Charis

Ephesians 2:1-10  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

     Charis is the Greek word we translate to grace throughout the New Testament. Grace is a term that most Christians have heard or hear on a regular basis, but it is a concept and a word that seems to have lost a lot of its depth and meaning in the church today. A large part of our misunderstanding of grace is the sense of entitlement that pervades all aspects of our culture, our American work ethic that says grace is unpractical and unfair, and the other more glaring mistake on our part is that we continually fail to study the Bible as we should. As a result of not being steeped in the word on a daily basis, we in turn impose our beliefs about how grace should function on to God instead of looking to God and Jesus to see the true depth, beauty, and mystery of how grace functions. We are right as Christians to found our life on grace, and to appeal to the grace of God in our difficult circumstances. But when we appeal to the grace of God we must have a functioning biblical understanding of what that grace is. To help us understand grace more I have a list of five questions to work through to help us grasp a more biblical understanding of what the grace of God is, and how we should live in light of that grace.


Q: What is grace?

      This is the most basic of all the questions, but it is an essential building block answering the rest of the questions and reclaiming a biblical understanding of grace. Any Christian would be spot on if they answered this question with the response "God's unmerited favor," but we need to know more than just the correct answer. We have to understand the depth of what those three words mean. Grace is being given something you do not deserve, and in the Bible it also refers to God taking away what we do deserve. Instead of just punishment and the wrath of God, we are given eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus. The world and our flesh do not like this concept. We want to get what we think we rightly deserve, and we want other people to get the same. We have to learn as Christians through the studying the Bible to overcome this way of thinking. Our salvation does not spring from our own doing, but only from God's rich mercy and love like the text above points out for us. We do not get what we deserve, and that is a part of what makes grace so amazing. Instead of death we get eternal life with the joy of Jesus' presence.

Q: Why do I need grace?

      This question is essential for non-Christians and Christians alike, and in many ways it is a continuation of the previous question. Christians and non-Christians alike need to understand who they are in relation to a just and holy God. This is why as Christians we are called to be eternal students constantly studying the Word. Because the more we know about God and the more we know about our new identity, the more we will understand the need for grace and the role grace plays in our position to God. We must have a high view of Scripture, a high view of God, an increasing knowledge of our fallen and redeemed estate, and a deep and intimate understanding of sin and the sufferings of Jesus to understand the role of grace in our lives post-conversion.

       Non-Christians first must came face to face with the biblical teaching that we are dead in our trespasses and that we all fall short of the glory of God as Paul points out repeatedly throughout his epistles. This is also why we must have a high view of Scripture because we cannot denigrate the words of Paul because they are not written in red text like the words of Jesus. We must wholeheartedly grasp the truth that all of Scripture is God breathed, that God is the author of the entire canon of Scripture, thus Paul's words become just as  important and as much God's words as Jesus' words are God's words. We need grace in our fallen estate because the Bible teaches we are born into a fallen and sinful word, and that there is nothing we can do as dead people to regenerate our own souls. We need the act of a gracious and merciful God to reach out to us and love us first while we are still sinners to rescue us from dead and doomed life. And this is what continues to make grace so amazing, that God would love us while we were dead and reach out to us while we were still offensive to Him. We need grace as non-Christians so that we can come in to communion with our Creator and have eternal life, and there is nothing we can do to earn it because a gift cannot be earned it can just be given. 

      But once we have received God's saving grace in our lives we do not forfeit our need for more grace, and then begin a life defined by works that make us more like Christ. We are exhorted in Scripture to grow in grace because the more we grow in grace the more we become like Jesus. Our entire Christian life should be grounded and rooted in grace because without it we would still be dead and far off from God. I would encourage you to read this short article about grace and how it defines our lives as Christians. As Christians we also still sin because we have not yet been fully ridden of our sinful flesh, so we need the mercies of God anew everyday to wash us of our daily trespasses against Him.

Q: How do I get grace?

