OPINION —
What is grace? The Bible teaches us that we are “saved by grace.” But what exactly is grace?
The word grace is one of the most commonly used words in the church. It is found in the King James Version and the English Standard Version 131 times. Hundreds of songs help us celebrate the grace of God in worship.
What may surprise you is that grace is found only eight times in the NIV, the New International Version. But the words used for grace in the NIV — favor and kindness — help us realize that grace is the kindness of God to undeserving sinners.
Grace is usually explained as the “unmerited favor” or “undeserved kindness” of God. That is how Paul defines it in the third, fifth and 11th chapters of Romans. Grace is God’s undeserved gift of salvation to guilty sinners who turn to God in faith.
So one of our favorite biblical passages is Ephesians 2:8-9 — “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so no one can boast.”
But again I ask, what is grace and how does it do what the Bible says it does?
Recently I got help with this question by reading a devotional by Charles Spurgeon. The remarkable English preacher led me into a fuller meaning of grace. This year the Lord guided me to read one of my wife’s favorite daily devotional books, “Morning by Morning,” an edition edited by Randy Petersen. Dean read it again and again over many years; she was re-reading it in 2020, the year she died. I have been richly blessed by Spurgeon’s writing and by Dean’s notes in the margins.
In Spurgeon’s devotional for March 15, he elaborates on grace as strength for living, based on Paul’s words to Timothy: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2, AKJV). I was impressed by the idea that one may find strength “in” grace, and that this grace is “in Christ.” That immediately brought to mind the words of Jesus in John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches.”
Grace then is the life-giving power we receive through our connection to Jesus, without which we cannot “bear good fruit.” So we can think of grace as an active force that provides us with the daily strength to overcome problems, endure suffering, and — dare I say it — “grow in grace”.
The concept of grace as an active force reminds me to the phrase given us by Star Wars: “May the force be with you.” When you are surrendered to Jesus, and living like a branch connected to the energizing sap of the true vine, then there is indeed a mighty, spiritual “force” within you that the Bible calls the grace of God.
The English Standard translation of 2 Timothy 2:1 supports the idea of receiving strength for daily living: “You, then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
The J. B. Phillips translation is also supportive: “So, my son, be strong in the grace that Jesus Christ gives.” So is the translation in the Living Bible: “O Timothy, my son, be strong with the strength Christ Jesus gives you.”
The New Living Translation adds the idea that it is God who gives us strength through the grace in Christ: “Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus.”
Spurgeon insists that “within Himself, Christ has grace beyond measure,” and like a reservoir “has emptied out his grace for his people.” Spurgeon enriches what John says: “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after” (John 1:16) with these words:
“He stands there like a fountain, always flowing, in order to supply the empty pitchers and thirsty lips of his people. Like a tree, he bears sweet fruit, not to hang on the branches, but to be picked by those who need it.”
What is grace? I love Spurgeon’s answer: “Grace, whether its work is to pardon, to cleanse, to preserve, to strengthen, to enlighten, to bring life or to restore — grace is always available from him freely and without price. He has not withheld any kind of grace from his people.”
Saved by grace. Strengthened by grace for daily living. That’s what our loving Father does for all who turn to Jesus.
Lord, struggles and sorrows often overwhelm me. But today I am celebrating the fact that I can experience and receive your grace minute by minute and hour by hour for the needs of each day. Thank you. Hallelujah. Glory. Amen.
Altar Call | Grace enough day by day
