Real Grace and Hi-Jacked Grace!

The Biblical word "Grace" just might be the biggest and most profound word ever used in the Bible or anywhere in the universe for that matter.  It is big and profound in meaning and therefore the word is often misunderstood and misused.  Perhaps the word is misunderstood because grace from God is such a foreign concept to man.  Like God man can love, show mercy and even forgive but man cannot give grace at least not in the Biblical sense.  This misunderstanding of grace is as true for theologians as it is for the masses.

For instance, no one has hi-jacked grace and its true meaning and use more than Calvinism. Calvinists reduce grace into something that is not even recognizable as it relates to the original word that we read in the New Testament.  More on that coming up.

But first, what is true, authentic grace?

Grace is one of a few words that cannot be defined by a simple check in the dictionary. That is simply useless.  It can only be defined and understood by carefully looking at the Greek word used in the New Testament and by the use of the word in scriptural context.  No other definition will work with this incredible word that the Bible simply calls "grace".

The Greek sets the basis for understanding this word grace.  Grace is the Greek word "charis" and its meaning in the Greek is deep and profound.  First, the word means "as a gift or blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ".  Grace was a gift brought to man by Jesus Christ!  If one strays away from this pure Greek definition then surely the word will be corrupted.  John 1 sets the foundation of this first definition of grace with no ambiguity:

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. John 1;16-17 (NASB)

John 1 is clear that all have received grace upon grace.  Grace is realized through Jesus.  Jesus is grace!  This passage seems to be foreign to most folks who use the word grace in various kinds of discussion for many do not seem to understand or discern the word.  Grace is often used nonchalantly or even as a buzz word in Christian discussions and songs. Unfortunately this activity cheapens the word.  Jesus was grace and he brought grace!  Grace is only realized through Jesus.  This basic understanding of grace should be understood anytime one reads the Bible and sees the word grace. To understand otherwise is folly.

As awesome as this is I am not finished defining grace from its original Greek meaning. The Helps word study found on BibleHub.com explains that charis (grace) means:

"favor, disposed to, inclined, favorable towards, leaning towards to share benefit" and "freely extended to give Himself away to people" because He is "always leaning toward them".  

 The word study definition continues for charis as the word:

"answers directly to the Hebrew (OT) term 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.

Isn't this powerful!  Everyone should read the definition multiple times so this understanding of grace becomes their understanding.  Grace is God inclining himself to mankind.  Grace is God leaning towards man to share benefit.  Grace is God leaning towards us and extending himself to us!  Before Jesus brought grace there was a chasm between man and God.  It was only grace that breached this chasm.  Before Jesus brought grace there was a wall of hostility between God and man but grace removed that wall.  Grace then is God leaning towards and extending himself to man and this becomes a continual supply.  It came through Jesus and it now stays with us through him!

Grace is not just amazing in that it saved a wretch like me.  No, grace is amazing because God came to save every wretch by extending his very self to us.  Grace is God extending himself to us by his coming and is made finished by Jesus extending his arms so that his hands could have nails driven into them.  How awesome is grace!

I am still not done defining grace as described in the Greek.  I told you it was a BIG word!

Finally we come to what most believers know about grace.  Grace is also God's unmerited favor. Grace is not something that mankind deserves yet God gives it by literal extension of himself.

So let's put it altogether.  Here is my definition of grace:  Grace is God so loving mankind that he fully leaned towards man and reached out to him with unmerited favor through his sending forth of Jesus Christ in to the world, who embodied grace and brought grace to man.  Grace is the supply of God that provides man with all he needs for salvation, sanctification and glorification.

So now that we know what grace is I want to explain what is not grace.  Calvinism slices and dices grace so that is not even recognizable from the grace that is found in scripture and in the Greek word as I proved above.  Some have referred to Calvinism's TULIP as the "doctrines of grace" but it is hard to understand why since Calvinistic grace removes almost all of what I have just described that it is. Calvinism limits grace so horribly that it is hardly discernible with the Biblical grace that we just defined.

Calvinism does not teach the grace as defined as above.  Calvinists teach a redefined "lesser" grace in my opinion. They teach "irresistible" grace which states that only the elect will respond to God and that the elect cannot resist coming to Christ due to this grace.  They teach that grace is only for the elect and rejoice in their invention that grace is fixed only for the elect.  The Bible never speaks of irresistible grace either by direct mention or indirect assertion for that matter.  It is simply a philosophical fabrication by Calvinists who need the doctrine of irresistible grace to keep all of Calvinism from falling to the ground like a house of cards.

Some Calvinists even slice grace into pieces.  They say that there is a "common" grace which is for everyone while there is a "saving" grace that is for the elect only which is irresistible.  This is clearly not Biblical teaching.

The Bible teaches that grace is for all men:

and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24

But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Hebrews 2:9

God's grace is clearly given to all mankind.  Grace can be rejected and the most amazing thing is that men do reject it.  How can man reject grace?  It is hard to understand why anyone would reject this amazing grace.  Imagine yourself in a situation that you might have with someone.  Imagine you are at an event and you see someone you know who has something against you and you humble yourself and make the effort to extend yourself to reconcile with that person but the person refuses to be reconciled no matter what you say or do. God's grace reconciled all men to him but some will not be reconciled by their own rebellious choice.

By grace Jesus has come and made himself a sacrifice for all sinners. That is grace. Demeaning grace to mean that Jesus came for only a few people who receive irresistible influence is absolutely foreign to scripture and purely concocted by Calvinism agenda.

The most amazing thing about grace is not that it saved a wretch like me as the song intimates.  No, what makes grace so amazing is that God extended himself to wretched mankind in the first place and then died to save every wretch on the planet.  That is amazing grace!  Grace is not so amazing if it is only meted out to a few and kept from others.  Amazing grace is unmerited favor for all!

As to Arminian prevenient grace I have read some different teaching on it.  Some maintain that it is a special grace that works on people right before the moment of salvation.  This I do not believe for it is too limiting in many respects.  I am convinced that grace came in, through and by Jesus Christ. The grace that he brought and established is now his constant supply to believers.  There is no good scriptural argument that gives life to the idea that there is some kind of "special" grace that is at work with the believer right before someone gets saved.

However I think I agree with the second idea on prevenient grace that I encountered because it states that the Holy Spirit moves on a person's heart to believe in Christ and his work of redemption which is Biblical.  However I don't see any reason to give this understanding a special name like prevenient grace.  I prefer to refer to it as scripture does: grace.

Does God initiate salvation?  Yes, in every way possible.  He does so by grace by extending himself to man through the coming of Jesus.  He does so by grace by dying on the cross.  He does so by grace by sending the Holy Spirit to work upon the hearts of man.  Man never initiates his own salvation. Man only responds because God has given him the ability to respond to him.

Grace does not need any help!  Grace is not irresistible, common, saving or prevenient. Preceding the word "grace" with these kinds of words is quite frankly leaning on philosophy instead of scripture and is used for building doctrine that is foreign to the use of the word in scripture.  Grace is grace and does not need to be given special names which cheapen the meaning of this wonderful give God has given us.

Biblical grace is what brought Jesus to us and it is what propelled him to the cross for us. This is the grace by which we are saved.  This is the grace for which we bless and thank God.  This is our awesome supply that never stops.  Embrace this grace my friends!

Grace was so important to the Apostle Paul that he often started and ended his letters with a salutation like this:

Grace be with you all.

Darrell Brantingham

(Check out my pithy tweets on Twitter at @confrontcalvin)