Grace is a word we hear often—and so we should; the present dispensation is characterized by the reign of grace (Rom. 5:21). But what does it mean? I think, perhaps, that grace gets confused with graciousness—the two words are obviously linked, and the connection must not be severed, but grace isn’t simply God being gracious. We may have heard grace described as getting something good we do not deserve, whereas mercy is not getting something bad we do deserve! I’m a naughty boy, but I still get a gift—grace. I’m a naughty boy, but I don’t get that spanking—mercy. Although this is a helpful distinction, it only reflects one aspect of grace. Furthermore, the focus is on me, the recipient; it overlooks God’s part and the cost He bears. We may also have heard grace described as unmerited favor. For us, at least, this is true. We do not merit God’s favor; He didn’t save us because He saw something deserving in us. The grace of God is not connected with an obligation on His part. However, grace is still something more.
It is well to distinguish mercy from grace for we often confuse the two. Mercy is occupied with my great need; it meets me in my weakness. Grace, on the other hand, is that favor which flows from God in His sovereignty and reflects the character and greatness of the giver. Another has written: Grace refers more to the source and character of the sentiment, mercy to the state of the person who is its object. Grace may give me glory, but mercy contemplates some need in me. Mercy is great in the greatness of the need, grace in the thought of the person exercising it. A better understanding of the grace of God leads to a fuller comprehension of His ways and character. Grace’s beauty lies not in the one who receives it but in the One who dispenses it.
In the New Testament, the word appears well over a hundred times. The expression “grace of God” occurs more than twenty times, and “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,” or variants thereof, is to be found in a similar number—the Lord Jesus Christ is the one through whom grace has come to us. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). A familiar acronym explains grace as God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Grace is so intimately connected with our salvation that we often forget that, although it starts there, it certainly doesn’t end there. Paul encourages Timothy to be “Strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). The Apostle is not speaking now of saving grace. Grace is that divine enablement which sustains us on our wilderness journey. William Kelly describes grace as the activity of divine love in the midst of evil. Andrew Miller, in a similar vein, writes: The term grace evidently conveys the idea of free gift, favor; without obligation on God's part, without claim on ours: or without raising the question of the condition of the one so favored; it may be called the indulgence of love. And it isn’t just that incomprehensible love manifested in the cross of Christ (1 John 3:16); it is that love which continues to act in the midst of all our circumstances. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
The word grace occurs so many times in the New Testament that we may be tempted to treat it as a throw-away line. Men use expressions in this way but nothing in the Word of God is cliché or a mere literary ornament. Grace is a subject of great importance. As we consider God’s ways in grace, we are reminded that in spiritual matters we learn the truth of the thing before we learn its meaning. This is very true of grace. Every child of God, young or old, is the beneficiary of the grace of God. And yet, what grace truly entails is something we only begin to understand with time and experience. The more we meditate upon the grace of God the less we are occupied with the blessing it has bestowed, and the more with the heart of the God who has bestowed it. He is indeed the God of all grace (1 Pet. 5:10).