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Pastor Scott L. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
June 12, 2022
The Grace of God
Selected Scriptures
Introduction
Learning to trust God is important at every point of life and in every circumstance, it is just that the need for it is more obvious in difficult times. Examples of people who have trusted God in the midst of trials and tribulations are inspiring, but in order to trust God yourself you need to know why you can trust Him. That is the reason my focus in this sermon series has been on particular attributes of God. You can trust God because of who He is, His character and nature. So far we have covered the topics of the Lord God being the Creator of all things who is self-existent, self-sufficient, immutable, infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and sovereign. All of these are attributes that are only true about the triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. No other being possesses them. We have also covered some of the attributes of God that belong to Him in infinite perfection but which are also to be reflected in man though diminished and tarnished by our sin. God is holy, just, good, loving, faithful and rich in mercy. (See: Trusting God Sermon Series)
This morning we will be looking at the grace of God which is closely tied to Him being rich in mercy as we saw last week. In fact, as we shall see in a few moments, the Hebrew word ,n1j2 / hanan is translated as both mercy and as grace. However, there are clear distinctions between the two concepts.
Last week I covered the six Hebrew and three Greek word groups that express concepts of mercy to arrive and this comprehensive definition: The elements of God’s love by which He has compassion towards creation, and especially to those He has chosen for Himself, for their afflictions due to their frail state and needy condition, and pity upon them because of the troubles that come upon them due to their sin, by which He extends His lovingkindness to meet their need and provide a means of propitiation and expiation to spare them from the consequences of their sin by receiving His forgiveness. This definition encompasses God’s compassion that is extended due to the suffering caused by living in a world cursed because of Adam’s sin, the sinful actions of others, and the consequences of our own sin. (See: The God Rich in Mercy)
As I pointed out last week, there are three primary ways in which God demonstrates His mercy. First is His general goodness and kindness in providing for everything in Creation though it has all been cursed as a result of Adam’s sin and does not function according to God’s original design. Psalm 145:9 – The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.” Second, God is patient and longsuffering delaying the judgment that is already due that the sinner may turn to the salvation offered through faith in Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter put it this way in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” Keep in mind that every human is a sinner who cannot meet God’s standard of righteousness on his own. The apostle Paul expressed it this way in Romans 2:10-12 & 23. “There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Third, and by far the greatest act of mercy, is Jesus being the sin sacrifice which pays the redemption price of man’s transgression against God’s commands. God remains holy and just while still offering forgiveness to those that believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 3:5–7 states it this way, 5 “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Notice in this last passage the tie between mercy and grace. The mercy poured by God delays judgment so that there is time for the Holy Spirit to do His work of regeneration and renewal and then God’s grace grants justification through faith in Jesus Christ so that we can receive the hope of eternal life and are made heirs.
For the rest of this sermon we will be looking at grace more closely beginning with defining the concept especially as it relates to God. We will also look at our need for grace and then the manifold blessings that are extended to us by God’s grace.
Defining Grace
What is meant by the word, grace? Webster’s Collegiate dictionary has eight definitions for this English word and the Concise Oxford Dictionary has six. There is one Hebrew and one Greek word group translated as grace, but these have a wide range of meaning and so are translated by many words including favor, kindness, pity, compassion, supplication, implore, gift, blessing and thanks. Context will be important in determining the meaning in any particular usage.
HEBREW: I briefly mentioned the Hebrew word ,n1j2 / hanan last week. According to Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT), the verb form “depicts a heartfelt response by someone who has something to give to one who has a need.” It cites Flack describing it as “an action from a superior to an inferior who has no real claim for gracious treatment.” It is used in both social and secular contexts as well as theological ones. This is more in the sense of unearned favor and kindness than the relief from deserved punishment that is more prominent in mercy.
For example, in Genesis 33:5 Jacob responds to Esau’s question about who all the people were that were with him saying, “the children whom God has graciously given your servant.” Jacob recognized his large family was an unearned blessing from God. This word is part of the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:24-26, 24 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26 The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.”
In many passages ,n1j2 / hanan includes concepts of mercy, yet it remains distinct. 2 Kings 13:22-23 comments that though Hazael king of Aram had oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz, “the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them or cast them from His presence until now.” Job 19:21 uses this word in his plea for his friends to pity him because the hand of God had struck him. It is used in Genesis 42:21 to describe Joseph’s pleas to his brothers when they had thrown him into a pit and then sold him to Ishmaelite traders. Esther uses it when she implored the king to avert the evil plot by Haman against her people (Esther 8:3).
