What is grace?

[prism]

How is it New Age?

At it's core it is telling you how to be more like God. Sound familiar? (Read Gen 3)
Also there is no mention of Christ's death at Calvary (the means by which God is able to be gracious to man), no Blood etc. rather everything is put on your shoulders.

 

[Invisibilis]

What is grace?
God's support. Without it we fall from grace.

 

[Triumph1300]

Well, good luck with all of these posts.
Works comes as a result of salvation as directed by the Holy Spirit.
Your good works will not save you.
Salvation comes after repentance and being born again.

 

[MatthewG]

Strong's Concordance
charis: grace, kindness
Original Word: χάρις, ιτος, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: charis
Phonetic Spelling: (khar'-ece)

Definition: grace, kindness
Usage: (a) grace, as a gift or blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ, (b) favor, (c) gratitude, thanks, (d) a favor, kindness.
HELPS Word-studies

Cognate: 5485 xáris (another feminine noun from xar-, "favor, disposed to, inclined, favorable towards, leaning towards to share benefit") – properly, grace. 5485 (xáris) is preeminently used of the Lord's favor – freely extended to give Himself away to people (because He is "always leaning toward them").

5485 /xáris ("grace") answers directly to the Hebrew (OT) term 2580 /Kaná ("grace, extension-toward"). Both refer to God freely extending Himself (His favor, grace), reaching (inclining) to people because He is disposed to bless (be near) them.

[5485 (xáris) is sometimes rendered "thanks" but the core-idea is "favor, grace" ("extension towards").]

 

[farouk]

I learned that Grace is accompanied by His Mercy...
Grace gives us what we DON'T deserve
Mercy does not give us what we Do deserve.
A good example is when a person is charged and found guilty of a crime and is standing before the judge to hear his punishment....and he begs the court..."have mercy on me your Honor, I pray for your sense of compassion to not punish me accordingly to my crime"
So the judge considers many factors involved and gives him probation instead of imprisonment....this is Grace.
The man deserved to serve some jail time but the Grace and Mercy of the court saved him from that fate

@Heart2Soul Mercy and grace go together in the early verses of Ephesians chapter 2. :)

 

[Ronald David Bruno]

Grace is unconditional. Salvation by grace is not.

That is a contradiction.
You say Grace is unconditional and isn't.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Eph. 2:8-10

Grace is unmerited favor. So we don't deserve or earn it.
Faith is also a gift, not earned, not by works. That is also unconditional.
We are created for good works which God prepared.
"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9 To another faith by the same Spirit; ..." 1 Cor. 12:8, 9

Examine Heb.11:1 How could we generate hope for the future and be certain about things unseen unless faith was a gift? We can be positive and encourage others to give them a boost. But what makes us so certain? God is faithful and we are in Christ. We have been given that hope and conviction, we did not create it. But it does grow by consuming His Word. It is super-natural, the change in us is super-natural/spiritual. We dont create spiritual attributes of God - they are His. He is the source.
Some are given great faith and for those, He has prepared great things to do. Most of us have just enough faith to get by. Like any other gifts, they are given for a purpose.

Love seems to be conditional, otherwise He would love everyone and everyone would be saved.
"...Yet I have loved Jacob; 3 but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.” Malachi 1:2-3
Obviously, at the end of time when He judges thise and destroys them, that would not be considered an act love. Bit maybe it is an act of live towards the rest of us. When there is sin, justice is required and so His justice reflect a on His righteousness which in turn is part of His love.

 

[robert derrick]

That is a contradiction.
You say Grace is unconditional and isn't.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Eph. 2:8-10

Grace is unmerited favor. So we don't deserve or earn it.
Faith is also a gift, not earned, not by works. That is also unconditional.
We are created for good works which God prepared.
"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9 To another faith by the same Spirit; ..." 1 Cor. 12:8, 9

Examine Heb.11:1 How could we generate hope for the future and be certain about things unseen unless faith was a gift? We can be positive and encourage others to give them a boost. But what makes us so certain? God is faithful and we are in Christ. We have been given that hope and conviction, we did not create it. But it does grow by consuming His Word. It is super-natural, the change in us is super-natural/spiritual. We dont create spiritual attributes of God - they are His. He is the source.
Some are given great faith and for those, He has prepared great things to do. Most of us have just enough faith to get by. Like any other gifts, they are given for a purpose.

Love seems to be conditional, otherwise He would love everyone and everyone would be saved.
"...Yet I have loved Jacob; 3 but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and given his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.” Malachi 1:2-3
Obviously, at the end of time when He judges thise and destroys them, that would not be considered an act love. Bit maybe it is an act of live towards the rest of us. When there is sin, justice is required and so His justice reflect a on His righteousness which in turn is part of His love.

