{"id":1403,"date":"2018-10-04T01:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T06:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/?p=1403"},"modified":"2018-10-09T12:41:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T17:41:28","slug":"key-word-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/2018\/10\/04\/key-word-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Word: Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"
Grace<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Faith, hope, and\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

We have already discussed faith and hope. My guess is that most readers assume they know the third word\u2014love. But that word has been so often discussed and most people today recognize that the biblical meaning of love is not so much about feelings and sentiment as it is about actions. How else could we \u201clove our enemies,\u201d as Christians are called to do? The old KJV translation has real advantages: its term \u201ccharity\u201d may be too narrow, but at least it is action-oriented.<\/p>\n

My third word is not love. Instead, I want to discuss \u201cgrace\u201d [\u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2]. Grace too is a word generally used only in religious talk, although there are exceptions. One may try to stop the verbal abuse of another person by telling the abuser, \u201cShow a little grace,\u201d meaning \u201cmercy.\u201d Or we may speak of a ballet dancer having \u201cgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just as the great reformer Martin Luther brought the word \u201cfaith\u201d to the center of Christian theology, so also he did grace. His famous slogan \u201csola gratia<\/em>\u201d (“grace alone”) makes a good bumper sticker, but it needs to be explained as well as affirmed and shouted. While the English \u201cgrace\u201d may often be the best translation of the Greek word in a particular verse of the Bible, other times the term \u201cgift\u201d is better. Let\u2019s look at a few examples.<\/p>\n

In Romans 1\u20133 we are taught that both Gentile and Jew are guilty before God. Gentiles should know from the creation there is a creator and sustainer and should respond with gratitude. As for the Jews, they cannot claim that being the recipients of the Torah makes them innocent before God. God\u2019s solution to this tragic situation is set out in Romans 3:21\u201326.\"\"<\/p>\n

Notice how the meaning seems clearer if we translate verse 24, \u201cwe are justified freely by his gift<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.\u201d God solved our debt problem, separation from God, with his own gift. Similarly, Romans 5:2 seems clearer, if we read it as \u201caccess to this gift<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>in which we stand.\u201d In both\u00a0cases, \u201cgift\u201d brings out the sense better than \u201cgrace\u201d does.<\/p>\n

In I Corinthians 1:4 Paul says, \u201cI always thank my God for you because of his gift given you in Christ Jesus.” One of the verses where gift stands out well, I think, is Romans 11:5, 6.<\/p>\n

\"\"Romans 4:4 uses the same Greek word typically translated \u201cgrace,\u201d but the NIV and other translations here use \u201cgift\u201d because it seems so obvious, since it is in contrast to wages (Rom 4:4. 5).\u00a0<\/strong>Note the word \u201cfaith,\u201d here too, using the idea of \u201ctrust\u201d as I discussed in a previous post. Our acceptance by God is not from our good deeds, but solely as God\u2019s gift.<\/p>\n

Receiving a gift also brings with it responsibility to respond gratefully. There are \u201cfreely\u201d given gifts, but most gifts assume some response, to manifest gratitude. Consider Jesus\u2019 story of the 10 lepers who were healed but only one returned to give thanks (Luke 17:11\u201319). Our salvation is solely God\u2019s gift, for which gratitude is needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace Faith, hope, and\u2026 We have already discussed faith and hope. My guess is that most readers assume they know the third word\u2014love. But that word has been so often discussed and most people today recognize that the biblical meaning of love is not so much about feelings and sentiment as it is about actions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3510,"featured_media":1388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172431,2764],"tags":[172426,1716,166918,54613,366],"class_list":["post-1403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-interpretation","category-translation","tag-epistles-of-st-paul","tag-hope","tag-interpretation","tag-new-testament","tag-vocabulary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions\/1417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/csart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}