What is Grace? - A Grace Definition

There are so many ideas about Grace in the world today - and all serve those who believe them.

Christianity has complicated the concept of grace - much as it has done with all the doctrine of Christ. Fortunately the teachings of Christ are simple and if we seek the simplicity of Christ, the doctrine of Christ is revealed to us free of the obfuscations of men.

While I appreciate you reading what I have to say about grace, I want more than anything for you to develop your connection with God so that you will receive your own understanding. There is no substitute for this connection!

I remember hearing grace described very powerfully. I even spent some time with the speaker asking them to explain it again. I had this sense that I was seeing and hearing something wonderful but I just couldn’t get a grip on it for myself - it just wasn’t mine yet.

That experience created such a desire in me to understand grace that I became rather desperate. In asking God to reveal it to me and waiting for the answer, I was richly rewarded. When the revelation came, it was so amazing. Grace was made so clear to me. I had to share it with others. I found that
everyone I shared it with appreciated it, but didn’t get it.

I then realized something very basic - I couldn’t give people an understanding of grace.

There is a verse in James 4 - God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble.

Humility is letting go of all your thoughts and ideas about God. It’s only when that baggage is left behind that God can give the revelation of grace.

Understanding grace and holding on to old ideas about God is like putting new wine in old wine skins. The old ways of thinking cannot contain grace. When you proudly hold to those old thoughts, God mercifully witholds the revelation of grace - to avoid the bursting that would result.

I’m going to take you on a brief diversion here. There is a fair amount of concern in the world today that grace is license to sin. Many staunch Christians really fear the concept of grace - they view it as some sort of free living that leads a person away from the principles of Christ.

This is the old wine skin trying to contain the new wine.

The original Greek word that became grace in the English translation of The Bible is charis. The definition of that word in Strong’s Concordance is: The divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.

The Divine influence upon your heart needs no rules, church structure or belief system. All it needs is humility. Once that need is met - the influence of grace produces results in the life.

Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal - until the whole was leavened.

That influence of leaven was reflected in the whole lump of meal. Grace is that way. There isn’t any aspect of the life that is unchanged. Grace leavens the whole lump!

The divine influence never produces sin - period. The divine influence isn’t subject to your church’s rules either. Divine influence isn’t subject to any rules or limitations. That’s why people fear it so much. Freedom - true freedom is a frightening thing. Most people are afraid of the personal responsibility that true freedom requires. It’s much more comfortable to have rules - codes to live by - even if it keeps a person stuck and bound to foolish traditions and ideas.

Grace is a divine influence. That influence produces true freedom. That’s why Jesus could say You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. There is no bondage in grace. There is no fear in grace. There is no lording over another in grace. Grace is not a system of power over large groups of people.

People who are under grace are not subject to anything except the divine influence - that was the example of Christ - and people feared it in his day just as they do today. That divine influence produced a perfect life then just as it does now.

So - if you’re after an understanding of grace, be warned that there will be many close to you who probably will not be comfortable with your new understanding and deeper relationship with God.

Now I’m going to give you my grace definition.

It came to me after nearly a year of meditation and asking for an understanding of grace. I have no doubt it came from God to me.

Now you can decide for yourself if my definition is relevant to you.

It’s simple. The ramifications are enormous.

Without further discussion here it is:

God gave you and I His Son. When you and I accept that Gift our sin is forgiven and we are reconciled to God.

The key to understanding grace is in the nature of a gift.

When a gift is given there are two responses available. Either it is accepted or it is rejected.

If it is accepted there is often gratitude expressed. In human circles a gift requires a gift - right? Just like Christmas - you give and receive gifts.

The thing with the gift of God is - there’s nothing else to be done. That gift takes care of everything. That’s what the Divine Influence does. Nothing you can improve it, make it better, greater or more powerful.

In fact anything you do to make it more than it is devalues the gift. It may even become the equivalent of rejecting the gift.

We as humans struggle with accepting the Gift of God because we feel obligated to return something. What happens is that we are so overcome with a sense of obligation that we consume our lives with giving back to God - the creator of all who needs nothing - not even whatever it is we strive to give back.

What happens when you graciously receive the Gift and rest in the provision of it you experience a change in your life that requires no effort on your part. You receive an inward work. A renewing of your mind. A change of heart. Power in your life. That is the result of the Divine Influence.

You cannot manufacture these results. You cannot duplicate them. All the years of reading and studying the bible, church attendance, etc. will not produce them.

Acceptance of the Gift will. It is the ONLY thing that will.

You may find religious activities enjoyable and helpful to you and that’s good. but they will not and cannot change your life in the sense that accepting the Gift of God - the Divine Influence will change your life.
Here are a few more verses about grace for your consideration.

John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (KJV)

Moses provided a very structured set of rules for God’s people to follow. They couldn’t do it, but they tried and failed, tried and failed. God knew something had to be done so He sent Jesus to show us a better way. Jesus brought grace and truth.

Hebrews 8:10-11
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. (KJV)

Laws put into our minds and heart are the divine influence. You need no external constraints. No one needs to tell you what to do, where to go, etc. That’s grace and truth. You are done with the old try and fail, try and fail. There’s no longer a fight between what you know to do and what you do. When the writing is done in the heart, it’s like the program written on a computer. The computer can do nothing that isn’t written in the software.

I’ll leave you with some scripture in Romans about grace:

Romans 5:10-6:2
10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned
13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

CHAPTER 6

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (NIV)