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Grace

Grace is the undeserved kindness of God. I am so grateful for what God has done for me. It is stunning. It is good news for sure. God is kind. God is loving. God is good. God is in a good mood. God wants the best for me.

To fully understand grace, I need to consider who I was without the Messiah and who I become with the Messiah. By His sacrifice on the cross and through His blood sacrifice I have been saved from the curse of death. This is God’s gift for everyone.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. | Titus 2:11

I don’t deserve God’s grace. In fact, that is what it means. It is a gift to me from Jesus the Messiah. Undeserved but given to me anyway.

χάρις, charis; it means “grace, undeserved favor, graciousness, goodwill”. It is the gracious or merciful behavior of a more powerful person toward another. Displayed by the Master Jesus toward humankind and by people towards each other in the Old Testament. Used to describe God or the Messiah in their merciful character or actions toward humankind in the New Covenant.

Spiritual gifts are described as “graces.” It is a literary device used at the beginning or end of many New Covenant letters. It is all over the place in scripture. It is a big deal.

God’s undeserved kindness is carried by His Son Jesus the Messiah. Now that is a big deal.

Grace is an essential part of God’s character. Grace is closely related to God’s benevolence, love, and mercy. Grace can be variously defined as “God’s favor toward the unworthy” or “God’s benevolence on the undeserving.”

In His grace, God is willing to forgive me and bless me abundantly, in spite of the fact that I don’t deserve to be treated so well or dealt with so generously.

Holy scripture teaches that grace is completely unmerited. The gift and the act of giving have nothing at all to do with our merit or innate quality (Romans 4:4; 11:5–6; 2 Timothy 1:9–10).

In fact, scripture says quite clearly that we don’t deserve God’s salvation. Romans 5:8–10 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, the Messiah died for us. . . . While we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.”