Editorial: Dr. Gordon Snider 

Grace is a subject that the church talks about a lot. When I searched on Amazon using the word "grace," 75 pages of entries were found. True, some were not about biblical grace. Still, the church loves to talk about grace. Some of the more well-known titles of our time are

          Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges

          Awakening Grace by Charles Swindoll

          What's So Amazing about Grace by Philip Yancey 

Some other titles that caught my attention were

          Vanishing Grace by Philip Yancey

Grace, Not Perfection: Embracing Simplicity, Celebrating Joy by Emily Ley

Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness by Matthew Stafford

And what Christian has not heard that in the Old Testament, they lived under law, but in the New Testament, we live under grace? 

Yes, we talk a lot about grace, but do we know what it means? 

A standard answer to that question is "unmerited favor." The Roman Catholic Church defines grace as "favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call." Some people seem to suggest that grace = acceptance without conditions. That definition leads us into the adjective – "gracious." Seen in that way, grace is defined as "a smooth and pleasing way of moving, or a polite and thoughtful way of behaving." That definition leads to the word "graceful." These are all connected terms,  and reflect the many different thoughts and feelings that may be triggered in others when we use the word "grace." Another book title that caught my attention was Tenacious Grace. But this book has nothing to do with the Bible. In fact, the book's subtitle is Redefine Your Relationship With Food and End Emotional Eating. 

We need to be very precise when we use this common word because it may be understood in ways we did not intend. When we use the word in a secular sense, it is acceptable to allow Webster to define it for us. But as a Christian term, we must allow the Bible itself to explain grace. A search on the biblical use of this word yields several key passages in which an explanation is attached to grace. Let's look at four of those passages in the general order in which they occur in the life of a Christian.  

Passage #1: Romans 3:24 – Justifying Grace 

This passage stands at the beginning of a section of Romans (3:21- 4:25) in which Paul the apostle seeks to show why God is justified in making redemption available to guilty sinners, dead in their trespasses. Paul has established in chapters 1-3 that all people, Jews, and Gentiles – are in a hopeless situation. They are alienated from God, with no way to reconcile with Him. The reason is clear in 3:23: "All have sinned, and are coming short of the glory of God" (my translation). But then, justifying grace enters the picture in v. 24. To understand what Paul is saying, let's go back and read from v. 21, leaving out Paul's explanation in vs. 22-23.

²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all ^[a]and on all who believe…²⁴ being justified ^[b]freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Grace is not merely an attitude; grace is a power! Grace takes a hopeless, hell-bound soul and gives that person hope for the present and the future. Grace cancels the debt of sin owed to God. It is grace that removes the load of guilt and makes a child of Satan into a saint! It is grace that cancels the power of sin in the life and replaces that power with a desire to please God.

The stuttering preacher, August Leulf, put it this way. Grace is like a fishing pole. It has to be flexible enough to go down where they are, but strong enough to bring them up!"

That is a colorful way of stating what Paul is saying in Romans 3:24. It is grace that reaches us where we are – in our helpless, hopeless condition – and provides us with the help and hope needed to change our lives radically! Grace is "undeserved favor," but to be accurate, you must add that this favor comes into our lives to change our spiritual position and loyalties.

The message of Paul here is "justifying grace."

Passage #2: Titus 2:11, 12 – Transforming Grace

The work of grace, however, only begins in justification – when we get saved.

Titus 2 could be titled "Expectations of the Christian Life." And Paul's expectations are very high. Let's read verses 1-10 in The Message paraphrase.

1 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. 2 Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. 3 Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. 4 By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, 5 be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don't want anyone looking down on God's Message because of their behavior. 6 Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives. 7 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching, 8 your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around. 9 Guide slaves into being loyal workers, a bonus to their masters - no back talk, 10 no petty thievery. Then their good character will shine through their actions, adding luster to the teaching of our Savior God. 

Woe, Paul! Haven't you read the bumper sticker – "I'm not perfect; just forgiven?" How do you think anyone can live up to those expectations?

