saved by...

What does the word 'grace' actually mean and actually imply?

The bible says we're saved by it.
What does that mean exactly?

ceedub wrote:
What does the word 'grace' actually mean and actually imply?

The bible says we're saved by it.
What does that mean exactly?

Grace is God's unmerited favor. "Though our sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow." When we come to the realization that we are a sinner and cannot be in the presence of a Holy God with sin in our heart and we cannot remove it ourself. We come humbly to Jesus who paid the price for all sin and ask for forgiveness it is through faith in Him and by His grace we are cleansed of the sin that seperates us from Him. To quote John Newton: "Twas grace that tought my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved."

ceedub wrote:
What does the word 'grace' actually mean and actually imply?

The bible says we're saved by it.
What does that mean exactly?

Logic:
Kindness, favor...etc...

There's definitely two different renditions of grace out there.
If John Newton believed grace meant 'kindness, favor etc' I don't think he'd have sung that it taught his heart to fear.

The reason Newton wrote that, I believe, is because, like the prodigal, he knew that the walk back to the Father was fearful. To come to God in need of actual grace, that is, to come to God with completely empty hands and moreover a pile of wrong that needs His mercy... that is scary.

True grace teaches our hearts to fear.

Cheap, artificial grace; the kind that gives God alot of the glory but holds back some for ourselves, whether we admit it or not, isn't really saving grace at all.

And it doesn't teach us to fear.

It teaches us to boast. And not in the cross.

Rom 11:6

By God's divine influence we are brought to the point where we freely choose to repent of our sins and believe the Gospel, so that our penalty can be remitted by God's unmerited forgiveness because of the atonement.

See, this is what I just don't get.
This response says we have to repent and believe of our own free-will first, and then God can grant unmerited forgiveness.

So first we have to do this, this, this and this....then God will grant unmeritted forgiveness and unmeritted grace upon us because of what we did of our own free will, our own actions of will.

I think this is what Paul was speaking to in Rom 11:6

This definition is from the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology [i]“God’s generous initiative and sustaining faithfulness culminating in the powerful, restorative activity of God on behalf of humanity”[/i]

I borrowed this from the Resurgence as it sums it up better than I could-
[i]"Grace, therefore is a character trait of God that is independent of human influence, yet sufficient and effective in transforming those to whom it is displayed. Scripture uses words such as “lovingkindness” and “favor” to describe grace, and the result is the recipient’s ongoing delight in God"[/i]

In swedish we do not have this word, exactly translated, so it has been my endevour to try grasp the words meening :-) sometimes in swedish it is translated , mercy, favor, mercifulness etc.

And sometimes the translators just skipped the word, like when paul writes his letters in some he says "grace, mercy and....." so they just skipped the word since it would be strange to translate it mercy and mercy to you"

I think mercy is when we received from God that which we did not deserve, grace is Gods favor when he enables us to live out what he has done for us, the only thing we need is His grace, so being saved by grace to me means that we are saved by Gods power and will that enables us to walk in faith in the same manner as Christ did on this earth. in all things, all trials, all temptations then Gods grace is sufficient, and by His grace we are saved, not just once upon a time, but daily in every situation his grace is sufficient that we would walk in faith like Christ did.

:-) i am sure others have a much better definition , but that is what i have noticed so far

Gods grace to all of you in abundance!

In swedish we do not have this word

Thanks for sharing that brother, I had no idea about that.

Is Swedish anything like German? If so, you could always check out Luther's translation of the New Testament.

hi, the heart of man is desparately wicked...grace begins when the Holy Spirit kneads the heart of man from stone to flesh so it can receive the word with gladness and respond in a positive manner...grace continues as you hear that still small voice in your heart prompting you to come to the altar of God to die to your self and the yielding of the rule of your life to Christ...repentance... you have not chosen me I have chosen you...so we have heard from God and believed and responded... faith toward God. all provided by what Jesus did at the cross.if you can possibly boast in any phase it is not of God. jimp

roaringlamb wrote:

In swedish we do not have this word

Thanks for sharing that brother, I had no idea about that.

Is Swedish anything like German? If so, you could always check out Luther's translation of the New Testament.

no it is not like German but i do have many of spurgeons old books, translated in the 1800 to Swedish, found them for like a dollar in a second hand bookstore, worth their value in gold to me :-D but i find the Swedish language has changed much since then, even more then English have from old kjv English, but back then they had more words that have fallen out of use in todays tongue. So that helps some

but i am grateful for the english i know, it have helped me understand what goes lost in translation in Swedish, even tho i know some in English goes lost as well from Greek, but good with Swedish we still have the thees and thous, ye etc in modern language, so we know if God speaks to a person as moses or the people of Israel, you modern English bibles is impossible to tell who God is speaking to sometimes. But also i guess that is why we have so few calvinists brethren in sweden due to the word grace is not to be found ;-) but what goes missing in translation i am more then certain is possible to grasp by the spirit.

