GRACE (Gr. χάρις, G5921). In summary form the Christian message is “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). While the single pregnant term “grace” expresses its central and distinctive message, Christianity practically created the word “love,” ἀγάπη, G27, although the verb ἀγαπάω, G26, was right there. It was otherwise with the term “grace,” χάρις, G5921, for here was a word in general exchange. It had yet to be virtually born again and baptized into Christ’s spirit to express all that the NT sought to convey by it. Taken up into the message of Christ the word charis was to become filled out with a new and enriched content.

Charis is, then, a frequent term both in classical Gr. and in the OT. Its connotation in the former context is “attractiveness” or “charm,” and in this sense it joins with the verb χαίρω, G5897, “to rejoice,” “to be glad.” The word appears about 170 times in the OT Gr. with the meaning of “favor” where it renders the Heb. chen (cf. e.g. Gen 6:8; 19:19; etc.). While the OT has many expressions to convey the reality of God’s saving acts on behalf of men, charis never is used in this connection. “Not even the higher conception of the Divine hesed or mercy is able in Judaism to achieve the place occupied by charis in Christianity. While the gracious love of God to men had been the real foundation of the prophetic religion of the OT...it has to be noticed that even there the salvation of God was based not upon charis but upon the sovereign power and glory of God, upon His ‘righteousness,’ or ‘judgment,’ or ‘torah’” (“Grace in the New Testament,” W. Manson in the Doctrine of Grace, ed. W. T. Whitley, p. 37). As far, then, as the OT is concerned, “Of the two common English renderings of chen itself, favor and grace, the former is nearly always preferable” (C. Ryder Smith, The Biblical Doctrine of Grace, p. 8). The process by which the word charis came to approximate the NT idea runs somewhat as follows: (1) the primary reference of charis appears to have been to the state of being charmed or delighted. Plutarch, for example, speaks of the “charm” of Homer’s poetry and of the talkative person whose unreasonable chatter destroys the charis of his deeds (De Garrulitate iv, v). (2) The word then took on a subjective sense with the thought of “kindly,” or “courteous,” i.e. “a generous disposition.” It is a virtual equivalent for the idea of the willing of good to someone. (3) From this there developed the concrete connotation suggesting a “favor” or “boon.” A favor is the expression of good will. As exhibiting an attitude of the will and feelings it is to be taken as a token of kindness. (4) As grace implies not only a giver but also a receiver so it came to denote the gratitude felt by the recipient for the favor bestowed and the thanks by which the gratitude is expressed.

While the NT reflects all these significations, it uses charis in the main with the enriched meaning which comes to it through the work of Christ. Grace is almost a synonym for salvation.

Always, however, charis had the underlying idea of a bestowal of help by an act of one’s free generosity. Aristotle could therefore define charis as “helpfulness towards someone in need, not in return for anything” (μὴ̀ ἀντὶ̀ πινός) nor that the helper may get anything, but for the sake of the person who is helped (Rhetor. ii:7). Before Bethlehem the concept of a God of grace who gives Himself appears nowhere. Philo speaks much of God’s “grace,” but always in the sense of giving gifts to men. He does confess that “Often when I get rid of a foul suggestion in my mind by a rush of good thoughts, it is God flooding my soul with his grace” (τῇ ἑαυτοῦ χάριτι) (Leg. Allegor. ii:9). Even here, although the idea of an undeserved favor is recognized, Philo never rises to the faith that God’s presence can enter a human heart. God giving Himself in Christ His Son who finds a dwelling-place in the life of the believer is “the gospel of the grace of God.”

Outline

I. The synoptic gospels and grace

The word “grace” was never used by our Lord except on four occasions in the ordinary sense of “thanks” (Luke 6:32, 33, 34; 17:9). It is entirely absent from both Matthew and Mark. Luke alone of the three synoptists mentions it on four other occasions, three of which have the sense of favor (1:28, 30; 2:52). The fact that Jesus never used the term charis in any other way than that of “thanks” is significant for two reasons: (1) it tells against the reiterated view that the Early Church constantly read back into the teaching of Jesus’ own faith and sought to justify that faith by crediting its utterance to Him, and (2), it makes evident that Jesus could not have used a word to convey what, for example, Paul afterward sought to express by the word charis, for the reason that His own death and resurrection were the facts which were to give to the concept its real meaning.

