Grace, Part I

Hey my homies!

Sunday showed me that though I’m grateful for God’s grace, I’m pretty foggy on specifics, which is a pretty sad state of affairs for a not-baby Christian.
We MUST establish in our hearts WHAT God’s grace through Christ REALLy is to us EVERY DAY, or else we won’t be able to combat ick philosophies & “christian liberals. “Certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (jude 1:4)
What does the Bible say about this concept, embodied in a five-letter word, that saves us from a just hell & adopts us into a merciful heaven? Here's the first part of my quest for insight into grace, mostly dealing with the actual word "grace.
I guess my thoughts are: Christ was revealed once & as a consequence, I am saved through his blood. Grace did a mighty work. Now, do I daily need to pray for that same sin-damning grace poured out on me to walk with God in various & specific situations, or do I ask for a DIFFERENT kind of grace? And if (indeed!) the Holy Spirit fully indwells me RIGHT NOW, then why do I need to ask for grace? Doesn't God supply all my needs according to his riches & mercy?


Here’s what I came up with last night:
In the NIV, “grace” is used 127 times. Only 11 of those are in the Old Testament.
In the NKJ, “grace” or “graceful” occurs 145 times, with 21 of those in the OT.

In the OT, “grace” most usually appears to mean “favor in the sight of,” as in Esther finds grace in the eyes of the King, both Noah and Moses find grace in God’s sight.
(Exodus 33:17 the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found gracein My sight, and I know you by name.”) There is also “graceful ornaments” “grace poured out on your lips” “graceful proportions” “grace in the wilderness to rest” and “a graceful doe.”

The first OT reference where I found the words “grace” and “given” specifically put together in God’s hands in an act of out-giving is Psalm 84:11. David writes “The LORD God is a sun and shield;The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.”

Proverbs 3: 34 is the next OT reference (which I think is quoted in James). It says “Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble.”

So far, if we’re ignoring the stories of applied grace ALL through the OT, the word itself (NKJ version) is infrequent & still mysterious. That all changes when the prophecy in Zechariah 12:10 is fulfilled.

Zechariah 12:10
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

COOL NOTE!: Zech 12:10 is the LAST mention of grace in the OT. The next time “grace” appears is in Luke 2, talking about the child Jesus! Whoever said the devil was into details?


Now movin' on to the good stuff:

JESUS CHRIST = GRACE

(and since i'm addicted to quotes...)
"Thou Son of the Blessed, what grace was manifest in Thy condescension! Grace brought Thee down from heaven; Grace stripped Thee of Thy glory; Grace made Thee poor and despicable; Grace made Thee bear such burdens of sin, such burdens of sorrow, such burdens of God’s curse as are unspeakable.” - John Bunyan
Bunyan's passion makes understanding God's grace a priority, as does the NT. In the New Testament, grace hits the lexical jackpot & starts cropping up EVERYWHERE in relation to Jesus, God, and Christians.


Interestingly, “grace” is only used 4 times in the Gospels (I’m searching NKJ on biblegateway); once in Luke 2, and then 3 times in John chapter 1.

NT Grace References: Jesus: As a strong-spirited child, the grace of God was upon him (luke 2), the WORD dwelt among us full of grace and truth; we have received Christ’s fullness, grace for grace and though we got the law from Moses, we get GRACE through Jesus Christ (john 1).

Pause. Better define “grace” before I look into the remaining 120 times its used. Oh goody, I get to dive into Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology.

He says Grace:
- “May be defined as “the unmerited favor of God toward all men displayed in His general care for them” (Ryrie).
-
- “Common grace is “(a) those general operations of the Holy Spirit whereby He, without renewing the heart, exercises such a moral influence on man through His general or special revelation, that sin is restrained, order is maintained in social life, and civil righteousness is promoted; or,
- (b) those general blessings, such as rain and sunshine, food and drink, clothing and shelter, which God imparts to all men indiscriminately where and in what measure it seems good to Him.”

(Banner of Truth, p. 436.)

I’m not so concerned with “common” grace at present. At issue is the operational definition/purpose/need/extent of SAVING/SANCTIFYING GRACE. (and this is NOT a research paper, so formatting be darned).

So I turned to Jerry Bridges, author of the Pursuit of Holiness and Transforming Grace. Bridges says “God saves us by His grace and transforms us more and more into the likeness of His Son by His grace. In all our trials and afflictions, He sustains and strengthens us by His grace. He calls us by grace to perform our own unique function within the Body of Christ. Then, again by grace, He gives to each of us the spiritual gifts necessary to fulfill our calling. As we serve Him, He makes that service acceptable to Himself by grace, and then rewards us a hundredfold by grace.” -Transforming Grace


Alistair Begg says “As a result of grace, we have been saved from sin’s penalty. One day we will be saved from sin’s presence. In the meantime we are being saved from sin’s power.” - Made For His Pleasure
Basically, grace’s muscles have become visible muscles since the OT days, in that now it is the sustaining/strengthening everyday transformer through which God saves us in Christ and calls & enables us to serve him. Grace has been embodied in Christ, and it is impossible to be IN Christ without a hunger for grace in ALL things. (As usual, dead guys say it best:
“Is it possible to be a Christian and yet destitute of this desire to grow in grace? No, it is not! I tell you, it is not! If you have no concern to grow in grace – there is no grace in you! You are a piece of dead wood – and not a living branch! You are a spiritual corpse – and not a living man! In this state there can be no growth – for dead things never grow!” -John Angell James, Christian Progress, 1853).

DEAD THINGS NEVER GROW. AND I AM DEFINITELY NOT DEAD, so 1 pete 1:13 applies – “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

I know God gives wisdom to those who ask, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask you if you have any further thoughts/resources/insight into "What is the role of grace in the daily life of a Christian?"


TO BE CONTINUED….after i sleep ;)