A Foundation of Grace: Grace in the Greek

You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.-2 Timothy 2:1 (World English Bible)

For the last few days in this series, I have been sharing stories about Jesus, and how there are pictures of the difference between law and grace in these stories. But, what is grace? I think we need to let the Bible define grace for us by looking at it in its original language.

There are words for grace in the Old Testament in the Hebrew Language. We might look at them later. But since the New Testament is what we have been primarily been studying in this series, I thought we would look there first. As Believers, we are part of the New Covenant. Jesus came to fulfill the Old and usher in the New.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek. So, we can also look at the definition in the Greek.

The Greek word for grace is "charis."

Looking up Greek words in the Bible is fun because we get a much broader picture of what the word is supposed to mean. And sometimes it redefines it for us, because we might have a smaller picture in our minds that what the word really means.

The Greek word for grace is "charis." There are 157 occurrences of this word in the New Testament Scriptures.

There are several different Bible study tools that can help define this word for us.

Strong's Concordance defines it as "grace, as a gift or blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ, favor, gratitude, thanks, a favor, kindness.

Helps Word Studies defines it as "favor, disposed to, inclined, favorable towards, leaning towards to share benefit.

New American Standard Bible Exhaustive Concordance defines it as "grace, kindness" and translates it as "blessing, concession, credit, favor, gift, grace, graciousness, gracious work, gratitude, thank, thankfulness, thanks."

Thayer's Greek Lexicon contains some more lengthy, descriptive definitions, but in brief, it defines grace as:

1. sweetness, charm, loveliness

2. good-will, loving-kindness, favor; kindness which bestows upon one what he has not deserved

So, we can see that grace is something that is a free gift given to us, one we did not earn, or deserve, but based upon God's favor and goodness in our lives. And when Jesus came it brought it forever, eternally with Him.

To read more in the series, please join me here, at A Foundation of Grace.

His Love is Always For Us

I know what’s it like to struggle, to go in and out of your walk with God. To not feel good about yourself. To feel like you don’t measure up.

The first three years of my life after I rededicated my life to the Lord were rough. I didn’t have hardly any friends who were walking with Jesus. The ones I did have that I knew well, were doing things that in my heart I didn’t want to do anymore. But somehow I kept getting sucked back in.

I would go to church for a while, but end up feeling like I was too bad to belong there, so I would quit going again. This went on until I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I literally felt myself grieving the Spirit of God. It was not in a way that made me feel condemned or guilty, but in a way that a parent feels for a child when they are doing something that could hurt them. The parent’s heart might be breaking, but the child continues to do something because they don’t understand that what they are doing is hurting them or their parent.

So, I finally came to that point that I wasn’t going to live the way I was living, no matter what. I still didn’t have the tools I needed to overcome in my thoughts and my heart, even if my outward behavior was not the same as it had been before.

About eight months or so past this point, someone gave me a teaching tape of a message called “The Conquering Power of God’s Love.” I hadn’t really ever heard a message like it before. It was about how much God loves us and the extent and depth of that love. I listened to that tape until it finally broke. I listened to it so much, that I still listen to it in my head now, twenty years later.

I am convinced that this is what keeps people connected to Jesus, knowing who He is, because He is love, and how much He loves us. We cannot ever stop steeping ourselves in this knowledge of the love of God.

He loves us and is always for us. You will always find Jesus in the Gospels loving people.

Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?-Romans 2:4

The word kindness in reference to God in this verse means “useful, gentle, pleasant, kind.” That is always how He is dealing with you. Always. He is a gentle, pleasant, and kind God leading you back to Him.

Whenever I am having a bad day, whenever I feel bad about myself, I always spend time hearing and thinking about the love God has for me. It is what keeps me anchored to Him.

I pray today that you would know that love and continue to grow in the knowledge of His love for you.

Beth

To hear a message about The Love of God, go here.