We can see two things in contrast to one another. On the one hand, the infinite grace and mercy of God and on the other hand, the awful need and helplessness of humanity.
Grace is the free, unmerited favor of God toward the undeserving and the ill-deserving. But grace is more than just unmerited favor, Jesus grew in grace, so it means Grace is the empowering presence of God to become who He created us to be and to walk in the good works He predestined us to walk in.
The first thing we need to realize is that grace is free. It cannot be earned. It cannot be worked for. Grace is not only towards those who are undeserving, but even towards those who are ill-deserving.
In other words, when we deserve ill, out of His grace, God offers us good. The word favor is an alternative word for grace. Especially in the Old Testament, both words were used almost interchangeably.
Grace is one of the key concepts of the whole of scripture. Its unfolding begins in the Old Testament and is brought to completeness in the New.
In the New Testament, the Greek word for grace occurs about 150 times. The normal New Testament greeting of Christians among themselves was grace and peace. Sometimes they added also mercy and said grace, mercy, and peace. One thing is implied by this salutation, that if you want peace, you must first have grace. The only way we can have true peace is out of the grace of God.
Most of the New Testament epistles also end with the word grace, with some phrase like, the grace of the Lord be with you, or grace be with your spirit.
Now, the New Testament epistles are the primary source of our understanding of Christian living, how we apply the truths of the gospel to our walk with God.
Christian living begins and ends with grace. And if we ever get out from under that relationship to grace, where grace is at the beginning and at the end, we probably will not be successful in our Christian living.
The Greek word for grace is charis. It begins with that C-H sound, which we also have in the word christos, or Christ. Haris means literally, primarily, beauty or attractiveness.
I think we need to keep in mind that grace is always beautiful. It’s always attractive.
There are two Hebrew words that are used for grace, Chen and Ratzon. They are used more or less Interchangeably. Chen means beauty. Ratzon means pleasure. So, when we put them together, they mean beauty and attractiveness.
One common phrase that’s used many times in the Old Testament, incorporating this word, is to find grace or favor in the eyes of the Lord. For instance, it says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That distinguished Noah from all the other men of his generation. Noah and his family found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
In other words, grace has got something to do with the way that we look at people. And the grace of God has got something to do with the way that God looks at people.
There is a saying which says, Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. And this is true of grace.
It begins not with us, but with God. It originates out of the way that God chooses to look upon us. When He looks upon us with favor, then grace begins to operate in our lives.
The concept that grace depends primarily on the way that God looks at us or sees us is very beautifully illustrated by the Levitical blessing which is found in Numbers chapter 6 verses 22 through 26. A blessing that’s probably familiar to most of us who’ve ever attended church, a blessing that’s shared between Christians and Jews, both use it alike.
This is the blessing.
Numbers 6, verses 20 through 26. The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron and his sons, “that’s the priests”, this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. There are actually six parts to that blessing.
First, the Lord bless you.
Second, the Lord keep you.
Third, the Lord make His face shine upon you.
Fourth, be gracious to you.
Fifth, turn His face toward you.
And sixth, give you peace.
Peace is the result of the blessing. The Lord be gracious to you, and that’s the key word, that’s the concept of God showing His grace toward His people. It speaks about the Lord’s face.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you. Grace is the way the Lord looks at His people. First, the Lord makes His face shine upon His people, and then the Lord turns His face toward His people.
That’s the operation of the Lord’s grace. It depends on the way that the Lord looks at us, and the outcome of it again is peace. Peace only comes out of the grace of God. Now there’s a rather beautiful example of the Lord’s grace manifested in his looking on his people at the end of chapter 2 of Exodus, describing Israel’s misery in Egypt and how the Lord began to show grace or favor toward them.
It says in Exodus 2 verses 23 through 25, that after a long period of time the king of Egypt died. Then they got a new king that did not know them. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.
God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and with Jacob. So, God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
You see, here are the Israelites in desperate need and misery, unable to help themselves. All that they can hope for is the grace of God. God hears their groaning and their cry, and God’s response is this. He looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. That’s God’s favor. His grace was turned toward the Israelites. He became concerned about them practically. He began to move on their behalf to intervene and deliver them.
But at the point where it says God looked on the Israelites, that was the point at which His grace began to operate on their behalf.
First Peter chapter 5, verse 10 says this, And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.
Notice, first of all, that He’s the God of all grace. In other words, grace comes solely and entirely from God. There is no other source of grace. If you want grace, then you must go to God, because God is the only source of grace in the universe.
And then notice what grace does. Grace restores us. Grace makes us strong, firm, and steadfast. That’s how grace operates.
Grace looks upon us. It’s the favor of God, His face turned toward us, and as God looks toward us and intervenes, it does what we need. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.