Luke’s use of the word in 4:22 may, however, be taken as a link with the peculiar post-Calvary significance of it. The KJV has here “they wondered at the gracious words...mouth,” the ASV “at the words of grace,” the ERV has “at the words of grace,” the NEB “words of such grace.” In the light of these variant trs. the phrase τοῖς λόγοις τῆς χάριτος must mean more than that they marveled at Christ’s charm as a speaker, or at His winsomeness as an orator. Luke uses the term in its aesthetic meaning to underscore the attractive quality of what Jesus said, but He evidently had more in His mind. Luke uses the phrase “the word of his grace” (Acts 14:3), as equivalent to the Gospel (cf. 20:24). Something of this objective sense is to be read in the use of charis in Luke 4:22. This is strengthened by an examination of the context. The context is a quotation from Isaiah 61:2, and our Lord asserts its fulfillment in His coming. The allusion is made more gracious still by His omission of any reference to the divine vengeance which the original passage contained (cf. Isa 61:2; Luke 4:22). Luke intends to convey that the people did not simply marvel at the charming way Jesus spoke, or at its fascinating effects. Jesus was indicating that His presence in the world was to have a result wider and deeper than any nationalistic aid to the people of Israel. This was more than a hint of the Gospel as “grace for all.” While Luke of all the synoptic writers was impressed by the gracious manner of Christ’s teaching he wishes his readers also to be aware of the gracious matter of His teaching. The words of our Lord caused marvel because they came as “words of grace about grace” (A. B. Bruce).

Throughout the gospels in several ways the category of grace was demonstrated in Christ’s acts and teaching. He came to fulfill a divine commission. The recurrent phrase “I am come” (cf. Matt 9:13; 10:34; Luke 12:51, etc.), accentuates this acceptance. He had come as the Father’s beloved Son to seek and to save that which was lost. That is grace! By His attitude Jesus demonstrated what is meant by grace. He sought out the sinful. This is the new note of the Gospel. Judaism taught that God was ready to be gracious, but was inclined to leave the first step with the sinner. The distinctive thing with Jesus was His taking of the deliberate initiative on God’s behalf. That is grace! The whole tendency of His teaching was in the same direction. There are passages in His recorded proclamations, the logical drift of which is that salvation is a matter of God’s free generosity. In, for example, the sequel to the story of the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17-31), the astonished disciples ask, “Then who can be saved?” They are answered that the ultimate right to enter the kingdom of God and be saved lies with God. Christ enunciates the Gospel of grace in contrast with the gospel of law and works. Several critical writers introduce the term “grace” at this point to bring out the essential meaning of Christ’s reply. A place in His kingdom is not gotten by anything given up for God. It is given by the Father, and the Father’s giving is the Father’s grace. “What are we to get?” ask the disciples with the parable of the laborers in the vineyard in mind (Matt 20:1-8). They are reminded of the folly of bargaining with God. The final principle of God’s dealing with men is a matter of grace. The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican shows clearly that “grace is grace” because, though wholly concerned with moral goodness, it does not at all depend upon how moral we are (John Oman, Grace and Personality, p. 189). The symbolism of the Last Supper makes clear that Jesus wished to indicate that the divine purpose of grace was focused in His cross. The blood of the cross inaugurated a new covenant and was essential to God as a means and medium of His saving work. It was no post factum explanation of what had happened. From the beginning, the life and work of Christ were read in the category of grace. The story of the cross was not given as an account of how the life of Jesus ended, but as revealing the basis upon which God’s grace is assured and secured.

Two broad facts are clear from the record of the gospels. On the one hand, it is evident that the saving initiative is with God; and, on the other hand, any plea to human merit is ruled out. While Jesus is not the source of the term charis which describes these two facts, His own person is the source of the “grace” of which the whole NT speaks. It was the Apostle Paul who took these twin ideas and included them under the one pregnant term χάρις, G5921. In this sense grace is specifically a Pauline concept.