That is a contradiction. You say Grace is unconditional and isn't.

Well, obviously I didn't say that, and neither can it be inferred honestly from 'grace is unconditional, but the salvation by grace is not'.

Faith is also a gift, not earned, not by works. That is also unconditional.

The gift of faith is unconditionally offered, but is only received on the condition that it be recieved. A gift offered is unhad, except it first be received.

Likewise, there is a condition for being given the faith: we must hear the report of faith.

However, the parable of the sower does show that upon hearing, the seed is sown unconditionally. But:

Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

This clearly means that even them that hear and faith is sown unconditionally, they must keep that faith from being immediately taken away by the devil, else they don't believe what was sown and are not saved:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. (Gal 2)

So, not all that hear and are sown, believe and are saved: planting by hearing is unconditional, but salvation thereby is conditioned on believing the faith that is sown. And so all that here do not believe and obey the Gospel:

But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world...But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? (Rom 10)

Therefore, the gift of faith is sown unconditionally upon hearing, but the condition of believing the faith is necessary to be saved thereby. Or as I said above: the gift can be given unconditionally, but it must be received by them that are given it and believed upon to be saved.

Grace is unconditional, and planting of faith is conditioned on hearing, and salvation is conditioned on believing the report unto obedience of the Gospel of the faith of Jesus. (Rom 1:5)

Many are therefore freely called by grace to hear the report of the faith, but only few are chosen for salvation: them that believe and obey unto the end:

Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed... (Habakkuk 3)

For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. (Acts 13)

I suppose this would also be a good answer to them that wrongly believe in a predestined choosing by God by name, which would be a blatant respect of persons by God, rather than the predestined plan of God to choose for His salvation by faith them that do believe and obey.

 

[robert derrick]

Jesus didn't say any of this. This is someone's New Age imagination running wild. It would help if you would quote some scripture, rather than someone's theosophy, when telling us what Jesus said.

Agreed. Especially since the central points are not true of Scripture.

Grace is not the gift. The faith of Jesus is the gift. Grace is to be offered the gift in the first place.

Grace is the shining of the Sun, Salvation is the seeing of the Sun, and possessing the Son in heart. Believing the report is the necessary condition for salvation by grace through faith. It is not just faith sown, but also faith received, believed, and kept.

 

[robert derrick]

The 'non-condition' of grace is in two parts:
1. It is made available unconditionally to all without respect of persons, because Jesus has paid the price for it to so shine.

The Sun of righteousness would not be shining by grace upon all, if not for the blood of the Lamb.

2. It is permanently made available, no matter what man nor any power does or does not do, because the precious blood of Jesus is eternally incorruptible.

Whether some believe or not, the Sun still shines:

For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. (Rom 3)

3. The conditional element between grace and salvation by grace is believing the report: faith given, faith received and believed.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 4)

When God commanded the light to shine, He said Let their be light: we must let it shine. Grace and salvation by grace is not forced upon any, neither are they in the heart by accident, without will to receive the gift of faith.

God has commanded the Light of Christ to shine upon the world by grace, but that Light only shines in our hearts by faith of believing.

 

[robert derrick]

Because it's true. I had spent years in the New Age and can recognize it a mile away.
Show me in Scripture what Jesus said.

Hard lessons learned are learned good.

I was in a 'holiness' cult organization, and was pretty good at it myself, until I actually started reading the Scripture exactly as written, and only as written.

That's why I am such a stickler for detail, and could care less what my our opinions or imaginations may be about it. And I can by grace of hard hard lessons spot a twisting of Scripture a mile off.

When you learn to know the authenticate accurately, then the counterfeit is easily seen. (I like the movie 'Catch Me If You Can')

 

[robert derrick]

Let me cut to the quick and ask you what I ask others.
How much good works must you do before you are saved?

A silly question intended to accuse of course, but anyway: None. It is good to believe Jesus, and be saved thereby.

Grace is nonconditional, but grace which is unconditionally available is not salvation.

Confusion comes by making grace and salvation by the grace the same thing. It is not. One is the shining to all upon the earth, the other is the shining in all that believe.

Before we are saved, we must believe. Before we could believe, grace of God must shine. Before grace could shine upon all, Jesus needed die for all. No believing Jesus, no salvation of God, though grace still shines unconditionally upon all, but not in all.

Grace is shining upon the just and the unjust alike, but only in them that believe will grace shine in the heart of them that are justified by grace. (Rom 3:24)

Both salvation and justification by grace through faith require of necessity believing the Son and knowing we have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

No man believes without consent and will of man. The parable of the sower is not saying we are plants that must grow, whether we believe it or not. In this regard, we are not mindless plants that must grow when seed is planted, watered, and shone upon by the sun above.