,n1j2 / hanan occurs forty-one times in the Psalms as pleas to Yahweh to be gracious to the supplicant for various reasons including loneliness and affliction (Psalm 25:16), physical and emotional distress (Psalm 31:9), and transgressions against God’s law in Psalm 51:1 where it is used in conjunction with two words for mercy – “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.”
It is used in the sense of supplication in pleading to Yahweh for His favor. Moses requested God to allow him to cross over to the promised land (Genesis 3:23-25). In Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the Temple he made multiple requests that God would heed the supplications of His people in future circumstances )1 Kings 8:33, 47, 59; 9:3(. ,n1j2 / hanan is used by David in the Psalms )30:8 & 142:1( and by Hosea )12:4( to describe their supplications to God
The cognate word, ,ONj2 / hannûn, occurs thirteen times, eleven of which are in combination with .Ojr1 / rahûm, “merciful, compassionate.” The combination describes the character of Yahweh as gracious and compassionate. It is one of the characteristics that marks God’s glory in Exodus 34:6 when the Lord passed by in front of Moses and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” It is a reason that sinners can appeal to Him. Joel 2:13 is an example of this with Yahweh proclaiming, “And rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.”
GREEK: The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament )TDNT( explains that the Greek word group, cavriV, carivzomai, caritovw / charis, charizomai, charitoō, had a meaning in early Greek of “what delights.” Over the centuries it expanded in meaning to include “a state causing joy or an act accompanying it,” then to the favour of fortune and kindness in reference to an act that causes pleasure. By the Classical period it could be used in reference to favour received from the gods or what would please the gods and also picked a connotation of thanks. The verb form took on the meanings of “to show pleasure,” “to show oneself to be pleasant” in word or deed. In the Hellenistic period it took on the meaning of a demonstration of the ruler’s favor and of being a gift. It also took on a sense of religious quality as a power that streams down from the world above. In the Septuagint it was the word most often used for translation of ,n1j2 / hanan as discussed earlier.
TDNT also points out that cavriV / charis is not used in Matthew or Mark and only four times in four verses in John )John 1:14-17(. It is used eight times in Luke and seventeen times in Acts. Luke uses it in the common sense of a favor for someone )Acts 24:27; 25:3,9( or having favor among people )Acts 2:47(, or giving thanks )Luke 17:9(. He also uses it in a religious sense of finding favor with God )Luke 1:30; 2:52; Acts 7:10( and God showing pleasure in giving what is good to men. Jesus’ taught with “gracious words” )Luke 4:22( and Paul proclaimed the gospel of the grace of God )Acts 20:24(. Salvation coming to people was recognized as the grace of God )Acts 11:23( as well as walking with God )Acts 13:43(.
The most extensive use of this word group in the New Testament is by Paul, James, Peter, and the writer of Hebrews. Paul uses the term in various ways including as an expression of thanks – “Thanks be to God” )Romans 6:17, 7:25; 1 Cor. 15:57; 2 Cor. 8:16:9:15; 1 Timothy 1:12(, and as a reference to an offering taken up as a gift for the poor )1 Cor. 16:3; 2 Cor. 8:1(. He commonly uses it in the salutation or benediction of his letters )“grace to you” – “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,” Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Philemon( in which it is joined with peace as an expression of Paul’s desire for God’s favor and blessing upon them.
Paul’s usage of the cavriV / charis word group is extensively tied to God extending His favor to sinful man in the gift of salvation that comes from faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Linguistically this arises from “making glad by gifts” of showing free unmerited grace. I will expand on the extent and ramifications of this grace in a few moments, but here I just want to emphasize the origin of the idea that it is conveying. It is tied directly to the meaning the word group developed in the Hellenistic period I already mentioned in being something that is the demonstration of a ruler’s favor as a gift and the streaming down of a power from the world above. In Paul’s usage in this sense, it is God’s unmerited favor given as a gift to sinners as His power through the Holy Spirit changes the heart and mind of the sinner to believe and follow Jesus Christ.
