For every Christian God is to he thanked. “First, I thank my
God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken
of throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8). “But God be
thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you”
(Rom. 6:17). Salvation is of grace both in its planning and
working. God who made the plan also works the plan. And all
is of grace, the unmerited and unmeritable favor of God. God
is both the Architect and Builder of the house made of living
stones. “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual
house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:5). Christ said,
“I will build My church.” If we may change the figure, God sets
the Gospel table and also gives appetite for the bread of life.
The Holy Spirit fills the Father’s house by compelling them to
come in. This is not external compulsion, which would destroy
human free agency, but an inward compulsion by which the
sinner becomes willing. “Thy people shall be willing in the day
of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the
morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth” (Ps. 110:3). And this
willingness is the result of the Spirit conviction of sin and His
revelation in the sinner of Christ as Saviour and Lord. In a
word men believe through grace. “For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”
(Eph. 2:8). When Apollos came into Achaia, bearing letters of
recommendation to the disciples there this was recorded:
“And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren
wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he
was come, helped them much which had believed through
grace” (Acts 18:27).
A man was once speaking of himself as a self-made man.
One who heard him in his boasting, said, “It’s quite noble of
you to say so. Most men would have blamed their luck, or
their wives, or even laid the responsibility on the shoulders of
the Creator.” It seems natural and easy for a man to worship
his Maker, and therefore, the self-made man naturally
worships himself. But every believer is a grace made man.
Paul, as a Christian, delighted to say, “But by the grace of
God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon
me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they
all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (I Cor.
15:10). In an experience of grace, the Holy Spirit, by the
convicting power of the word, gives the sinner a sight of self,
and then relieves the resultant distress by giving him, through
the Gospel, a sight of Christ. An old Puritan once cried out,
“Oh, where had I been if I had not spied out Christ?”
DEFINITIONS OF GRACE
The Greek word “charis” occurs in the New Testament more
than one hundred and fifty times and is usually translated
“grace” in our English Bible. It is not easy to take a word
employed so many times and with such a diversity of
application and develop a doctrine that will be uniform and
consistent. Moreover, all the truth about grace cannot be
compressed into a single sentence. Grace is one of the Divine
perfections or attributes in the nature of God which is
exercised in the salvation of sinners. Great and good men
have grappled with the subject of grace in an effort to define
and describe it. May we prayerfully ponder some of them:
Dr. Dale: “Grace is love which passes beyond all claims to
love.” Grace is not the sinner’s due; it is not something he
earns; it is not something he can lay claim to.
Alexander Whyte: “Grace and love are essentially the same,
only grace is love manifesting itself and operating under
certain conditions, and adapting itself to certain
circumstances. As, for example, love has no limit or law such
as grace has. Love may exist between equals, or it may rise
to those above us, or flow down to those in any way beneath
us. But grace, from its nature, has only one direction it can
take. Grace always flows down. Grace is love indeed, but it is
love to creatures humbling itself. A king’s love to his equals, or
to his own royal house, is love; but his love to his subjects is
called grace. And thus it is that God’s love to sinners is always
called grace.” This quotation deserves repeated readings.
Alexander Maclaren: “The word grace is a kind of shorthand
for the whole sum of unmerited blessings which come to men
through Jesus Christ. Primarily, it describes what we, for want
of a better expression, have to call a ‘disposition’ in the Divine
nature; and it means the unconditioned, undeserved,
spontaneous, eternal, stooping, pardoning love of God. But
there are no idle dispositions in God. They are always
energizing, and so the word glides from meaning the
disposition, to meaning the manifestations and activities of it,
and the grace of our Lord is that love in exercise. And then,
since the Divine energies are never fruitless, the word passes
over further, to mean all the blessed things in the soul which
are the consequences of the Promethean truth of God’s loving
hand, the outcome in life of the inward bestowment which has
its cause, its sole cause, in God’s ceaseless, unexhausted
love, unmerited and free.” This quotation must be studied to
get the most out of it.
Phillips: “Grace is something in God which is at the heart of all
His redeeming activities, the downward stoop and reach of
God, bending from the heights of His majesty, to touch and
grasp our insignificance and poverty.”
In analyzing all these definitions and descriptions of grace, we
find that the word is applied to three things in the Scriptures.
First, God’s attitude or disposition of love and favor towards a
sinner is grace. It is said that “Noah found grace in the eyes of
the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). God’s attitude towards him was a
disposition of favor and love, and inasmuch as Noah was a
sinner, that disposition of love was grace. Second, when God
does something for the sinner’s good, that is grace. “By grace
have ye been saved” (R. V.). Third, the effects or fruit of the
inwrought grace in the believer is also called grace. The
graces or virtues in the saints are produced by the grace of
God working in them. The disposition of the Macedonians to
give so liberally is called grace: “Moreover, brethren, we do
you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of
Macedonia” (II Cor. 8:1); and the money given for the poor
saints at Jerusalem is also called grace: “For it hath pleased
them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution
for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem” (Rom. 15:26). The
changed lives of the people whom Barnabas saw at Antioch is
called the grace of God. “Who, when he came, and had seen
the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with
purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (Acts
11:23).
