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Gods unmerited favour

By

R. McGough

(i) Introduction

To simplify the gospel of the Kingdom of God or as it is more commonly known the good

news of the Lord Jesus Christ; the New Testament uses one word, and that word is the term

grace, we will recognize how important our understanding of this will be as we explore further

this important attribute of God, one of his many attributes. We will also look at the Old

Testaments definition of grace.

Thomas Oldens definition: Grace is the favor shown by God to sinners. It is the divine

goodwill offered to those who neither inherently deserve nor ever hope to earn it. It is the divine

disposition to work in our hearts, wills, and actions, so as actively to communicate Gods self

giving love to humanity.(1)

Before you and I can understand the meaning of grace, we must first of all experience it, for

that to happen we need to acknowledge our own sinful nature, and our need of grace. When we

come to that point of recognizing our need of Gods grace and we do something about it, byaccepting his grace. Jesus then honours us: (Matt.5:3.) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs

is the Kingdom of heaven.

The grace of God as seen in the New Testaments understanding of it is that the word brings

together all of the benefits of God to mankind, one of them being the most important doctrine of

all salvation, all freely given to us by God. But more importantly, the grace of God is in the

invisible power he provides to those who are fettered by their own self will, and which also

brings his healing to their bruised spirit. If there is an expression to sum up the doctrine of

Salvation it can only be grace. We must also understand that it is God who makes the initiative tobend down to his fallen race to provide salvation towards them.

I have previously said that the grace of God can also be found in the Old Testament, but the

fullest fulfillment of it is in the New Testament which was made visible in Gods Son Jesus

Christ. However, we will look at the Old Testaments understanding of it. The attribute of grace

found in the Hebrew of the Bible is the word chen, which is a noun, translated as either grace orfavor.

The two most prominent words for grace which are to be found in the Old Testament are

the adjective, gracious, and the verb, to be gracious. Our adjective, channun and then the verb,

chanan. Nehemiah the prophet writes in his book of the adjective, gracious, Hebrew:channun. (Neh.9:17.) But you are God, Ready to pardon, Gracious and merciful, Slow to

anger, Abundant in kindness, And did not forsake them. He has had first hand experience ofGods gracious acts towards him, and his people. We can also find that this word gracious is more

often than not extended to include the term compassion. (Ps. 111:4.) He has made his wonderful

works to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. God is very different in

his nature compared to fallen humanity. (Jonah.4:2.) So he prayed to the Lord, and said, Ah,

Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to

Tarshish; for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in

lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. We need to look at Jonahs reaction to God

when he was given his directive of what he was to do. It was one of immense displeasure and

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anger. (Jonah.4:1.) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. Quite a contrast

to Gods attitude who wanted to show compassion to the people of Nineveh. (Jonah, 4:11.) And

should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty

thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left- and much

livestock? (Isa.30:18.) Therefore the Lord will wait that he may be gracious (chanan) to you. Hecontinues to wait to show his unmerited favor to the fallen in todays world made visible to us

through Jesus Christ his Son the next part of the study from the New Testament perspective.We find the New Testaments definition of grace from the fourth gospel according to John,

but we turn to Pauls letter to the church at Corinth for its technical definition: (2.Cor.12:9.) And

he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon

me. Grace in this context comes from the New Testament Greek word, charis, (khar-ece);

Strongs # 5485; The term comes from the root expression, chara. Meaning to rejoice, and charis

causes rejoicing. The chief word to describe Gods grace which he provides to sinful mankind is

described as unmerited favor, a free gift, a blessing that is certainly not deserved.

Turning to the fourth gospel according to John, he more than any other New Testament

author brings the activity of Gods grace towards mankind to the final pinnacle in his narrative of

it, describing the birth of his Son Jesus Christ to the world, God becoming man. He becoming the

flesh of a man is the significance of becoming the Incarnate one. (Jn.1:14.) And the Wordbecame flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the

Father full of grace and truth. It can be said that the grace of God the Father reaches its height in

the visibility of it appearing in the birth of human flesh in his only begotten Son Jesus Christ, the

ultimate pinnacle of his grace, the unmerited favor manifested to us in his Son the Lord JesusChrist, he is the visibility of the Fathers grace towards us.

John.1:16. For of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. John instructs us

that the grace of God comes from his fullness. He does not give from the impersonal nature of his

separateness from this world; on the contrary he is very personal, he, and the Son are one that

makes him very personal. (Jn.14:11.) Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or

else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. We can go as far as to say, God meets our

needs in the person of the man Jesus Christ, God, and man, his Son, our Lord, providing to us his

power, and provision. To know the grace of God towards us is to know the love of his Son JesusChrist as fully as our spirit and intellect can receive or intelligence. (Ephes.3:19.) to know the

love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Bibliography

(1) P106 Truth Aflame Hart pub. Zondervan

(ii) Gods unmerited favour

The Apostle Pauls interpretation of Grace

Paul really knew from his encounters with the living God the experimental life of grace,

because he experienced it in his life, as can be seen in his letters of the New Testament. He was

the first apologetic of the faith. His interpretation of grace was through experience, and the

guiding influence, and power of the Holy Spirit. The name apologetic comes from the expression

apologetics, describing individuals who defend the Christian faith with a reasoned logic, Paul was

such a person. Nobody better than Paul knew what the contribution of Gods grace meant to him,

it radically changed his life. You can say, it revolutionized his whole idea of God. He rebuked

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those who after their conversion to Christianity turned back to the Law of Moses, seeking

circumcision of the flesh. ( Gal.5:4). You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt

to be justified by Law; you have fallen from grace. Estranged means no longer living with your

husband or the husband is no longer living with his wife. Those who now looked to the Law after

conversion had cut themselves off from Christ their justification was no longer under Godsgrace. The apostle knew from part of his life long experience particularly before his conversion

the futility of trying to keep the Law of Moses, and that it could not work you could not earn orwork for your salvation.