Taking in all these concepts, grace in general is showing beneficial favor, kindness to one in need. That is why grace parallels so closely to the idea of mercy. Grace flows from one who is in a superior position to one who is in an inferior position. This is a blessing that is to be sought in prayer, pleading and supplication, and the response in receiving it is thankfulness. In the theological sense, grace is divine favor that bestows blessing on undeserving man and often specifically the unmerited divine favor given to a human to bring about regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. It is in this sense that grace is directly tied to salvation to such a degree that Paul can state that salvation is by God’s grace. I will expand on this thought a little later in the sermon.
Grace & Mercy
A. W. Tozer said “In God, mercy and grace are one; but as they reach us they are seen as two, related but not identical.” I want to expand on that thought a little before we go on.
Grace and mercy are similar in their emotional compassion and response of kindness to someone in need. Mercy has an emphasis upon alleviating the suffering by withholding the just punishment deserved. Grace places the emphasis upon the giving and reception of unmerited blessing. Neither mercy nor grace are deserved and neither can ever be earned for if the benefits of each could be gained by works, then there is no need for either mercy or grace.
If a person could gain the benefits of mercy by their own merit and works, they will have paid for redemption and restitution and are no longer in need of mercy for there would no longer be any deserved punishment. However, as I pointed out last week, when it comes to sin, its wages are death, so there is no means by which you can pay that price yourself and remain alive. That is why you must humble yourself to plead for God’s mercy. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
If a person could gain the blessings received by God’s grace based on their own merit and works of righteousness, they would be receiving wages of just compensation and not grace. But man has no merit of his own and no works of righteousness which he can do can meet God’s perfect standards, so the blessings of grace cannot be earned. You cannot make yourself a child of God. You can only become His child by Him adopting you into His family, and that comes only by receiving Jesus Christ )John 1:12(.
Hebrews 4:16 ties the reception of mercy and grace to God’s character. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” God’s throne is a place of judgment for those that do not believe in Christ )Revelation 20:11-15(, but for those that have placed their faith in Jesus as their High Priest, His throne is a seat of grace instead of condemnation from which He grants according to His own good pleasure mercy for sins committed and grace in blessings to overcome the troubles in time of need.
I like what A. W. Tozer said as a summary explanation of grace and mercy: “As mercy is God’s goodness confronting human misery and guilt, so grace is His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. It is by His grace that God imputes merit where none previously existed and declares no debt to be where one had been before.” Or perhaps I could summarize mercy and grace in their relationship to salvation in this way. Mercy withholds the deserved punishment through forgiveness while grace eliminates it through justification and brings about adoption.
The Need for Grace
The need for God’s grace is the same as our need for God’s mercy as I pointed out last week. In summary, we suffer due to our own sin, the sin of others and living in a sin cursed world. Each of us are in need of God’s grace in overcoming the suffering that is part of this life. More importantly, every person is in need of God’s grace in order to receive a guarantee that heaven along with its glories and blessings will be your eternal home instead of eternal punishment in everlasting hell. No one can earn God’s favor. It can only be received as a gift from Him by faith in His character and promises. God has demonstrated His character and His faithfulness to His promises throughout history. Let me quickly point out a few of these to you.
In Genesis 6 God is disgusted with man and plans to blot out him out from the face of the earth along with the animals, creeping things and birds of the sky, “But Noah found grace (,j1 / chen) in the eyes of the Lord.” God instructs Noah on how to survive the coming flood by building an ark. This is more than just mercy of sparing his life from the flood; it is grace that also extended to his family and a remnant of all air breathing land animals so that they could restore and replenish life on the earth.
Exodus records God’s rescue of Israel from slavery in Egypt, but beyond the mercy of their escape by God’s mighty hand was His grace that sustained them in the wilderness and having His presence go with them. In Exodus 33:17 the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” This is in response to Moses’ pleading for the Yahweh to go with them and lead them.
Jeremiah records the siege and fall of Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 31:2 he records, “Thus says the Lord, “The people who survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness— Israel, when it went to find its rest.” God’s grace was extended to those that survived the destruction of Jerusalem, and they would be restored in a future time.
The return for the exiles from Babylon was an act of God’s grace. Ezra 9:8 states, “But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.”