“Grace is a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound
And all the earth shall hear”
HOW TO BETTER UNDERSTAND GRACE
Perhaps the best way to understand the meaning of grace is
to see how it is contrasted in the Bible with other things:
1. It is contrasted with law in its origin and nature. “For the law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ” (John 1:17). Moses was the voice of law; Christ was
the spokesman for grace. It is the nature of law to make
demands; it is the nature of grace to bestow blessings. The
law is a ministry of condemnation; grace is the ministry of
forgiveness. The law puts man at a guilty distance from God;
grace brings the sinner nigh to God. The law condemns the
best man; grace saves the worst man. The law says, “Do and
live; ” grace says, “Believe and live.” The law demands
righteousness; grace provides righteousness. The law curses;
grace redeems from the curse. As long as a man is under the
law he is lost; the only way to get out from under the law is
through faith in Christ, “For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4). “For
sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the
law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14).
2. Grace is contrasted with sin in its issue. Sin reigns unto
death; grace reigns unto eternal life: “That as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21). Sin
gets its damning power from the law: “The sting of death is
sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (I Cor. 15:56); grace
robs sin of its damning power by giving Christ for the
satisfaction of the law: “But thanks be to God, which giveth us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 15:57). The
one and only source of real danger is from violated law; the
one and only way of escape is through a satisfied law. Christ
satisfied the law for His people, that the law might be satisfied
with them. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).
3. Grace is contrasted with works in the plan of salvation. “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). Salvation is by the grace of the
Creator rather than by works of the creature. Salvation by
grace precludes the idea of any works either great or small,
moral or ceremonial. Salvation by grace excludes boasting
and gives all praise to God. “And if by grace, then is it no
more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more
work” (Rom. 11:6). “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By
what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith” (Rom. 3:27).
“Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan,”
4. Grace is contrasted with debt or obligation as to the moving
cause of salvation. “Now to him that worketh is the reward not
reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:4,5). The thought here is
this: the man who draws wages for his work does not have
any grace shown him, but a debt or obligation paid to him.
There is no grace where a man gets what he deserves or
earns. Grace excludes the principle of debt or obligation.
Salvation by grace means that God is not obligated to save. If
there is obligation to save then salvation is not by grace as the
moving cause. It was grace in God, and not a debt He was
under, that caused Him to provide salvation for sinners.
Toplady well says: “The way to heaven lies not over a tollbridge, but over a free-bridge; even the unmerited grace of
God in Christ Jesus. Grace finds us beggars but leaves us
debtors.”
“High as the heavens are raised
Above the ground we tread,
So far the riches of His grace
Our highest thoughts: exceed.”
GRACE IN THE TRINITY
All three persons in the Godhead are equally gracious
towards sinners. The grace of the Father, Son, and Spirit are
equal in degree and extent, but distinct in operation and
administration.
1. The Father is the fountain of all grace. He proposed the fact
and plan of grace. He formulated the covenant of grace, and
devised the means “whereby His banished should not be
expelled from Him.” He made choice by grace of the subjects
of grace, and then in fulness of time sent His Son into the
world to be the medium of grace. “But when the fulness of the
time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, To redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4,5).
2. The eternal Son is the channel of grace. The only way the
grace of God can reach the sinner is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Let no rejector of God’s
Son think himself to be the beneficiary of God’s grace! His
work reconciled Grace and Justice, as it is written, “Mercy and
truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed
each other” (Ps. 85:10). John Bunyan, blissfully lost in the
contemplation of the matchless grace of the Son of God, cried
out in these words: “O Thou Son of the Blessed! Grace
stripped Thee of Thy glory; grace brought Thee down from
heaven; grace made Thee bear such burdens of sin, such
burdens of curse as are unspeakable; grace was in Thy heart;
grace came bubbling from Thy bleeding side; grace was in
Thy tears; grace was in Thy prayers; grace streamed from
Thy thorn crowned brow! Grace came forth with the nails that
pierced Thee, with the thorns that pricked Thee! Oh, here the
unsearchable riches of grace! Grace to make sinners happy!
Grace to make angels wonder! Grace to make devils
astonished!”
3. The Holy Spirit is the administrator of grace. Without the
gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in conversion no sinner
would ever become a beneficiary of grace. He takes of the
things of Christ and gives them to the sinner. He quickens all
the souls of the Father’s choice, and leads to Jesus Christ all
the sheep for whom the dear Shepherd laid down His life. “I
am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for
the sheep” (John 10:11). He conquers the stoutest hearts, and
cleanses the foulest spiritual leper. He opens sin blinded eyes
and unstops sin closed ears. The blessed Holy Spirit reveals
the grace of the Father and applies the grace of the Son.
“We may listen to the preacher,
God’s own truth be clearly shown;
But we need a greater teacher
From the everlasting throne;
Application is the work of God alone.”
“Only one life to live and soon is past
Only what’s done for Christ will last!”
Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.
THE GRACE OF GOD Part 1 of 3