GRACE
Introduction
This
message was first delivered on Palm Sunday in the
Season of Lent when it is one week until
Easter. I wondered at the time, Can we pull together Grace and Lent –
Commitment - Palm Sunday? We’ll have to see.
Why Speak on Grace?
I wanted to speak on grace because my
thoughts and experiences for some time have impressed upon me how important
grace is. Indeed, some of our members thought it important enough, some 40 odd
years ago, to name our church building, our congregation, Grace Mennonite
Church. The story of how and why that name was chosen for our group has
probably been written down by sister Anna Schroeder in her recently completed
history of our church, but I haven’t had the privilege of reading that yet.
As I was saying, I was becoming aware of
how important the grace of God is, especially as God expresses it towards us.
At the same time, I was seeing how important it is that grace is lived out in
our lives.
The Word Grace
The word grace
is found 170 times in the Bible according to a concordance of the New Revised
Standard Version. It is a word that has several meanings in different contexts.
We all have some idea of what it means. If you are like me though, I suspect
your understanding of the term is a little vague, not crisply clear. I believe
in fact, that in all its fullness, the grace of God is really as much a concept
as a word.
Definition
To begin with, let’s look at what grace means. Then we’ll see what grace
does and makes possible, what we will do, or should be doing, when we are
living in the grace of God. We can then see how that links up with Commitment,
our Lenten theme today.
As Anna Schroeder reminded us two weeks ago, much of our New Testament first appeared in Greek. If we want to make a proper study of the word grace as it appears in the Bible then, we should begin with the Greek word and its definition. Ideally, one should go back and study what the Hebrew meanings of grace are in the Old Testament. Unfortunately, I have never made myself familiar with Hebrew. In any case, the meanings of grace in the New Testament are more important for the Christian faith.
1. The Greek word for
grace is Charis. It is similar to the verb ‘charidzomai’, which appears to
come from the same root and means “to give freely or graciously, as
a favour…to forgive, pardon… to show oneself to be gracious to someone”. I
noticed also in looking these words up, that the Greek word for ‘joy’,
‘charan’, is very similar. In fact, there appear to have been times when the
words were used interchangeably. Indeed, if we have grace, or have been shown grace,
we should be joyful.
Another
similar word is ‘charisma’, “a gift
freely and graciously given”, from which is derived charismatic. Originally, at
least in Christian thought, that word referred to someone who was the
embodiment of grace, who was believed to be someone who really displayed in his
or her lives the presence of the Holy Spirit. It now usually refers more
generally to anyone who has the gift or ability to influence, to lead, to
impress, even simply to charm.
Charis is used to mean ‘graciousness, attractiveness…favour…gracious care
or help, goodwill’, to refer to the ‘[state of having] favour with someone’. In
particular, it is used to describe “the possession of divine grace s a source
of blessings for the believer, or …a store of grace that is dispensed, or a
state of grace (standing in God’s favour) that is brought about...by God in
Christ”.
2. When we look at grace in English,
the Webster dictionary defines grace as:
“a pleasing
quality, favour, goodwill, thanks.”
In fact, our Webster dictionary lists 11
definitions and applications of the word. I think the fact that the meaning
that has to do with God is given last illustrates all to aptly the place given
God in most of our society. That definition reads:
“the unmerited
love and favour of God toward [humanity]” and “divine influence acting
in [persons] to
make [them] pure and morally strong”, the condition of a person thus in-
fluenced”.
We can benefit, in looking
at the notion of grace, from taking a look at some of the other definitions of
grace. Considering them can only broaden our understanding of the grace of God.
1.
One is “beauty or charm of form…expression”. If we
really know God, would we not describe God this way?
2.
Another is “a sense of what is right and proper;
decency”. Again, does this not add to what we might talk about when we refer to
being gracious, and isn’t God infinitely gracious? This
also has to do with beliefs
and values, which in turn guide our actions, whether we are always aware of it
or not.