God’s grace is also seen in His promises of a future restoration of the Davidic kingdom which includes the actions of the Spirit of grace. Zechariah 12:10 states, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”
Mary was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah because she found favor (cavriV / charis; grace) with God – Luke 1:30.
Proverbs 3:33–34 gives a general statement about the need for God’s grace and His dispensing of it. 33 “The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, But He blesses the dwelling of the righteous. 34 Though He scoffs at the scoffers, Yet He gives grace to the afflicted.” The statement in James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 expresses the same idea. “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” In keeping with this same premise, Psalm 84:11expresses God’s blessing upon the upright, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Being righteous does not earn God’s favor but it does put you in a better position to receive it.
Let me expand on that idea quickly since it is commonly believed that keeping God’s law or some form of works righteousness is the means of gaining God’s favor and salvation. I have pointed out many times from Isaiah 64:6 that “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” before our holy God, so good works cannot get you to heaven. What about God’s law? Paul sates it directly in Romans 3:20, “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” God’s law only exposes sin in failing to keep it which in turn proclaims the need for God’s mercy and grace which Paul highlights just four verses later for those who believe stating, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Paul makes the contrast between law and grace clear in Galatians 5:4, “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
Grace and Salvation
There are those that teach that the means of salvation changed from keeping God’s law in the Old Testament to grace in the New Testament, but that is not true as I already pointed out from Paul’s statements in Romans. Paul points out in Galatians 2:21 that if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died needlessly. The simple truth is that the Law cannot save, it can only condemn because the only one that has ever kept the whole law is Jesus. Everyone else has failed, and as James 2:10 points out, to fail in one point of the law is to become guilty of all of it. Remember that the great commandment comes from Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Salvation has always been an issue of the heart. Those who love God will demonstrate it in their actions toward God which includes obedience to His commands as well as fearing Him, walking with Him, and serving Him. However, obedience can be mimicked from many motivations without love for God. That was the problem of the Pharisees then and still a problem among legalists and those pursuing a works righteousness today.
Salvation is and always has always been by God’s grace through faith in Him and His promises. Prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it was faith in God of what He would do in bringing about redemption of sinful man. That hope began in Genesis 3:15 in the promise of a future seed of the woman that would crush the serpent’s head. God’s grace was extended to Adam & Eve and their descendants from that moment on. They trusted God as they looked forward to His provision of the perfect redeemer. After the resurrection of Christ, faith has been in what God has already done through Him to redeem us. We look back on what Christ has done and trust Him and based on that for the present and the fulfillment of His future promises.
What is the relationship between salvation and God’s grace? Though many do not like this, it begins with God’s election of those who would be saved. Notice in Ephesians 1:4-8 the references to grace and its concepts. 4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.” God’s election is an action of His love in bestowing His undeserved and unmerited favor “according to the kind intention of His will.” That is why it is to the “praise of the glory of His grace.” Romans 8:29-30 gives the sequencing of God’s actions which bring about salvation. 29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
Those that balk at these passages do so because somewhere along the line they are resistant to the truth that God’s grace is unmerited favor. Remember that Jesus said He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) by calling sinners to repentance because it is the sick that need a physician (Luke 5:31-32). The self-righteous will not heed Christ’s call for they are like the Pharisee in Luke 18 that prayed to himself bragging about his supposed virtues. It was the tax collector next to him that simply cried out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner,” that went home justified.
God’s grace was then extended by Jesus Christ, the second person of the triune God-head becoming a man through the virgin Mary, then living a sinless life and voluntarily dying on Calvary as the sacrifice to atone for man’s sin. This is God’s grace in action providing the basis of the offer of salvation as stated in Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”
Romans 3:24 states it plainly that justification comes as a gift of God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Justification is the judicial action of God by which He absolves you of your sin because the redemption price, the penalty of the sin has been paid by Christ when He died as your substitute and His righteousness is then applied to you. 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” But how is this gracious gift of justification applied to a sinner? Paul explains in Ephesians 2:8-9, 8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Paul explains the connection between God’s grace and a person’s faith in Romans 4 using Abraham as an example citing Genesis 15:6 that “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned (credited) to him as righteousness.” Paul applies that to believers in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 5 saying, “but to the one who . . . believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” This new standing with God as declared righteous means you have peace with God in the sense of harmony and tranquility and not just an absence of conflict (Romans 5:1).
