grace, defined

I heard it again, just this Sunday - "grace" used casually as a synonym for "mercy."

They are, thanks be to God, two different things, and I would like to differentiate them for the record.

[I am, of course, no Greek scholar, and I hope I am never accused of being a theologian.  This is my explanation of two admittedly theological terms according to my experience of God and my understanding of the Bible.]

Mercy is derived from the Latin for "price paid", and means just that:  when He does not demand from us the price due for our sins (namely, death), God is showing us mercy.  Jesus, in his sinless life and his own death on the cross, paid in our stead the price that we owed to God.  Ever since Jesus' death and resurrection, the scales have been divinely balanced, and God, "who calls things that are not as though they are," looks at repentant sinners and sees His righteous Son.

Grace, thank God, is something else entirely.

Mercy covers the sins we have committed.  

Grace makes it possible for us to live free

from sin's continual mastery.

The English word grace, according to Merriam Webster, means "unmerited divine assistance given humans". The Greek word often translated "grace" is charis - the "unmerited operation of God in the heart of man, affected through the agency of the Holy Spirit."  Charis comes from chairein which means "to rejoice," and denotes first of all a pleasant external appearance, "loveliness," "agreeableness," "acceptableness."  In other words, grace is God providing what we need, though His Spirit, to live in a way that is pleasing to Him and to our fellow man:  namely, without sin.

Mercy:  forgiven the punishment our sins deserve.

Grace:  empowered to live the life He intended.

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"This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses,

for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.

There we will receive his mercy,

and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT)

glimmers of hope

Sometimes, when you're too weak to stand, when you're too weak even to ask for help, friends will come and put your arms around their shoulders and lift you up.


Those are God's shoulders.


Sometimes, when you're too tired to keep back the tears, and they fall to your shame, friends will see, and wipe them for you, with their own hands.


Those are God's hands.


Sometimes, when your own heart is too weary to know the way, friends will beg God on your behalf, pouring their hearts into their prayers.


That is God's heart.

"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.  

"I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy.  I will shepherd the flock with justice.  I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety.  

"I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.  I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing."  (from Ezekiel 34)

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

(Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice)

For [God] says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,  and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.               (Romans 9:15-16)

[words from an old hymn I remember my mother singing in church]

There shall be showers of blessing:  

This is the promise of love.

There shall be seasons refreshing,

Sent from the Savior above.

There shall be showers of blessing;

Send them upon us, O Lord.

Grant to us now a refreshing;

Come and now honor Your Word.

There shall be showers of blessing; 

O that today they might fall,

Now as to God we're confessing,

Now as on Jesus we call!

Showers of blessing,

Showers of blessing we need.

Mercydrops round us are falling,

But for the showers we plead.

(Daniel W. Whittle)

"Mercydrops 'round us are falling, but for the showers we plead ..."