II. The Pauline doctrine of grace

While all the shades of meaning noted earlier are to be found in the NT, not all of them together convey the richness which the term acquired in the theology of Paul. For him “grace” was nothing less than the unsought and unbought saving activity of God which made him a debtor forever. The Damascus road encounter with the risen Jesus brought to focus the two basic ideas which unite in the word charis—that the saving initiative is with God and human merit is of no avail. By “grace,” then, is meant that salvation is from first to last a gift of God. God’s saving relation to man has its beginning and ending in His own eternal purpose as the counterfoil of history. He loves because He would love; saves because He would save. God acts in grace; acts without waiting for a sign or a nod from us: this is grace.

The idea of the absoluteness of grace in man’s salvation is specially indicated by the fact that Paul never begins or ends his letters without a reference to grace. In neither case is he adhering to the merely conventional (cf. James 1:1, only NT writing with conventional use; see letter from Jerusalem Council, Acts 15:23—note conventional “farewell” v. 29). By beginning as he does, Paul is suggesting the supremacy of grace as the source from which flow all the blessings of the new order into which God’s unmerited favor has brought the redeemed soul. Everything rests on God’s free grace in Christ. Coming at the close the use of charis was a new thing in epistolary lit. In so using it the apostle was virtually authenticating his position as an apostle to whom the grace of God had come in such abundance. At the beginning Paul always associates “grace” and “peace,” while in his salutations the close connection of the two concepts is not always immediately seen. The apostle seldom concludes without some reference to “peace.” The two words seem always to be associated in his mind and the term “peace” comes somewhere in the context (cf. 2 Cor 13:11-13; Eph 6:23, 24; 1 Thess 5:23-28; 2 Thess 3:16-18, etc.) As the first word of greeting and the last word of salutation “grace” sums up for the apostle the totality of the blessings which come from God through Christ. “Grace” is the source, “peace,” the stream. “Grace (χάρις, G5921), denotes the love of God manifested in the form of pardon towards sinful men; and peace (εἰρήνη, G1645), the feeling of profound calm or inward quiet which is communicated to the heart by the possession of reconciliation” (Godet, Commentary on Romans, vol. 1, p. 140).

At the end of 2 Thessalonians, Paul adds to that which he had already dictated, the “grace” conclusion with his own hand (3:17, 18). Such, he declares is his sign (σημεῖον, G4956) in every epistle. There is no reason to suppose with Bengel that he was in the habit of appending the “grace” in a specifically picturesque style of his own, although it may be agreed that if he could have done so he well might, for the word was engraven in multicolors upon his own heart. Paul had a purpose other than personal in adding his “grace” benediction. His letters were, as Dryden has said, “absentsermons,” and the last word for any church as well as the first is “grace.” This must remain the dominant note of the celestial symphony as a Pauline epistle dies away.

A. Grace and the Trinity

1. The grace of Christ. In the salutations the connection of grace with Christ is not as explicit as in the benedictions. The general formula in the latter case is “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (cf. Rom 16:20; 1 Cor 16:23; 2 Cor 13:14; Gal 6:18; etc.). Paul bases his trinitarian benediction on the order of experience (2 Cor 13:14). It is the grace of Christ which makes real the love of God—“first the experience of grace of Jesus, and then, through that and only through that, the certainty of the loving Fatherhood of God (cf. James Moffatt, Grace in the New Testament, p. 151; James Stewart, A Man in Christ, pp. 140f.). In 2 Corinthians 8:9 Paul sees the grace of Christ displayed in “the poverty” which for our sakes He accepted that we might become “rich.” It is by “the grace of Christ” we are called, and to preach any other gospel is anathema (Gal 1:8). Thus in 2 Thessalonians 1:12 the grace of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ are associated. Paul then sees grace as founded on the absoluteness of Christ. Only an absolute Christ can meet man’s absolute need. Paul never sets before man a relative Christ: a relative Christ might reduce Him to our condition, but only by removing Him from our need. To be absolute Christ must have originated on God’s side; must have that origin and nothing less. Paul preached absolute grace because He proclaimed an absolute Christ. To Paul the self-sacrifice of Christ was one and the same with the grace of God.