Paul seems to have been expecting your question because he immediately answers it in verses 11 and 12. The answer is the grace of God – the transforming grace of God. Again, the grace of God is not just an attitude; it is a power! Holy living is not a self-help, self-discipline program. Instead, it is a crucifixion of self so that the grace of God through His Holy Spirit can work in our lives. Change is possible, and change is needed in all of us! James emphasizes that point in chapter one. Beginning with v. 19, James highlights the role of the Word in that change process and compares the Word to a mirror. There are two purposes for a mirror. One is to admire yourself. Spiritually speaking, that is called pride. The other purpose of a mirror is to find and fix your faults. James says that some Christians look into the mirror of the Word, see their faults, and immediately forget them. He calls these people self-deceived. Instead, he urges us all to be doers of the Word, pay attention to the faults the Word reveals in us, and submit ourselves to the grace of God, which, Paul says, has appeared to transform us! The only way to grow in our walk with God is to let the Word show us our faults and then let the grace of God fix them. The other option is spiritual death.

Grace is a transforming power!

“Human beings are moved by beauty. If we want to change the world, we need, first of all, to be able to make people dream about beauty” (Rubem Azevedo Alves). How do you respond to that statement?

We all agree that there is a lot of ugly in our world: attitudes, actions, words, just to name a few. And it is easy for even Christians to get so caught up fighting ugly that we become ugly. The statement above suggests that the best weapon for fighting ugly is beauty. But where, in this world, can a person find beauty?

At the end of the creation account (Genesis 1:31), God reviews everything He has made and pronounces it “Good.” But “good” is a broad word and even more expansive in Hebrew than English. The simple meaning is pleasant; agreeable to the senses. But the meaning changes depending upon what “sense” you have in mind. When the sense is sight, good can easily be replaced with beautiful. For example, Abraham was concerned about losing his wife in Egypt because she was fair to look upon – beautiful (Genesis 12). Numerous examples could be cited to support the idea that beauty is a key concept in the Bible. If you need proof, do a Google search on “the theology of beauty.”

Few people would debate that “human beings are moved by beauty.” Why are roses so highly valued? They are beautiful, as are mountains, lakes, sunsets, etc. God made our world beautiful beyond description! So why have some Christians become such negative people? One answer is that they have become so focused on the ugly that they no longer see the beauty.

Similarly, few people would debate that God made the female sex beautiful in the eyes of men. The women described as beautiful include Sarah, Rachel, Rebekkah, Bathsheba,  Abishag, Vashti, and the heroine of Song of Solomon. Yes, the New Testament talks about Sarah’s inner beauty, and that will be my next point. But the Bible makes it clear that men were moved when they saw the outward beauty of these women (See quote above.) Being moved by the beauty of a woman need not include the lust Jesus spoke of (Matthew 5:28). God made women pleasant to the eye. The beauty is His creation, not theirs. Thank God for bringing that sense of beauty into your life, just as you do when you see a rose or a sunset. Sin takes place when you attempt to cut that rose and take it home with you. That is what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 5:28.

A third area of beauty we can all agree upon is a beautiful attitude! It may be a spirit of forgiveness or graciousness. Perhaps nothing moves a stranger like a genuine smile that conveys warmth and acceptance. A gift, given without a reason, almost always moves the recipient, as does a quiet word at a timely moment. Suppose a woman leaves off the external claims to beauty spoken of by Peter (expensive clothes, jewelry, or elaborate hairstyles) but does not add the beauty of spirit spoken of here. In that case, that person has no beauty at all – nothing with which to move the world.

Let’s go back to the quote from the top: “Human beings are moved by beauty. If we want to change the world, we need, first of all, to be able to make people dream about beauty” (Rubem Azevedo Alves). We often think of evangelism as presenting God’s Word to the lost, and it is. But evangelism is also “making people dream about beauty.”

How do you do that? Is beauty a part of your evangelistic approach? God has made the world in which we live beautiful; despite sin's effects, it still is! When God saw that the man He had made needed a partner, He created a beautiful woman, and He is still in that business. Beautiful attitudes are the exception in our bombastic world and still get attention.

“If we want to change the world, we need, first of all, to be able to make people dream about beauty.”