What is grace?

Question: Could you explain grace?

Response: God is Grace. In the New Testament, the Greek word translated “Grace” is “charis.” It comes from the verb “Chairo” which means “rejoice.” So Grace implies something that is beautiful and brings you joy. “Eucharisto” is another Greek word based on “Charis,” and it means to give thanks (it’s also where we get our word “eucharist,” as in the Lord’s Supper). Grace is something for which we give thanks. We only give thanks for things that we don’t think we have earned or deserve. So Grace is often defined as “undeserved favor.” Quite simply, Grace means something like “gift.”

Perhaps the best know grace verse in Scripture is Ephesians 2:8-10: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

In that verse I think you can see that Grace is a gift and that it’s a gift we didn’t earn with works. We’re saved by Grace, and we’re saved by Christ alone. Christ is Grace in human flesh. And Christ is God in human flesh. God is Love and God is our Creator. It turns out that everything that’s anything comes to us through Grace. In other words, all things are a gift of God. To think that we could ever earn anything is an illusion, for we ourselves were created by God. None of us have anything that wasn’t given to us in the first place. So, I must be thankful for all things, and one day I’ll see that evil is really a “no” thing. Evil is the absence of Love, Light, Truth and Life (all of which are God and Grace and Gift).

Well, not only is everything a gift of Love (who is God). But God himself is absolute gift. He is “free Love.” The idea that we could earn God, with something other than the gift of God, is the illusion of the human ego and the lie of the devil. So to know God, we must confess our pride (our arrogant ego) and come to trust (this is faith) the gift of God, who is revealed on the cross, that is Jesus – through him all things are made.

The Grace revealed at the cross is also the Grace that creates all things. At the cross we confess our sin and receive God’s Mercy. At the cross God creates Faith in Grace. Even trusting Grace is a gift of Grace. Quite simply, everything that’s anything is Grace. So, Faith in Grace is renouncing the illusion of the human ego and simply accepting the fact that you have been created and are being created by God, who is Love.

Grace is Free Love; God is Love and God is Free.

So, the answer to the question “What is Grace?” is as simple as the word “gift,” and as complex and incomprehensible as the word “God.”

I hope you know that God absolutely loves you because that is just who He is. You can’t earn it. You can only surrender to it and even that is grace. You are created, saved, and redeemed by Grace. It is the Gift and the Power of God that is God.