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What Is GRACE

Grace is defined as unmerited favor or unconditional love from God. It means we receive something we don't deserve through no effort or merit of our own. God shows grace through his son Jesus Christ by having Jesus take the punishment for our sins on the cross. This allows us to have a relationship with God as a gift despite being undeserving. Grace transforms our lives and empowers us to live for God, though growing in grace is difficult. Grace is irrational, pushing against what seems fair by loving those with nothing to offer in return through a one-way love.

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184 views

What Is GRACE

Grace is defined as unmerited favor or unconditional love from God. It means we receive something we don't deserve through no effort or merit of our own. God shows grace through his son Jesus Christ by having Jesus take the punishment for our sins on the cross. This allows us to have a relationship with God as a gift despite being undeserving. Grace transforms our lives and empowers us to live for God, though growing in grace is difficult. Grace is irrational, pushing against what seems fair by loving those with nothing to offer in return through a one-way love.

Uploaded by

Princess Antes
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GRACE

By the simplest definition grace is “unmerited favor” or “unconditional love.”


To merit something means to earn it or deserve it. So “unmerited” then means to
receive something that you did not earn or something that you do not deserve.  In
the same way “unconditional” means that something is not limited by conditions.
Favor is an act of kindness.To be favored by someone means that someone likes you
or helps you.  The word “favorite” comes from the word “favored” and it means “the one
you favor the most.” 
RECEIVING GRACE = I am given something better than what I deserve.
HOW DOES GOD SHOW GRACE TO US? 
- through His Son, Jesus Christ. 
- Jesus took all the punishment that we deserved and placed it on Himself on the cross.
- Jesus gave us the gift of a relationship with God, something we cannot earn by
ourselves nor do we deserve. 
God loves His children so much that He shows them grace by Christ.

A Deeper Look on GRACE


1. “Grace is being loved when you are unlovable.”
Grace is God reaching downward to people who are constantly pushing back
against Him, who are in rebellion against Him.  Scripture tells us that all people sin and
fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) and that we deserve death (Rom. 6:23).  But in
His lovingkindness and mercy, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us and take
upon himself the punishment that we deserve.  Romans 4:24-25 says that
righteousness “will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus
our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Paul writes in Romans 5:8, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.”
 The grace of God did not come at a time when we had everything together. 
Grace comes to us when we are broken and can offer nothing in return. 
 “Grace is most needed and best understood in the midst of sin, suffering,
and brokenness.” We come to God with nothing in our hands to offer but our
brokenness and sin, and He gladly takes it and gives to us new life as His child.

2. “Grace is love coming at you that has nothing to do with you, the beloved.
It has everything and only to do with the lover.”
The lover in this grand story of grace is God himself. God lavishes His people with
goodness and grace through all of Scripture. The story of Scripture is about what God
has done for us, not what we have done or can do for God.  He is both the author and
the main character in this great story of redemption.
 Grace is the main theme that ties all of Scripture together.  It is expressed in
the promises of God throughout the Bible and is embodied perfectly in the person
of Jesus Christ. “The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of
the grace of God.” Every story echoes the promises of God.
 We can do nothing to earn God’s grace, it is God who continues to bind our
hearts to Him.
1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace
toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it
was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”  Paul knows that any work that he did
was ultimately not his own doing but through the grace of God.

3. “Grace is irrational. It has nothing to do with my intrinsic qualities or so-


called ‘gifts”
 Grace pushes back against our world’s understanding and definition of
what is fair. It refuses to play by our rules of reciprocity, fairness, and
evenhandedness.  The world often operates on the that if you are good, good
things will happen to you. If you are bad, then bad things will come your way. 
Grace refuses to play by these rules.
 Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts. We are holding out for
Grace. We are holding out that Jesus took our sins onto the Cross, and I
don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.

When we read the Gospels, we see that Jesus spent time with those people
whom the rest of society had cast aside as too far gone to save. He sat at the
same table with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners (Matt 9:10, 11:19), dining with
them and teaching them parables.  He did not reject them like the Pharisees wanted
him to do (Luke 5:30) but rather came to them in truth and love.  These people knew
their brokenness and sin, unlike the religious of Jesus’s day who prided themselves on
not being like the men and women that Jesus spent time with. There is no place that
grace will not go, no person that it refuses to reach down towards. It is one-way
love.

4. It is love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return.

 Grace is a one-way love. It reflects a decision on the part of the giver, the
one who loves, in relation to the receiver, the one who is loved, that
negates any qualifications the receiver may personally hold.
Our New Life in Grace
All of life is grounded in grace.  Through the riches of God’s grace we receive
forgiveness, and it is His grace that moves us forward in our Christian walk.  In Titus
2:11-12 Paul writes, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all
people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-
controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” Grace transforms our desires,
behaviors, and motivations.
 Grace enables and powers everything in the Christian life. 
 Grace is the basis for our identity in Christ (1 Cor. 15:10).  Our holiness is from
the grace of God (2 Tim 1:9). 
 Grace gives us strength for living (2 Tim. 2:1; Heb. 13:9).
 Our hope of eternal life rests in the grace of God (Rom. 5:21; Eph. 2:5-8). 
 Our lives are no longer controlled by sin, but we now life a life of faith given to us
by God’s grace.
 We are saved by grace through faith, not by works, but for good works (Eph.
2:8-10).
Moreover, it is by God’s grace alone that we can participate in what God is doing in the
world.  Through his grace, God calls us to be a part of his mission, a part of what He is
doing to bring about redemption and restoration to the world. As recipients of grace, we
are privileged to serve as agents of grace.
 We receive grace (Acts 11:23) >
 We are encouraged to continue in grace (Acts 13:43)
 We are called to testify to the grace of God (Acts 20:24). 

Grace empowers us to go to the sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors of our days and
love them with the love of Christ.  We extend grace to all people because of the grace
God has shown us.
Growth in grace is not easy though. Grace cuts to the core of us, and it is hard. 
Through the pain, we are not alone. Grace carries us; it does not leave us to fend for
ourselves or tell us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.  It continues to seek us out
even when we reject it. It is one-way love.

Reference: https://whatsinthebible.com/what-is-grace-christian-meanings/#_ftn1

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