      This is where the biblical teaching of grace gets even more difficult to grasp because it starts to sound so unfair to us. This is why I always make an effort to appeal to us all to have a high view of Scripture and who God is because honestly there are things in Scripture that I wish were not in Scripture, but I believe them and rest in them because I know God is good and I know that Scripture is the true word of God revealed to man. We must grasp that God is holy, holy, holy meaning He is beyond perfectly holy. He is supremely pure and He is supremely different from us. His ways are not our ways, and His judgments are not are judgments. We have no right to question or challenge Him. We were not present when He crafted the universe and all of Creation. We are created beings indebted to our Creator for the love that He has shown us. We must hold on tightly to all of these truths when we encounter things in Scripture that make us uncomfortable. We cannot choose to not believe things in Scripture because we do not like them. If we do that, then we begin compromise our entire faith by challenging the word of God. I say all of this because below we are going to start to unpack some of the most uncomfortable teachings in Scripture, but if we can begin to grasp and rest in them we will truly see the amazing depth and beauty of God's grace.

Exodus 33:19  And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.


Romans 9: 14-18 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.


John 10: 25-26 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 

Acts 13:48 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

     The reason I have quoted so much Scripture is to emphasize the fact what we are about to unpack is not an isolated teaching of Scripture, and it is not even something unique just to the New Testament. God alone determines who is given grace. This should be clear by the very definition of grace being a free gift of what we do not deserve, but for many this hard truth is not clear at all. We say we believe grace is a gift, but we live our lives in ways that say either we deserve grace because we are entitled to it or we try to earn God's good favor. But there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn God's grace. 

      For many, this teaching paralyzes them with the fear that we are just subject to a whimsical and fickle God who just draws picks name out of a hat and gives grace to those whom He draws and not the others. But really this not at all what the Bible is teaching. The main point all of these verses illustrate is that God saves sinners, and no one else or nothing else is responsible for salvation. This teaching is why we should be eternally grateful to God for doing something so amazing and loving for us. We receive grace not because of what we have done, but because of what Jesus has done for us. We need to encourage our non-Christians friends and family to humbly come before the face of God asking Him for grace, and not try and fix all of their exterior problems first. It is our heart change produced by the grace of God that creates life change. As Christians we need to continually ask God to make known His grace to us as we strive to become more and more like His Son. We must remember that grace is always a gift from God, and that it is never something we deserve.

      I believe this teaching to be extremely liberating, and I think it is why Paul exclaims to the Galatians, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery." It should never cease to amaze us that God set us free while we were still His enemies. He loved us when we hated Him, and in doing so the burden of achieving salvation has been lifted from our shoulders because we could never achieve it on our own. God has done what was impossible for man to do in order to show His deep love for us. In short, we receive grace only from God's good pleasure. We cannot persuade or convince Him, but we must humbly rely on Him and His love for us. 

Q: Does God always have to be gracious?

     This is a question prompted by the problem of entitlement in our culture today, and it is not a new problem by any means. Many within the church believe that as recipients of God's grace they are only under God's grace, and that they are not responsible to follow any sort of moral law. Their argument is that all is sin is covered by the grace of God, and they use that argument to justify a life that continues to live in sin. The writer of Hebrews specifically addressed this issue in his letter.

Hebrews 12:7-11 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

     God is by no means obligated to act only one way towards believers. We are not entitled to only receive grace form God. God disciplines His children. That means in turn that God does not always act graciously even to those that have been reborn. If we just take a minute to look back over the past few verses, we see that nowhere does God say He is compelled to always be gracious to some and not to others. The Bible does not say God is grace, grace, grace, but that He is holy, holy, holy and that He does whatsoever He pleases. It pleases God to discipline His children for their sin, because He wants us to become more holy like Him and His Son. It would not be loving of God to only be gracious because then we would never learn about the depravity and wickedness of our sin, and we would have no desire to run from it in our heart, soul, mind, and actions as He has called us. Yes, God's grace covers the eternal penalty of all of our sins as Christians, but we must not forget that it does not forgo the consequences of our sins. We must still must live in light of our sin. We can take hold of the truth that "all things work out for the God of those who love Him," but we cannot confuse this to mean that God only reacts graciously to all that we do. If you take the time to read through just one Old Testament Christian like David, you will see God exercise both judgment and grace upon David's sins.