2. The grace of God. Paul steadfastly declared that grace is given by God (cf. Rom 15:15; 1 Cor 1:3; 3:10; 15:10, etc.), and in no meager fashion either (Rom 3:24; 5:20; 2 Cor 4:15; 9:8, 14; 12:9; Eph 1:7; 2:7; 1 Tim 1:14). The grace of God is for Paul God’s “radiant adequacy.” The phrase “the grace of God,” “signifies the generous love or gift of God by which in Christ salvation is bestowed on man and a new world of blessings opened” (Manson, op. cit. p. 43).

3. Grace and the Holy Spirit. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the Holy Spirit is referred to as “the Spirit of grace” (10:29; cf. Zech 11:10). It is by the Holy Spirit that the love of God manifest in the grace of Christ is made real to believing hearts. Both the individual and the church are the dwelling place of God through the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 3:16; 12:11, 13; Eph 1:12; 2:22; etc.). In this connection note must be taken of the association between “grace” and “power.” God’s special “favor” and God’s diversified “favors” are alike the result of divine grace (cf. Rom 1:5; 12:3; 15:15; 2 Cor 8:9; Eph 4:7; etc.), it is therefore natural to conceive of the relation between them in terms of “power” (1 Cor 15:10). This association between “grace” and “power” is given special emphasis in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (cf. 2 Tim 2:11; 1 Pet 4:10). By referring to charis as the active power of God, “grace” may be thought of as the presence of the Holy Spirit. For the presence of the Holy Spirit is “power” (cf. Luke 4:14; 24:49; Acts 1:8; 8:10; 10:38; etc.). Between “grace” as divine “power” and “power” as the presence of the Holy Spirit there is, then, a vital kinship. The experience of being “full of the Holy Spirit” and being “full of grace and power” is hardly to be distinguished (cf. Acts 6:5-8; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Eph 4:7-13).

In spite of this association, however, the Holy Spirit is not to be confused with the grace of God, as is done, for example, by N. P. Williams. He argues for “a frank equation of ‘grace’ with the Person of the Holy Spirit” (Grace of God, p. 110). This is to confuse association with identification; and in the end is to throw doubt upon the Trinitarian conception of the Godhead which is authentically Biblical. It is therefore rightly said that “the grace of God is the grace of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” It is called “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,” because...the Incarnation of the Son of God is its crowning expression; and it is esp. associated with the Holy Ghost in the Christian, because we live under the new dispensation consequent upon the accomplishment of Christ’s redemptive work and His appointment of “another Comforter.” “Grace is, nevertheless, the grace of the indivisible Trinity and is not to be equated with any one Person of the Trinity” (O. Hardman, The Christian Doctrine of Grace).

B. Grace and justification. Paul begins his exposition of justification by referring to God’s “grace as a gift” (Rom 3:24 RSV). To be declared righteous before God by virtue of our acceptance in Christ is altogether of God’s spontaneous compassion. The grounds of our justification are variously stated (cf. Rom 5:9, 18, 19; 1 Cor 6:11). While justification is based upon the objective mediatorial work of Christ for mankind, the channel by which this saving act is made effective in human experience is “faith.” Faith is the instrumental, not the formal cause: and has the meaning of a living personal trust in a perfect redemption and a present Savior (see [http://biblegateway/wiki/Faith, Faithfulness FAITH]). The summary scheme of salvation is, then, “by grace...through faith” (Eph 2:8). Grace points back to the ultimate source of God’s act of justifying the sinner by His sheer goodwill and mercy. Faith, as man’s response to God’s act in Christ, is a divine work in us—itself a gracious and gratuitous gift of God. From first to last the justification of the sinner is a matter of grace: “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would be no longer grace” (Rom 11:6).

