Grace (Grec.: charis) has been defined in many ways at many times. The
Bible, especially the New Testament speaks much of grace. It is
important to know what it really means.
Grace has been defined as the unearned, unmerited favour of God, but really this is a very inadequate definition. All grace is favour, but not all unearned favour is grace. This definition does helps us to see that it is something good that comes from God, which we don't deserve. It is a gift. "The Lord will give grace and glory" (Psalm 84:11). "God .. gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6).
Grace has been defined as the unearned, unmerited favour of God, but really this is a very inadequate definition. All grace is favour, but not all unearned favour is grace. This definition does helps us to see that it is something good that comes from God, which we don't deserve. It is a gift. "The Lord will give grace and glory" (Psalm 84:11). "God .. gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6).
Two important things to realize about grace is the totally undeserving nature of the recipient (us), and the totally generous nature of the giver (God).
It is important to realize that God may give grace as He pleases. He can set conditions, or waive them. No one can demand grace from God based on what they have done. Grace is something you cannot earn by good works or even by suffering. No amount of religious activity - Bible study, prayer, obedience to church leaders, fasting, church programmes gives you the right to expect God to bless you or help you in any way. Giving money to the poor or to the church does not earn us any right to God's favour or blessings. Your struggle to obey God's commandments does not earn you God's grace either. Nothing you do can make God owe you grace. "Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt." (Romans 4:4). The things we do for God or others - our works - if they earned favour with God, this favour would not be grace, but rather something that God owes us according to the principle of what is just and fair. "And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work." (Romans 11:6)
The fact that grace is unearned and unmerited does not tell us everything about grace, because it does not tell us what grace does. A more practical definition of grace could be "God's life, power and righteousness coming to us, the undeserving, as a gift." It is through grace that God works effective change in our hearts and lives. God's laws in themselves do not have the power to make us what we should be. It takes God Himself, working in the human life, to make us what we ought to be. At every step, we are dependent on God's life and power to come to us and work within our hearts, if we want to be what God wants and do what He wants.
It follows therefore that we cannot say that our life and power, independent of God, is sufficient to fulfil God's plan. No, every proud religious effort to keep a set of rules, even Biblical rules, is doomed to failure. To live under the law in this way is to be separated from Christ and to be fallen from grace. Paul wrote to some people who had come to fall exactly in this trap. He writes, "You have become estranged from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified [made right] by law [rules]; you have fallen from grace!" (Galatians 5:4).
So then, grace is God's life, power and righteousness coming to us, the undeserving as a gift.
Grace gives us a new life which is not condemned by God. Through God's grace we are forgiven. Grace also transforms our thinking, resulting in the renewal of the mind. Through grace we are sanctified and made holy. Grace enables us to live the kind of generous, carefree life of service and joy that God would like every one of His children to experience.
We will now consider more in detail what the grace of God does.