“As God’s fellow-workers we also urge you not to receive his grace and then do nothing with it” (2 Corinthians 6:1 CJB).
The New Testament book of Acts records a meeting that took place among the first-century elders and Apostles in Jerusalem. During that conference, the Apostle Peter made the following statement: “…We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved…” (Acts 15:11). So what is “grace” and why is it important?
Well, grace can be defined rather easily in three words: “God’s unmerited favor.” The New Dictionary of Theology expands on this definition by telling us that the Hebrew and Greek words for grace “…indicate…an objective relation of undeserved favor by a superior to an inferior…” in the original languages of the Old and New Testaments.
The word “grace” appears 119 times in the New Testament (1) and is often associated with God’s mercy, love, and compassion. Since grace involves God’s unmerited favor, we cannot earn it. In fact, there is nothing we can do to procure God’s grace because it is undeserved. In other words, grace represents God’s favor towards us without regard to our talents, capabilities, possessions, and/or social standing. If we were worthy to receive God’s favor, we wouldn’t need grace- and it is freely available to those who approach God through Christ.
Grace also represents one of the basic attributes of God’s character. For instance, Exodus 34:6 identifies God in the following manner: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…” We also see Jesus as the embodiment of grace in the New Testament Gospel of John: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
A few verses later, John 1:17 continues by saying, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” So even though the Old Testament law revealed God’s grace, it was (and is) largely associated with the establishment of God’s righteous standards. However, Jesus’ atoning sacrifice not only reveals the depths of God’s grace but also provides access to it.
As the Apostle Paul will go on to say in a well-known portion of another Biblical epistle, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
(1) New King James version