Paul sees “the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness” (5:17), as greater and more powerful than the original taint of nature even when the added stains of actual sinful acts are taken into reckoning, for “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” And grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Christ our Lord (5:21; cf. Titus 3:5). This does not allow any idea of “cheap grace” (Bonhoeffer). Paul will not admit to the perversion of God’s free generosity in an antinomian direction. (Cf. Rom 6:1f.; Jude 1:4.) He insists rather that the grace of God which hath appeared for the salvation of all men trains them to renounce sinful passions and to await “our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-14). Instead of sinning “that grace may abound,” the believer is called upon to “grow in grace.”

Paul’s experience had taught him that God gives and God forgives. He was sure that “all is of grace”—here is the sovereignty of grace. This was the logic of his own sense of being overwhelmed by the mercy of God. The Gospel which he received and preached taught him that faith was something not confined to his own people after the flesh; and faith was, he knew, man’s response by the action of grace to God’s initiative. If faith was not limited to Israel neither could grace be. He was assured then that “grace is for all”—here is the sweep of grace.

In no place does Paul state that grace is given to all men. In Romans (3:22-24; 5:17f.) and Titus (2:11), the word “all” certainly is found. In each case it is clearly restricted by reference to the immediate context. In the first the “all” (Rom 3:23), does mean “all men” in a parenthesis about sinners. The declaration that “they are justified by grace as a gift” (RSV), points back to “all them that believe” in v. 22. In ch. 5, the “acquittal and life for all men” (v. 18) must be read in connection with the assurance that “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through one man Jesus Christ” (v. 17). The RSV trs. Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men”; this could too easily lead to a universalist conclusion if isolated from the whole drift of the NT. The preferable tr. is: “For the grace of God hath appeared to all men, bringing salvation.” In the three passages, then, the most that could be concluded is that salvation is offered to all men: in none of them is it declared that all men are saved (cf. John 1:16; 3:16; etc.).

C. Grace and law, works and nature. Paul declares that man is justified by faith (Rom 3:28), apart from the deeds of the law (cf. Justification). Throughout he clearly puts the law and grace into antithesis. To follow the law as a way of obtaining salvation is but to increase one’s debt (Gal 5:3), and to fail of the grace of God. But “Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom 10:4 ASV). The law “met its end in Christ,” yet it was not just “ended” by Him. He is Himself its “end” as a means of attaining to a righteousness acceptable to God (see [http://biblegateway/wiki/Law in the New Testament LAW]). The Gospel reveals the righteousness of God by faith. At the same time the law is not abolished, but has found its fulfillment in Him; here is the “grace of law” (see Righteousness; Salvation).

Grace, too, cancels out works as a means of attaining salvation (Rom 11:6). A reward is not reckoned of grace (4:4); thus to receive “grace” is to renounce “works” as a means of justification. The association of faith and works in salvation is impossible for then would “grace be no more grace.”

It has been contended that nowhere does the NT in general and Paul in particular oppose “grace” and “nature.” This is argued to justify the medieval maxim, “Naturam non tollit gratia sed perficit”—“Grace does not destroy but perfects nature.” The contention is false. For that is not rightly regarded as grace which is but a superadded gift, a donum superadditum, to man’s native powers. That is not grace which is a mere extra to man’s initial efforts. Christ did not come to supplement man at his best, but to redeem man at his worst. Throughout the NT and esp. underscored in Pauline theology is the assertion that what is reckoned to be of the individual’s own origination is assigned to “nature,” whereas “grace” is what is given gratis to man. It is the plain teaching of the Gospel that man has no natural endowments and no moral deeds which merit favor with God; for if he had grace would not be grace, and man would have something wherein to glory.

III. Grace in the other NT writings

Although the term charis is less used outside the Pauline writings, its occurrences show that the Pauline sense was everywhere the Christian understanding of God’s method of dealing with men. There is a close kinship of ideas between Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews on the subject of grace. The supreme evidence of “the grace of God” is in Christ’s tasting death for every man (2:9). Having a great High Priest we can come for timely help to “the throne of grace” (4:16). Man must beware lest he “outrage the Spirit of grace” (10:29 RSV), or fail to obtain grace (12:15). Rather we are to “have grace” (KJV) or “be grateful” (RSV), whichever tr. of 12:28 be preferred. It matters little since that only is grace which is received gratis; and what comes gratis demands gratitude (cf. “Grace and Gratitude” in The Sense of the Presence of God, John Baillie). In 13:9 the writer contrasts the strengthening of the heart by “grace” with that which comes from “foods.” It is by this strengthening of grace that the believer is equipped with everything good to do the will of God (13:21). Throughout this epistle, however differently expressed, there is the same idea of grace as throughout the rest of the NT.

