What is grace?

What the Bible says

In a word, grace is God's favour toward those who have not deserved it. Paul says so most clearly:

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

Eph 2:8-9

Salvation is not something we achieved but something we received. Just before, Paul says we were "dead in our trespasses" (Eph 2:5), and a dead person cannot get up. God, "who is rich in mercy", made us alive (Eph 2:4). Elsewhere Paul explains: "Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation" (Rom 4:4). Wages are owed, whereas grace is a gift, so for grace to be grace it cannot be earned by works (Rom 11:6).

This grace is already part of God's character in the Old Testament. He introduces himself to Moses: "The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness" (Exod 34:6). And that grace takes a human face.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

John adds, "From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace" (John 1:16). The law was given through Moses, but "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Grace is not a vague goodwill. It is Christ himself, who died for us: "But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).

Jesus also showed grace in a story. The younger son takes his share, squanders it in a far country, and comes home with nothing. He assumes he has lost his place as a son and hopes to be taken on as a hired servant. What does the father do?

But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

Before the son can finish his rehearsed confession, the father calls for the best robe, a ring and sandals, and holds a feast: "For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!" (Luke 15:24). The son paid back nothing. What received him was the father's love.

But grace does not stop at forgiveness. It changes people.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone. It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age

Titus 2:11-12

Paul explains even his own hard work by grace (1 Cor 15:10). Grace does not remove our effort; it becomes the root it grows from.

The church's witness

Augustine explains "grace upon grace" in John 1:16. The first grace we received is faith, which "is called grace, because it is given freely" Augustine. That is the first grace the sinner receives, the forgiveness of sins. On top of it we receive another grace, eternal life. He also notes the difference from the law, which "showed our weakness, but relieved it not".

Chrysostom, on the parable of the prodigal son, notices how the father welcomes his son. The father, "perceiving his penitence did not wait to receive the words of his confession, but anticipates his supplication, and had compassion on him" Chrysostom. God's grace comes to meet us before we come to him.

Matthew Henry puts it plainly on Ephesians: "The grace that saves is the free, undeserved goodness and favour of God" Matthew Henry. On Romans 6, guarding against the abuse of grace, he says the apostle "does not explain away the free grace of the gospel, but he shows that connexion between justification and holiness are inseparable" Matthew Henry.

All agree that salvation begins with God's grace and depends on it throughout. How grace and the human response fit together is understood differently. Lutheran and Reformed churches stress that grace is God's work creating faith in the sinner, and that justification is the righteousness of Christ counted to us. Catholics teach that the first grace can never be earned, that grace is poured into the soul and truly renews a person, and that a person freely cooperates with it. The Wesleyan-Arminian tradition holds that God gives grace first to everyone, enabling a response, and that a person may accept or resist it. The Eastern Orthodox understand grace as sharing in the life of God, a cooperation in which God always moves first. Among these differences all stand in the same place: salvation is not an achievement anyone can boast of.

In the original languages

The New Testament word for grace is charis (χάρις). It carries favour, gift and gratitude together. The word for thanks belongs to the same family, and the fitting response to grace is gratitude, not boasting.

The Old Testament word for favour is chen (חֵן). It is the word used when Noah "found favor in the eyes of the LORD" (Gen 6:8). Scripture does not say only that Noah was good; it says he found favour. These words, with the related verb chanan (חָנַן), are often used of favour shown by someone greater, a king or a master, to someone lesser. Grace comes down from high to low.

Common objections

"If grace is free, won't people simply sin as they please?" This is an old objection, and Paul himself was accused of it. The German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned against ‘cheap grace’: forgiveness without repentance or discipleship. It should be admitted that grace has been misunderstood as permission, and has sometimes been used that way. Paul asks the question himself: "What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?" (Rom 6:1-2). The answer is that grace is not cheap. It was given at the cost of Christ's death, and it renews those who receive it. As Titus says, grace trains us to renounce ungodliness (Titus 2:12). Someone who truly knows they are forgiven wants to answer with love, not exploit it.

"Isn't grace unfair? It treats the faithful and the careless alike." The prodigal's elder brother makes this very complaint: "all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours … you kill the fattened calf for him!" (Luke 15:29-30). The feeling is understandable. But the father answers, "Son, you are always with me, … and all that is mine is yours" (Luke 15:31). The elder son too lived under grace. Grace does not make faithfulness worthless; it reveals that being with the father was a gift all along, and that no one stands before him on merit.

"Doesn't talk of grace make effort pointless?" Grace is opposed not to effort but to earning. Paul says, "I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me" (1 Cor 15:10). Those who have received grace work more, not to win salvation but out of love already given. Grace also holds us in weakness: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9).

Going further

Believing grace changes two things. The heavy burden of earning God's approval by our own strength is set down. And we begin to treat others the way we have been treated. Those who have received grace become people who give it.

You might ask yourself: do I feel that God's love is something I have to win, or something I have already received? Which son am I closer to, the younger or the elder? To whom could I pass on the grace I have been given?

To read further, see What is sin?, Why did Jesus have to die? and What is faith?.