What is Grace?

What is Grace?

We hear so much about ‘grace.’  We hear about this or that person showing grace to others.  So what is grace?

Grace is more than kindness, generosity, gentleness, sympathy or mercy.  It includes all these qualities but it’s far deeper and richer.  It is love; specifically, undeserved love.  It’s showing love to someone who does not deserve it.  Strictly speaking, grace is showing love to someone who deserves the exact opposite. 

That’s grace!

It’s costly for the person who shows grace to others. To the person who receives grace, it is free; he has not earned it. 

A grace that you earn is not grace at all!

Let’s talk about the grace of God. That’s where we need to begin – with God.  So many people talk about God’s grace, but they don’t believe it.   This is because they think that they have to do something to earn His grace.  They think that if they are helpful, do good to others, and live a moral life, they will receive God’s grace.

But that’s not grace!  That’s justice.  This view is saying that God gives me what I deserve; that is, something good for what I do.  That means you earned it.  And that’s not grace!

God’s grace is free, unmerited or unearned. His grace is given to those who deserve the exact opposite: judgment, punishment, and death.  That’s people like you and me.   But God showed His grace, toward undeserving people like me, in His Son Jesus Christ.  He, the One without sin, received willingly what we deserved; that is, judgment, punishment and death on the cross.  By trusting in Christ and what He did on the cross, we receive what we don’t deserve; that is, God’s grace.  By believing in Jesus, God adopts me as his son forever, with full rights and privileges!  This grace is amazing!

God offers His amazing grace to us in Christ who paid the price for redemption.  All I need to do is accept His gift of grace with a believing heart. He offers it to you in Christ. Do you accept it?  

I know this may offend many people because they think they have to pay their own way to get to God. But that’s not grace.   Grace is God’s love given without our deserving it and is received by faith in Christ.

A simple way to remember grace is the acronym G.R.A.C.E. which is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.