The Petrine epistles are no less undergirded by the same sense of indebtedness to God. God is the “God of all grace” (I, 5:10). It is to the humble He gives grace (I, 5:5; cf. James 4:6; Prov 3:34). Standing in the “true grace of God” (I, 5:12), men and women become “heirs together of the grace of life” (I, 3:7). This grace is now ours (I, 1:10), and yet there is grace coming to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ (I, 1:13). The sum of the believer’s aim must be to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II, 3:18).

James, too, assures grace for the humble (4:6). Humility is at the same time a fruit of grace and a reason for “greater grace” (4:6). Christ is the perfect law of liberty so that the liberty into which we are brought is not lawlessness but that which is of God (1:15, 27). To be “rich in faith” (2:5) is to do what God requires. No empty inactive faith saves (2:14f.). The wisdom which is “from above” produces the “fruit of righteousness” (3:17, 18). Indeed, in all things man can be but a humble receiver of “every good gift and every perfect boon.” From Him comes every “act of giving” (δόσις, G1521). Of His own will are we brought into salvation by means of the “implanted word” which is able to save our souls (1:18, 21). Basic to all a man is and does is then for James God’s generous acceptance of those who “draw nigh” to Him (4:8).

Six times in the Johannine writings does the term “grace” occur. This scantiness, however, is not esp. significant, for John tends to give “love” the idea “grace” has for Paul. A difficult use is that of “grace for grace” (in the gospel; 1:16). But the intention seems to be to stress the newness and adequacy of God’s favor: here is grace on top of grace, and grace following grace—more grace on the foundation of grace and more waves flooding the shore of life from the ocean of grace. An almost exact equivalent phrase is found in Philo (De Post. Cain, 43), with the meaning of “benefit upon benefit.” The term coming in the salutation of 2 John (v. 3) and Revelation (1:4, 5) has a Pauline sense, while nothing could be more apt than that the NT itself should conclude with the renewed benediction, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints” (22:21). Here the distinctive word of the Christian message finds its climax. In Paul the special emphasis is that grace reaches down to our need: in the Apocalypse with its special stress on the sovereignty of Christ there is the assurance that grace reigns from the throne.

The free generosity of God through the self-giving of Christ is throughout what is meant by grace. Christ’s self-sacrifice is the supreme demonstration of grace (2 Cor 8:9; cf. Phil 2:5ff.). And for man, He is the incarnate grace of God made available to faith. By grace we are called (Gal 1:15), and justified (Rom 3:24), and sanctified (Rom 6:14). By grace we have an eternal consolation and a good hope (2 Thess 2:16), and the strength to endure (2 Tim 2:1). Even liberality is a blessing when conducted in the “grace” of Christ (2 Cor 8:1, 6, 9, 19; 9:8, 15).

Bibliography J. Oman, Grace and Personality (1917); L. S. Chafer, Grace (1922); E. Jauncey, The Doctrine of Grace (ch. 3) (1925); N. P. Williams, The Grace of God (1930); J. Moffatt, Grace in the New Testament (1931); W. T. Whitley (ed.), The Doctrine of Grace (1932); O. Hardman, The Christian Doctrine of Grace (1937); A. R. Vidler, Christ’s Strange Work (1944); J. Murray, The Covenant of Grace (1954); J. N. D. Anderson, Law and Grace (1954); H. Kuiper, By Grace Alone (1955); E. F. Kevan, The Evangelical Doctrine of Law (1955); C. Ryder Smith, The Biblical Doctrine of Grace (1956); P. S. Watson, The Concept of Grace (1959); G. A. F. Knight, Law and Grace (1962); E. F. Kevan, Salvation (ch. 2) (1963); E. F. Kevan, The Grace of Law (1964); H. D. McDonald, I and He (chs. 5, 6) (1966).