There seems to be much less debate when the meaning of the word grace is being discussed.

A few years ago I heard a three part teaching in my church on GRACE. It open my eyes to what grace really is and is not. Grace is not mercy or just forgiveness, although it involves those. The common definition is 'God's unmerited favor', but it is much more than this and there are Scriptures like James 4:6 where its says God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud. So here it appears to be merited, at least by our attitude of humility toward God.

The definition given at the end of the teaching I still think is the best I have heard and it goes like this:

"Grace is God's enabling power and presence to enable us to be all He wants us to be and to do all all He wants us to do"

In other words Grace is something that enables us or gives us what what we need to be right and walk right with God. Now this was based on a three part teaching, which I don't have, but if you do a study on Grace you could find out!

Heydave, I have almost the same thing as you! I took this from a Zac Poonen sermon (links below).

by ceedub on 2009/10/5 15:15:38
What does the word 'grace' actually mean and actually imply?

The bible says we're saved by it.
What does that mean exactly?

Grace is God's power and resources all made available to us according to what our need is. Our first need is forgiveness of sins Eph 1.7 - [i]In Him we have redemption through His blood, the [b]forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace[/b][/i]

But those riches of grace goes way beyond forgiveness of sins; that's just the beginning. When we move on from forgiveness of sins we find we have this other problem in our life of our constantly being defeated by the sinful nature that we've inherited from Adam.

And that's our number 2 problem. Our number 1 problem is the guilt of our past life which is taken care of by the blood of Jesus Christ. And we have forgiveness of sins according to the riches of HIS grace!

This is [b]ALL[/b] taken from Zac Poonen's sermons from his website (I could not find these on SI).

[url=http://www.cfcindia.net/tbsaudio/10_New_Covenant_Privileges/1_Grace_and_law.mp3][i]New Covenant Privileges: 1 Grace and law[/i]

[/url][url=http://www.cfcindia.net/tbsaudio/10_New_Covenant_Privileges/2_Pleasing_God.mp3][i]New Covenant Privileges: 2 Pleasing God[/i]

[/url][url=http://www.cfcindia.net/tbsaudio/10_New_Covenant_Privileges/3_The_fullness_of_the_Spirit.mp3][i]New Covenant Privileges: 3 The fullness of the Spirit[/i][/url]

EPH 2:8/9...

Bible Knowledge Commentary
Ephesians: Harold W. Hoehner, AB, THM, THD, PHD, (Director of Doctor of Theology Studies, chairman and professor of NT literature and exegesis, Dallas Theological Seminary)
offered this exegesis:

These verses explain "the incomparable riches of His grace" (v. 7), expanding the parenthetical statement in verse 5, It is by grace you have been saved, and adding that the means of this salvation is, through faith. Hence, the basis is grace and the means is faith alone. (cf. Rom. 3:22, 25; Galatians 2:16; 1 Peter 1:5). Faith is not a "work." It does not merit salvation; it is only the means by which one accepts God's free salvation.

Paul elaborated, And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Much debate has centered around the demonstrative pronoun "this" (touto). Though some think it refers back to grace and others to faith, neither of these suggestions is really valid because the demonstrative pronoun is nueter, whereas "grace" and "faith" are feminine. Also, to refer back to either of these words specifically seems to be redundant. Rather, the nueter touto, as is common, refers to the preceding phrase or clause. (In Ephesians 1:15 and 3:1, touto, "this", refers back to the preceding section.) Thus it refers back to the concept of salvation (2: 4-8a), whose basis is grace and means is faith. This salvation does not have its source in man (it is "not from yourselves"), but rather, its source is God's grace for "it is the gift of God."

Verse 9 reinforces this by showing that the means is not by works since its basis is grace (Rom. 3:20, 28; 4:1-5; 11:6; Gal. 2:16; 2Tim 1:9; Titus 3:5), and its means is faith (Rom 4:5). Therefore, since no person can bring salvation to himself by his own efforts, no one can boast (cf. Rom. 3:27; 1Cor. 1:29). Their boasting can only be in the Lord (1Cor. 1:31).