That is the nature of salvation from sin. You are transferred from the domain of darkness in which you were subject to Satan and the desires of your flesh as a son of disobedience and child of wrath to the kingdom of Christ in which righteousness is your new master, your nature is changed, and your destiny is dwelling with Christ in the glories of heaven (Col. 1:13; Eph. 2:1-3; Rom. 6:18; 2 Cor. 5:17; John 14:2-3).
God’s grace is so tied to the salvation from sin that the term grace is used as a synonym for the gospel, the good news of this salvation in Christ. In Acts 14:3 the gospel is called “the word of His grace,” and in Colossians 1:6 it is the “grace of God.”
Additional Blessings of God’s Grace
I want to close by simply listing some of the additional blessings that come by God’s grace. Salvation from sin is the most significant unmerited gift from God, but there are many additional blessings that come by His grace. A few of these come prior to salvation, but most are part of the manifold blessings of being saved from sin and its consequences and restored to a right relationship with God.
*The quickening of the Spirit which makes you spiritually alive to receive what God is offering. Ephesians 2:5
*Faith itself which comes as a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8
*Justification. Romans 3:24
*Sanctification. Acts 20:32; 1 Corinthians 6:11
*A changed nature. 2 Corinthians 5:17
*Adoption into God’s family. Ephesians 4:5
*Baptism into His body, the church. 1 Corinthians 12:13
*Spiritual gifts, ministry & power for serving Him. 1 Cor. 12:4-7
*The enlightening / illumination of the Spirit. 1 Cor. 2:12-13
*The indwelling of the Spirit. John 14:27; Romans 8:11;
*The sealing of Spirit. Ephesians 1:13
*The empowerment of the Spirit. Ephesians 3:16
*Christ’s peace in the midst of all circumstances. John 14:27
*The promise of Christ receiving us and heaven. John 14:2-3; 1 Thess. 4:16-17
*The promise of an immortal, incorruptible body. 1 Cor. 15:53-54
*The promise of future glorification. Romans 8:30
Conclusion
The grace of God abounds and it offers salvation and all its blessing to whosoever will believe and call on the name of the Lord to be saved (John 3:15-16; Romans 10:13). If you have already received this grace of God, then rejoice and proclaim it to others that they may receive it too.
If you do not yet know if you have eternal life and that heaven will be your home in eternity instead of Hell, then today is the day to call to Him and receive God’s grace and place your faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 5:12-13 states that John wrote his letter so that those who believe in the name of the Son of God would know that they have eternal life. That is not a hope so wish, but a confident assurance based on God’s promises. It is simply a matter of whether you have the Son – Jesus Christ – or not. Talk with myself or any of our church leaders after the service. We would be glad to answer any of your questions and pray with you. Don’t leave today without being right with God. He is gracious and compassionate to forgive all those who will repent and believe.
Sermon Notes – 6/12/2022 A.M.
The Grace of God – Selected Scriptures
Introduction
Learning to trust God _____________________________________________________
Defining mercy _____________________________________________________
1. God’s ___________goodness and kindness in providing for everything in Creation – Psalm 145:9
2. God is patient and longsuffering _____________the judgment that is due – 2 Peter 3:9
3. Jesus being the sin sacrifice which pays the ____________price of man’s violations of God’s commands
Titus 3:5–7 Mercy & grace are joined together in bringing about ______________for man
Defining Grace
,n1j2 / hanan – depicts a __________response by someone who has something to give to one who has a need
Gracious blessings received – Genesis 33:5. A prayer for gracious blessings to be bestowed – Num. 6:24-26
Parallel to concepts of _________- 2 Kings 13:22-23; Job 19:21 – Job’s plea; Genesis 42:21 – Joseph’s plea
Often used in the Psalms as __________to Yahweh to be gracious to the supplicant for various reasons
Used in pleading for Yahweh to grant His __________- Moses, Solomon, David, Hosea
,n1j2 / hanan often combined with .Ojr1 / rahûm to described God’s _________as gracious & compassionate
cavriV, carivzomai, caritovw / charis, charizomai, charitoō word group: meaning developed over time
“what ___________” “a state causing joy or an act accompanying it,” favour of fortune and kindness
“to show pleasure,” “to show oneself to be pleasant” a ruler’s favor, a gift power from above (gods)
In the New Testament, cavriV / charis word group: a ______for someone; favor among people; giving thanks