3.
Thirdly: “disposition to grant something freely;
favour, goodwill”. That would apply to the reference to God’s actions in
extending his favour to us.
4.
“Mercy; clemency”. Those are really synonyms to
describe an aspect of grace, of what it is that God offers us because of His
graciousness.
5.
“Temporary exemption” – doesn’t God give us a lot of
these? Perhaps every day we do things that deserve punishment, but God, being
who God is, and having done what he did through His Son, extends his favour
beyond he day-to-day judgments we could incur. The goodwill shown by granting
this delay is itself grace.
Quotes and Sources:
When an elderly black slave
was asked what grace was he answered, "Grace is what I should call giving
something for nothing".
The famous eighteenth
century New England evangelist Jonathan Edwards wrote: "As grace is first
from God, so it is continually from him, as much as light is all day long from
the sun, as well as at first dawn or sun-rising".
One of the Radio Bible
Class’s writers, Paul van Gorder, put it well in a small volume entitled Enemies
of Grace: “Grace is that eternal principle of God’s character that causes
Him to bestow His goodness and love and salvation on the undeserving…the
unmerited favour of God…toward condemned and unworthy sinners”. Aren’t we glad that is part of God’s eternal
character? Isn’t that so reassuring? That is part of God that will never
change.
Words that have evolved
from grace
We can also get an idea of
what grace is from considering the many words that have evolved from grace or
have a common origin. These include words like 'grateful', 'gracious', or the
French ‘gratuit’, which, of course, means 'free'. Grace is free. Then, there
would be the opposite words, like 'ungrateful' and ungracious.
Well-known Christian author Phillip Yancey
wrote a book in 1997 called Whatever
Happened to Grace? In it he
makes two points: 1. Grace is something the world desperately needs, and
which
the
Church possesses and should be able to
dispense. He then goes on to say though
that people too often don't find grace in the Church. Does that mean the Church
has lost the gift of grace? We, in the community of the faithful, at the
congregational and personal level, each have to examine our own lives to
determine whether in fact we do show grace to one another. More importantly, do
we extend grace to those who are not yet of the Church, and who are looking for
grace?
My apologies to those of you
who may have read Yancey’s book, and so will know this tale, but I want to read
the first story he relates.
READ FIRST STORY OF YANCEY’S BOOK
Here was this woman, in great need spiritually, and she believed she
could not turn to the church for help. Is she right? Can the sinners, the
publicans as they were referred to in Jesus day, not turn to the Church for
grace? Jesus forgave the prostitute he met. He forgave the criminal hanging on
the tree with him. He forgave the Samaritan woman who had had many partners.
What do we do when we encounter such people? Who are the publicans, the
criminals, the Samaritans in our world?
The second point that Yancey makes is that…
2. Talking about
Grace can be a very boring, very dry topic if we begin to analyze it as a
theological
subject. It is
better relayed through action and stories. Indeed, the more I got into this
subject, the closer I came to this date, the more I realized that grace is not
easy to talk about.
But, let’s have courage and
move on. First of all then -
1. Grace is a
state we can find ourselves in:
The state of grace is that sphere,
that place, of God’s favour and presence within which we as believers live.
If we look first at the Old Testament, Grace, as such,
is not mentioned very often. It appears 39 times,
compared to 131 in The New Testament. When first mentioned as such in the Old
Testament, it refers to finding favour in someone’s sight, and this is one of its most common usages all through the Old
Testament. This is then first of all a certain position one
finds oneself in.
Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord, and was spared from The Flood. Lot found grace
in the eyes of God when he was spared from the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah. Jacob, returning home after years of
self-imposed exile, wanted to find grace in the sight of his brother Esau, whom
he had wronged years earlier. Moses asked for grace in
the sight of God when God was angry with The Children of Israel in the desert
and threatening to destroy them.