After his radical transformation to Christianity, from his confrontation with the risen

glorified Christ, on the road to Damascus, he became the greatest exponent of Gods grace to

humanity. He became the apostle of Gods grace the very first New Testament theologian. The

grace afforded to Paul would leave its mark upon his earthly life. In point of fact, his calling was

because of Gods grace which was extended to him, made visible by the risen glorified Lords

meeting with him upon the road to Damascus. Gods unmerited favor in which the apostle Paul

was one of its chiefs recipients, how fitting that he was called by God to write a doctrine upon

this amazing subject, because he more than any other had experienced it in his life.

Chief to Pauline thought regarding a more explicit elaboration upon the subject of grace is

what is closely aligned to it in close proximity we have the power, which comes from Gods

grace. The word grace still retains its meaning of unmerited favor, but from that favor we havebeen given the gift of the Holy Spirit, graciously provided to us from God. The unmerited favor

of God provides to the believer through the gift of the Holy Spirit the ability to live a Christ like

life, with that being the case Gods unmerited favor is expressed in the believers life. According

once again to Pauline thought under the influence of the Spirit of God the grace which God freelybestows upon the believer gives that person the source of power, guidance, and direction. For

those who know God through the grace revealed to us made visible by the resurrected glorified

Lord, Jesus Christ, what is contained within that grace forwarded to the believer is the Spirit of

God to them which will energize and give them the ability to overcome the enemy of this age.

Turning to the fourth gospel according to John he makes the comment: For of his fullness we

have all received, and grace for grace. (Jn.1:16.) Quote The fact that John states that grace

comes from His fullness teaches that grace is more than Gods disposition or impersonal favor. It

is God meeting us at our point of need in the person of Jesus Christ, including all His power andprovision. End of quote.p1444. New Spirit Filled Life Bible. Publisher .Thomas Nelson.

From a New Testament stand point the teaching of Gods grace or unmerited favour towards

mankind finds its initiation in the gospel of God, otherwise known as the Good News of God the

Father, which was revealed by his Son the Lord Jesus Christ to humanity, and continues to be

revealed to mankind. We must continue going back to this very important doctrine, no matter

how long we have been in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ to allow the Spirit of God to provideus with a fresh impetus. (Rom.1:1.) Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,

separated to the gospel of God. It is through grace (unmerited favor,) that mankind can be

justified without any cost through being redeemed in and through Christ Jesus. Although in the

text it reads, Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It is best understood as beingdelivered by the payment of a ransom, usually money, for someone who has been kidnapped, but

in this case, particularly the New Testaments meaning, it is the deliverance from the evil of thisage, and the penalty of sin, paid by the blood that was shed upon the cross by Christ Jesus. He

through these means justifies mankind, once they have accepted him are declared righteous in the

sight of God the Father, and covered or imputed with his righteousness. (Rom.3:24, 25.) being

justified without any cost by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (25) whom

God sets forth as propitiation by His blood, through faith to demonstrate his righteousness,

because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. The

very undeniable fact is as we can see from the above texts which states that we have received

Gods grace by the one man Gods Son, our Jesus Christ. The grace which is spoken of here was

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acquired by the death of the crucifixion of Gods Son, Jesus Christ, upon the cross, and then

raised to life by his Father on the third day. Access to this grace can only come from our Lord

Jesus Christ. Furthermore; the doctrine of grace is developed further under Pauline thought, and

theology, described as the grace of God, which can be seen in the gift of one man, which is also

seen as the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ. So powerful is the love of God released towardsus in the person of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, it enabled him to victoriously triumph over

Gods judgment brought about by one mans disobedience Adam, effecting the whole human racefor generations to come until Gods Son our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Praise God!

(Rm.5:15.) But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by one mans offense many died, much

more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

We can also say that the salvation afforded to us is of Gods gracious free will of unmerited

favour summed up in one word his grace towards us. (Ephes.2:8, 9.) For by grace you have been

saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone

should boast. It can also be said that the unmerited favour of which we enjoy comes from the

initiative action of the one triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by showing kindness, and

love to us, which is of the grace of God, further to that, he rebirthed our spirits by the gift of the

Holy Spirit to provide eternal life for the future, and energize us to please him in our earthly lives.

(Titus.3:4-7.) But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,

(5) not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (6) whom He poured out on

us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, (7) that having been justified by His grace we

should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

(iii) God reforms his church

From roughly the end of the third century A.D. onwards the doctrine of Gods grace

towards all humanity had been almost lost to the traditions of men, and legalistic rules to be

obeyed at all costs in order to gain salvation, the ecclesiastical trappings of the earthly church. It

was a time of dark despair for lesser mortals as viewed by the Roman Catholic Church Hierarchy,

but all was not lost, God already had someone in mind to revive his Church.

The person whom God had in mind was born into the world in 1483 A.D. who wouldlater on become a Roman Catholic Monk; little did he know of Gods plans for him. It was while

he was studying that the Spirit of God came upon him giving the proper interpretation of the

Apostle Pauls chapter in the New Testament upon the subject of Gods grace to all. From that

tiny beginning Martin Luther would become to be known as the earliest reformer to start the great

Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church of the 16th century A.D. But regretfully instead of

listening to the truth of God, they excommunicated him, who promptly started a churchdenomination under his own name, but that was not his intent, he had wanted to see his own

church come under the reformation of Gods Spirit.