the denominational world teaches.

Additionally, we have brethren who say things like this about Eph. 2:8:

“Brothers, I want to preach this passage. I want to preach it without reservation, I want to preach it without caveat. I want to be able to proclaim it loudly from the rooftops without anybody telling me, hey wait a minute, don’t take that passage too far. The reality is, we cannot take the teaching of this passage too far. We cannot take the teaching of God’s saving grace too far.”

“I want to teach this passage loudly and boldly, without anyone telling me I need to reign that in or balance it out with some other teaching from the scripture.”

There is a picture here presented that other scriptures might shackle the teaching of Eph. 2:8. But I believe what other scriptures do is bring clarity to such passages. Sometimes people will say, why don’t you feel the need to “balance out” Acts 2:38. But I do feel that need. And in fact, the more I explore, the more I become confident of what I have taught on that passage. But that is not the case with the way many have presented Eph. 2:8. It can indeed be “taken too far.” The words left undefined and one word in particular.

Defining Grace

When we are looking at defining a word, we want to know the baseline definition of that word:

The word may have some range of meaning and context will determine where the meaning falls in each usage.

What we generally find when we look up the word grace, is that people have already added their conclusions about how this word is used when they go about defining it.

It has become a religiously loaded term but the Greek word in the 1st century didn’t have 2000 years of baggage. So what did it mean to 1st century ears? That is what I want to get at.

Merriam-Webster defines grace as:

unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification

a virtue coming from God

a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance

You have likely heard it defined as God’s unmerited favor to men or simply unmerited favor.

That doesn’t work in several places where this word is used (Lk. 2:52; 6:32-34; Rom. 7:25).

Once we trace this word to the Old Testament, the difficulty grows.

Did Noah attract God’s favor (Gen. 6:8)?

Certainly Ruth attracted the grace of Boaz (Ruth 2:13).

Notice how Jacob brings something to receive grace (Gen. 33:8).

The thing Jacob brought is something God says we should bring to Him (Lev. 2).

The idea ends up being a kind or favorable attitude or action toward someone.

Another element seems to be that of a gift (Rom. 4:4).

It is not required or owed.

You can give a gift to a “worthy” person and it still be a gift.

Two-Party Transaction

It can be asked for, but not demanded (Gen. 33:8).

It can be given but overlooked (Matt. 5:45; Rom. 2:4).

It can be offered and rejected (Tit. 2:12).

Both parties can accept the terms (1 Tim. 1:12-15).

Conclusion

Do you see that God has been so very kindly disposed toward you.

That He has given you grace that you have already enjoyed and made usage of.

That He has offered you grace of eternal kindness, but that this is offered.

Would you be gracious in response by thinking kindly on Him. He deserves your grace, but only you can give it.