You will have notice the
repeated use of the phrase “in the eyes of”, or “in the sight of”. There is a
sense that when we are in front of someone, vulnerable, perhaps afraid, in
danger, or ashamed and embarrassed for who we are or what we’ve done, that what
we really want and need at that moment is grace. All of these examples I just
gave you had this in common. Each of these individuals had done wrong and they
knew it, as did the person they were facing, quite often God Himself. There was
little, or nothing, they could do except throw themselves at the mercy of the
person in whose power they found themselves at that moment.
We
sometimes refer to the period of time in which we are living, from the
Christian perspective, as The Age of
Grace. This differentiates it from the preceding
period of history, the time of the Old Testament, which we call the Age of the
Law, specifically the Law given to Moses and the Children of Israel by God.
This grace also has a very personal and individual application. Paul refers to
it in Romans 5:2, referring to the role of our Lord Jesus Christ here: “By whom
also we have access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand”.
In
God’s eyes, if we in faith have accepted the saving work of the Lord Jesus
Christ for our lives, personally, we stand before him God bathed in His endless
grace. Our sins are forgiven, we are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb,
Jesus Christ himself, and we have nothing to fear. We don’t have to come
cowering before God in fear because of our own undeserving nature. No, as the
writer of Hebrews says in ch. 4:14 & 16 “Seeing then that we have a great
high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God… let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace”, referring, of course, to the
throne of God.
In Old Testament times,
there may have been little sense of grace for many. The Jews especially, living
under the Law, got caught up in following rules. As John writes in his gospel,
1:17: “The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ”. This grace is also given us to sustain
us in whatever circumstances come our way in life.
READ Radio Bible Class devotional Our Daily Bread entry for Oct. 6, 1997
3. Grace is something given
to us:
If we as believers exist in
a state of grace, it should not be surprising that this grace should have the
possibility of being incorporated into our being. At the same time, the Bible
is clear that if that is the case, it is still something that comes from God.
In the Old Testament, Zechariah 12:10, we read of God promising to “pour
upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of
grace and supplication”. This is
believed to refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit
enters our lives as a result of God’s grace, bringing that grace with him, we
can be, indeed we ought to be, moved and led to supplication, to prayer for
repentance.
The first reference to grace
in the
New Testament also speaks of grace being given. Most fittingly, it is in reference
to Jesus. Luke 2:40 describes this child upon whom the grace of God rested. What
is even more astounding is that nowhere else in the whole Bible does this
phrase appear. Only upon His own Son Jesus, did God’s grace descend in all its
fullness, as it says in John 1:14: “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth”. This is it. This is the real thing. If we want to know
what God is like, what the grace of God is really like, we have to look only as
far as Jesus. Jesus was God in the flesh.
There is no one else, there is no substitute, there are no pretenders,
no challengers. For all the rest of us, from Adam on down the line, the best we
can do, as we so often already saw in the Old Testament, is receive favour or
grace in God’s eyes.
To be sure though, when we
become Christians, believers, when the Holy Spirit descends upon us, it should
also be said of us, as it was of the Apostles in Acts 4:33: “that great grace
was upon them all”. When we are born into Christ, but only then, we share in
that grace. Indeed, John also writes of this in ch. 1:16: “And of his fullness
have all we received, and grace for grace”. Another way of reading this is to
say that we, as Christians, receive blessing upon blessing. As the hymn says,
“Grace was multiplied to me”. If that
is the case, if God so pours out his grace on us, how can it not show in our
everyday lives? Perhaps it’s because we
have not stopped to realize just how much grace has been given us. We have not,
as another hymn says, ‘counted our blessings, named them one by one’. More
importantly perhaps, we have not given thanks for them, as we should.
What are we already saying
then? We are coming to the fourth point of what grace does for us -
4. It is through grace that
we are saved.
Acts 15:11 says: “We believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved”. This is also
stated in Acts 18:27 where it speaks of those who “had believed through grace”.