Unconditional salvation is as unconditional growing of vegetables, not salvation and growing of men and women of faith to believe and obey.

 

[robert derrick]

Let me cut to the quick and ask you what I ask others.
How much good works must you do before you are saved?

None.

Try these:

How much good works must you have to be justified by faith?

How many evil works must we have to fall from grace and fall away from the faith?

 

[robert derrick]

What is grace?
God's support. Without it we fall from grace.

Very good. I like it.

Any Scripture for it? Such as His hand holding us up by grace, so long as we believe, and not take nose dive into the depths of Satan?

We are saved grace through the faith of Jesus and justified by grace believing Jesus.

 

[Ronald David Bruno]

grace is unconditional, but the salvation by grace is not'.

There is your contradiction. We are saved by grace. And then you imply we are not.

The gift of faith is unconditionally offered, but is only received on the condition that it be recieved.

No, the Gospel is offered to all and some reject. Only His sheep hear His call. His sheep are given the gift of faith.

Likewise, there is a condition for being given the faith: we must hear the report of faith.

God prepares us, conditions us (if you will) to receive, enables us to hear by lifting the spiritual blindness. That is the super-natural power of God. IT IS HIS FAITH HE IS GIVING.

However, the parable of the sower does show that upon hearing, the seed is sown unconditionally.

The seed that grows to produce fruit is planted in fertile soil which God has prepared. The other soils have not been prepared. The seed (gospel) is stolen away or doesn't grow because it falls on rocky or shallow soil. Those examples would not be considered God's graceful gift of faith. He doesn't make mistakes.

Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

Yep, these are not truly born again believers from the start. The gift of faith is not of God.
Humans have faith, that the sum will rise, the rain will fall, Mommy will feed me, my wife will be faithful for life ... oops there it is ... human faith is fragile, it fails when trials come, we give up, divorce, quick our mind, lose hope. God's gift of faith is Hebrews 11:1, it is quite different than human faith.

This clearly means that even them that hear and faith is sown unconditionally, they must keep that faith from being immediately taken away by the devil, else they don't believe what was sown and are not saved:

OSAS. Our faith has been prepared, we have been and are being equipped to persevere. It is a done deal. We are SEALED NU THE HOLY SPIRIT. What do you think, God is going to take up residence in You and then change His mind? He knows the future, He doesn't make mistakes. His certainty is ours!

Therefore, the gift of faith is sown unconditionally upon hearing, but the condition of believing the faith is necessary to be saved thereby. Or as I said above: the gift can be given unconditionally, but it must be received by them that are given it and believed upon to be saved.

It's unconditional ... it's conditional ... double talk and contradictory!
This philosophy is one of certainty. You aren't really sure ... you think you can lose your faith or you just don't realize the difference between God's faith and human faith that is frail.

 

[robert derrick]

Well, good luck with all of these posts.
Works comes as a result of salvation as directed by the Holy Spirit.
Your good works will not save you.
Salvation comes after repentance and being born again.

Just to add more to all these posts, I'd say salvation comes with believing Jesus from the heart unto confession of Him by the mouth.

I.e. its' quicker than you imply: But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach... (Rom 10)

We don't need to actually do any works of repentance to be saved, as they of the law must do the law to be justified by it.

And continuing in the grace and the faith of Jesus is by continuing in His Word to become His disciples indeed:

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. (John 8)

Otherwise, we are as the seed that did not continue to bearing fruit to God. Being saved is conditioned on believing from the heart, and continuing in salvation is conditioned on believing unto the end.

 

[prism]

Before we are saved, we must believe. Before we could believe, grace of God must shine. B

I would add, before we can exercise saving faith we must be convicted of ourselves as sinners, and before we can truly receive Jesus, He must open our eyes to who He is…


Matthew 16:17 KJV
[17] And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

 

[prism]

None.

Try these:

How much good works must you have to be justified by faith?

How many evil works must we have to fall from grace and fall away from the faith?

That was my point. Zero.

 

[robert derrick]

There is your contradiction. We are saved by grace. And then you imply we are not.


No, the Gospel is offered to all and some reject. Only His sheep hear His call. His sheep are given the gift of faith.


God prepares us, conditions us (if you will) to receive, enables us to hear by lifting the spiritual blindness. That is the super-natural power of God. IT IS HIS FAITH HE IS GIVING.


The seed that grows to produce fruit is planted in fertile soil which God has prepared. The other soils have not been prepared. The seed (gospel) is stolen away or doesn't grow because it falls on rocky or shallow soil. Those examples would not be considered God's graceful gift of faith. He doesn't make mistakes.