     If we do not learn to hate sin, then it is a sign that we may not be in the light after all. 1 John gives us a type of litmus test to take to see if we are in the faith. If you read through the epistle you will several characteristics that uniquely define Christians. We walk in the light, love the light, love our brothers, and follow God's commandments. If we love and walk in the light, then we must also hate sin. If we say that we do all of these things, but then we continue to walk in darkness then we are liars and the truth is not in us. This is a harsh teaching, but we must evaluate our lives in light of this text and all of Scripture. Paul and Peter both tell us to test and see that we are walking in the light, and to test and make sure that our faith is real. The Bible teaches that our heart is deceitful above all things, and it is easy to deceive ourselves that our faith is real when it is not because it means we do not have to repent and change what we are doing. We must not think that we are all entitled to have fertile soil in our hearts like Jesus talked about in the parable. If we live a life defined by deception and a sense of entitlement, then I am frightened to say that we are probably walking down the broad path that leads to Hell and destruction.

Q: How then do we live in grace?

Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 

     We must live a life defined by repentance and a hatred for sin. Our new hearts should hate sin and want to run from it towards God. I think one of the reasons so many Christians downplay the significance of sin is because we do not understand why Jesus had to suffer and the true extent of his sufferings. Grace is a free gift, but it cost God something dear to be able to give it to us. The Bible makes very clear that God is just and that God's character does not change, so it was impossible for God to forgive us without making a payment for our sin. God had to send His Son so that He could stay just and be the justifier of those who have faith in Him. All of the Old Testament looks forward to the Cross, the Gospels tell the story of the cross, and all of the epistles look back at it. It is essential understand the sufferings of Jesus in order to understand how we are called to live in light of receiving grace.

     Jesus prayed to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane because he dreaded with a holy fear the wrath of God that he was about to incur for our sin. Every time we sin intentionally we spit on the cross and the sufferings of Jesus by acting like it was not that big of deal. But in reality Jesus dying on the cross is the most important thing that has happened in all of created history. Our sin should grieve us into repentance and drive us towards the grace of God, while we also keep in mind that God's grace does not negate the discipline and all of the consequences of our sin that we deserve. If you read that link that I posted above, you will see that grace should define our new identity, our speech, our hope, the way we deal with suffering, and all areas of our life. But grace does not impact our lives by giving us a way out of difficult circumstances; grace allows us to work through difficult circumstances in a manner that brings glory to God and makes us look more like His Son. 

     Ultimately, grace is all about bringing glory to God and making us more like Jesus. God is deserving of the glory because He is the only one that made grace possible, and He alone is the only giver of grace. Grace should never be about us, but it should always be about Jesus. Our lives as Christians are about becoming nothing so that God's name and His fame may increase. Grace is a tool of God that brings about those purposes. Grace is not a tool of God that justifies whatever actions we want to take, or that gives us some share of His glory. Grace belongs to God, and we must understand as body that we are not entitled to it and that we cannot earn it. 

    The reality that God still gives us grace despite the fact that we will sin up until we are dead is an amazing and beautiful truth. We do not deserve anything God has given us, but He has given it to us out of His loving nature. We must pray that grace never ceases to be amazing to us, and that we would cherish it all the days of our lives. The more we love grace and begin to understand grace the more we will become like Christ. Which is why being an obedient Christian always comes back to studying the Word, if we do not continually learn about grace, God's character, and who we are called to be; then we will never grow in grace and likeness of Jesus Christ. 

"How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory"

     ~Stuart Townend