Paul puts it even more eloquently in Eph. 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest anyone should boast.”
READ ODB Oct. 10, 1998
So, even our having the faith that leads
us to salvation is a gift because of God’s grace towards us. How much we owe
our God!
In the New Testament, Yancey
believes the 4th to 7th chapters of Romans are pivotal in
describing what The Grace of God is all about. The word grace appears 11 times
in these 117 verses, 2 times in ch. 4, 6 times in ch. 5, and 3 times in ch. 6,
the greatest concentration of the word in The New Testament. So, something
about grace is going on here, there is something special being said in these
chapters. I am not going to go into detail, but you can read these chapters for
yourselves. In a nutshell, they tell the story of how God gave the Law, which
only served to show us how sinful we are, but then followed that with giving
His Son to make a way for us to be brought back into right relationship with
Him.
In looking at making grace
real, we can also see what we would be like without grace.
5.
What we wouldn’t do when we have or are under grace.
Without grace we can become intolerant
fanatics, zealots. You don’t blow up World Trade Centre Towers by grace! You
don’t go on warring crusades in the name of your God when you are living under
grace.
I don’t believe Grace is expressed
through fighting and violence. This is, to borrow a word from Phillip Yancey,
“ungrace”. Nor is grace expressed through being judgmental, critical, and
unforgiving. Those were the sins of some of the religious leaders of Jesus’
day, the Pharisees, and those were the people he saved his harshest words for.
They were just too self-righteous.
When God impresses upon our hearts, when
we become aware of how dependent we are on the mercy of God for everything,
there is no room for these manifestations of ‘ungrace’. There is no room for
pride, for boasting of works. There is no place for harsh remarks towards
others, for jealousy, selfishness. When we stand deserving total condemnation
for our sinfulness by a perfect and righteous and just God, we realize that we
are nothing if not for God. We have to cast our everything at his feet, submit
to him in his love and wisdom. Only then will the blessings roll in. Only then
will we be able to move on to ourselves to become instruments of his grace.
This really brings us to our final
point:
6. Grace refers to how we
speak, how we behave when we are under grace, the
recipients of
grace:
The first reference to grace
in a more abstract sense in the Old Testament is found in The Psalms.
Psalms 45:2 speaks of “grace being poured into thy lips”. This Psalm is
believed by some to be speaking prophetically of Jesus. My last message from
this pulpit was about what we do with our tongue, our lips, as we refer, in
these figures of speech, to what we say. If anyone spoke graciously, it was
Jesus. He never condemned those who stood in front of him and were aware of
their need for grace, whether it was a prostitute, a despised tax collector for
the Romans, or a confused rich young ruler.
Then, in Psalm 84:11 we come across
another reference to grace as something God gives, along with glory: “The Lord
will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly”.
In Proverbs there are
several instances – 1:9, 3:22, and 4:9 - of grace being described as something
that is worn on the head like a crown, or about the neck like a chain of
jewelry. Again, this is obviously a description of the character of such a
person.
When
we have received the grace of God, I believe we will want to live it out. Jesus, as the embodiment, the personification
of grace, riding into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, was making a commitment. He was telling the world, those who could see
and understand, that he was indeed The Messiah, The Christ. He was also making a commitment to follow
God’s plan all the way to the cross.
So, this Lenten season,
especially this last week before Easter, let’s remember what our
Gracious God has done, is doing, and will continue to do for us living in this
period of grace. Just as the Jews of old celebrated the coming of our Lord on Palm Sunday, many without
knowing as fully as we do who he really was, we, who know more, and have been
given more, should have all the more reason to gratefully celebrate our
crucified and risen Lord this Easter. Our gratitude for the grace we have
received should also inspire us, here in Grace Mennonite Church, to strengthen
our Commitment to live out the
grace we have so freely and undeservedly been given.
____________________
Lorne Brandt, 2002/3/24
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