Yep, these are not truly born again believers from the start. The gift of faith is not of God.
Humans have faith, that the sum will rise, the rain will fall, Mommy will feed me, my wife will be faithful for life ... oops there it is ... human faith is fragile, it fails when trials come, we give up, divorce, quick our mind, lose hope. God's gift of faith is Hebrews 11:1, it is quite different than human faith.


OSAS. Our faith has been prepared, we have been and are being equipped to persevere. It is a done deal. We are SEALED NU THE HOLY SPIRIT. What do you think, God is going to take up residence in You and then change His mind? He knows the future, He doesn't make mistakes. His certainty is ours!


It's unconditional ... it's conditional ... double talk and contradictory!
This philosophy is one of certainty. You aren't really sure ... you think you can lose your faith or you just don't realize the difference between God's faith and human faith that is frail.

No, the Gospel is offered to all and some reject. Only His sheep hear His call. His sheep are given the gift of faith.

So, you are saying only them that believe are they that have been given the gift of faith. Humanistic reasoning that is not Scripture:

The gift of faith is not just given to ground God has prepared, but is freely given by grace to all that hear, no matter the ground of the heart:

When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. (Matthew 13)

The gift of faith is given by sowing the seed of faith in the heart. Some reject immediately, lest they should understand and believe, and others fall away in time and do not endure to the end, due to cares and temptations of the world. (Luke 8)

The seed that grows to produce fruit is planted in fertile soil which God has prepared. The other soils have not been prepared.

And so God prepares some soil to hear, and He does not prepare others, though they hear. God not ready to save that soil, or chose not to prepare it.

The seed is sown in the heart, not on the heart of them that reject, or do not continue to the end.

So, since the seed is sown in the heart, and then does not take root, or does not bear fruit, then the faith sown by grace is not without condition of believing and continuing therein.

Since the faith that is sowed into the heart by hearing, then salvation of that faith is therefore conditional on believing and continuing. Else all are saved by grace, with seed sown by hearing of grace, and none can reject, because it is sown in the hearts.

And yet there are they who reject immediately, lest they be saved: Must receive and believe the faith sown in the heart to be saved: Condition of salvation by grace through faith.

Sowing the faith is conditioned on hearing, and the seed sowed is by grace, as well as continuing therein is by grace.

 

[Enoch111]

No, the Gospel is offered to all and some reject. Only His sheep hear His call. His sheep are given the gift of faith.

You seem to be contradicting yourself. If only some are given the gift of faith (while others are not) then the Gospel is NOT offered to all.

 

[FHII]

"Grace is unmerited favor". I'm sure most have heard that explanation, and I frankly agree. Since we cannot keep the entire Law (as no one has) we are never worthy of it.

Grace comes one way: by faith. Grace is freely given, but faith must be acquired. The only way its acquired is by hearing the Word of God through a preacher. I know that isn't popular, but that is ehat Romans 10 and 1 Cor 1 says.

For those of you that believe confession is necessary and repentance is necessary... Fine. Hearing the Word will lead to that.

You don't need a little grace or a whole lot of it. You just need it. His grace is sufficient. Its enough! Its kind of like super spandex... Where sin abounds grace does much more abound.

But how much faith is needed? And that leads to the "silly" (but reasonably asked) question of how much "good works" we must have. Lets stay with "faith" first.

Faith comes by hearing the preached word (Romans 10:13,14,17). Faith can be increased (Luke 17:5, 2 Cor 10:15). It is delivered (Jude 1:3) and must be contended for (also Jude 1:3). It must be contended for because it is precious (1 Peter 1:7 and 2 Peter 1:1). There are probably other things you can do for faith, with faith and to get faith and to increase faith. Please by all means add to the list!

But how much faith do you need? (I am aure you know what is coming next): Jesus said in many parables (I will note Matthew 17:20) that if it were the size of a grain of mustard seed it is sufficient to move mountains.

So how much do you need? Well mustard seed size. Thats all. How much grace do you need? Well, whatever amount comes in that mustard seed. Thats enough.

How many good works? Whatever the mustard seed holds.

But if you know that faith can be acquired, delivered, increased and contended for, why would you not diligently seek such if the love of God is in you? Are you looking for the path of least resistance? Jesus told a few parables about this. My favorite is about workers who worked all day in the field and the ones who showed up an hour before quitting time received the same pay.

Yea, not fair! But God don't see it like that. We shouldn't be that kind of Christian.

How much grace, how much faith, how many "good works" do we need? Well, whatever Jesus meant by the mustard seed. But why ask whats required when you can thank God and nurture what he gave?

And no... Its not evidence of your faith or the grace you receive. As long as you have faith, it isn't dead.