Having favor with God; ________showing favor; delightful; the gospel; salvation; power to walk with God
Paul’s usage: thanksgiving; salutation / benediction ________for God’s favor / blessing
God’s extending favor to _______man in the gift of salvation from sin – arising from “making glad by gifts”
Paul ties salvation to God’s ______________favor to such a degree he declares salvation is by God’s grace
Grace & Mercy
Mercy emphasizes alleviation of suffering by withholding just punishment
Grace emphasizes the giving and reception of unmerited blessings
If the benefits or mercy or grace could be earned / merited, then mercy & grace would not be needed
Hebrews 4:16 – the reception of mercy & grace are joined and tied to God’s character
Mercy results in forgiveness while grace results in justification and adoption
The Need for Grace
God’s ____is needed in overcoming the suffering of this life & even more so in going to heaven for eternity
“But Noah found grace (,j1 / chen) in the eyes of the Lord” – God’s grace enabled ____to continue on earth
God’s grace brought about the Exodus & ________leading Israel – Exodus 33:17
God’s grace allowed a remnant to survive the destruction of Jerusalem & remnant to ________to Israel later
God’s grace extends to the future in a promised ____________of Israel & reestablishment of David’s throne
__________was chosen because she found favor (grace) with God – Luke 1:30
Being righteous ____________ earn God’s favor but it does put you in a better position to receive it
Man cannot earn God’s favor and the Law ____________so justification must come as a gift of God’s grace
Grace and Salvation
Salvation has always been an issue of the ___________in loving & trusting God
Prior to Jesus’ atonement, the righteous looked _______to & trusted God for a future Messiah & redemption
After Jesus’ resurrection, saints look _______at the atonement & trust God for fulfilling His future promises
God’s grace in salvation begins with His ____________of the saints – Eph. 1:4-8; Rom. 8:29-30
God’s grace is His ____________favor to lost sinners, to those seeking mercy (Luke 5:32; 18:13-14; 19:10)
God’s grace comes through Jesus’ ____________ upon which redemption is based (Eph. 1:7).
Justification is a ______of God’s grace by which faith in Christ is credited as righteousness (Rm. 3:24; 4:5)
Salvation puts you into _________kingdom, gives you a new master, a new nature, & the promise of heaven
Additional Blessings of God’s Grace
Additional blessing that come from God’s grace include: *The quickening of the Spirit; *Faith; *Justification, *Sanctification; *A changed nature; *Adoption; *Baptism into the church; *Spiritual gifts, ministry & power; *Enlightening, *Indwelling, *Sealing & *Empowerment of the Spirit; *Christ’s peace; *Promise of heaven; *Promise of immortal, incorruptible bodies; *Future glorification
KIDS KORNER
Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Write down all the verses mentioned in the sermon and look them up later. 2) Count how many times the word “grace” is used in the sermon. Discuss with your parents what grace is, its importance and how to receive it from God.
THINK ABOUT IT!
Questions to consider in discussing the sermon with others. Why is it so important to learn to trust God? What is the basis for trusting God? Define mercy. What are the three primary ways in which God demonstrates His mercy? Define the various concepts that are contained in the Hebrew word for grace. Define the various concepts that are contained in the Greek word for grace. What is the relationship between grace and mercy? What are their similarities? What are their differences? Explain why neither grace nor mercy be earned / merited? What is man’s need for God’s grace? Give Biblical examples of God’s grace demonstrated in the Scriptures? How have you seen God’s grace demonstrated in your own life? Was the basis of salvation in the Old Testament keeping the Mosaic Law? Explain why or why not? What is the relationship of God’s grace, salvation and election? Be sure to cover Ephesians 1:4-8; Romans 8:29-30 in your explanation. Why do some people balk at salvation being based on God’s unmerited favor – grace? How is Jesus Christ the expression of God’s grace? What did His atonement accomplish? What is justification & why must it come as a gift of God’s grace? How is justification applied to an individual through faith? What do you believe about Jesus? Why should God let you into heaven? What should you do if you don’t think will let you into heaven or don’t know if He will? List out as many additional blessings as you can that come to the Christian due to God’s grace? Spend some time thanking and praising God for His grace. Go tell someone else about it.
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