The Great News of God’s Grace

Recently, I was asked if the word grace means love. There are several Greek words for love in the New Testament, foremost of which is agape, meaning unconditional love.

However, the Greek word for grace is charis, which means unmerited favor. In our human understanding, we can think that we have to do certain things to be loved and that there is some kind of exchange—a quid pro quo.

We can have the mistaken notion that if we are good enough, God will pay attention to us. If we do good works, if we go to Sunday School every single week, if we read our Bibles, if we fast enough, if we tithe enough, and if we do all these things, that somehow God is going to smile on us.

The great news is that we have the gift of His grace—His unmerited favor. We cannot earn it. We cannot achieve it by works. We receive it simply because of what Jesus has done on our behalf, and because of who we are in Him.

Notice all the times Paul speaks of grace in Ephesians 2:4-10:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We are children of God, and this happens before we are saved. God created Adam and Eve for a garden. He created them for communion with Him. And although that creation was damaged by sin, we are still His children.

Of course, we need to be restored to the family; we need to ask for and receive His forgiveness and salvation. Yet we have His favor. As Romans 5:8 says,

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

When we dwell in His favor and in our identity in Him, we are transformed. We are able to boldly come to our Father’s throne of grace because of who He is and how He loves us. God bless you.

All Scripture is quoted from the NKJV.