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secure as that human faith may be,
it helps lead us to accept Christ and
to be baptized for the forgiveness of
our sins (Acts 2:38). At that time, we
receive the Holy Spirit as a gift - as
a begettal within us (Acts 5:32;
Ephesians 1: 13). The Holy Spirit in–
fuses us with the very faitb - the
spiritual faítb - that Jesus Christ
bimself has. That is why the apostle
Paul could say: "1 am crucified witb
Christ: nevertbeless 1 live; yet not 1,
but Christ liveth in me: and tbe life
which 1 now live in the ftesh 1 live
by
the faith of the Son of God,
wbo
loved me, and gave himself forme"
(Galatians 2:20).
Thus, saving faith itself
is
a gift
from God, which he supplies when
an individual who accepts Jesus
Christ as Saviour repents and is
baptized.
But what, then, is grace?
What About Grace?
Grace is not something which
should be treated lightly. Unfortu–
nately, many peop1e have misunder–
stood exactly what God's grace is.
Sorne be1ieve it is a special spiritual
"condition" or "exalted state."
Tbe English word grace comes
from tbe Greek
charis.
Tbayer's
Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament
defines this word as that
which affords joy, pleasure, deligbt ,
sweetness, charro, loveliness.
1t
means "goodwill, loving-kindness,
favor." Tbe word is used essentially
to refer to the kindness or favor
which God bestows upon one wbo
does not deserve it. Thus it refers to
unmerited kindness and merey, or
undeserved pardon.
It
connotes the
idea of forgiveness.
For example, when a criminal is
apprebended by law enforcement
officials, tried, convicted of
bis
crirne, and put into prison, be is in a
condition of "condemnation."
But if tbe case comes to tbe atten–
tion of a high official who can and
does commute tbe sentence, this
person bestows "grace" upon the
convicted criminal. He has been
PLAIN TRUTH September 1973
mercifully pardoned; the crime has
been forgiven. He is free to leave
prison and rejoin society.
Even so, when God forgives a sin–
ner for breaking his divine laws (sin
is the transgression of God's law -
1 John 3:4), in essence giving him a
pardon, be is bestowing "grace" or
"favor" upon him. The sinner, now
forgiven, comes under God 's
"grace." His sins are no longer held
against him.
But if a criminal is granted par–
don, is he simply free to retum to a
life of crime just because be had
received "grace" or "favor"? Of
course not!
Even so, when a sinner repents
before God and receives pardon or
"grace," that does not mean he be–
comes free to transgress God's com–
mandments.
The apostle Paul made this very
plain. He said, " ... Shall we con–
tinue in sin [lawlessness], that grace
[forgiveness or pardon] may
abound?
God forbid ... "
(Romans
6: 1-2).
Paullater asks in this same chap–
ter, "What then? shall we sin, be–
cause we are not under tbe law, but
under grace?
Godforbid"
(verse 15).
Sirnply because a person's sins
have been forgiven and he has been
granted grace, that does not give
him license to commit more sin. lf
we are no longer in a state of con–
demnation - under the claim of the
law, wbicb is death (Romans 6:23)
- that does not mean we are now
free to break God's law!
lf a criminal who has been par–
doned again breaks the same law be
had broken in the first place, the
authorities will apprehend him as
soon as possible and put
him
back
into prison.
Similarly, if a converted Christian
begins to think he may now break
God's law as he once did before his
conversion, after having had his sins
forgiven througb the atonement of
Christ, be will once again come un–
der the condemnation of the law.
The apostle Paul put it clearly in
Hebrews: "For if we sin wilfully af–
ter ... we bave received the knowl–
edge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a cer–
tain fearful looking for of judgment
and fiery indignation, wbicb shall
devour the adversaries" (Hebrews
10:26-27).
He added: "Of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, sball he be
thought wortby, who hath trodden
under foot the Son ofGod, and hath
counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewitb he was sanctified, an un–
holy tbing, and hath done despite
unto the Spirit of grace?" (verse 29.)
Even after a person becomes a
Christian and receives unmerited
pardon for his sins, he still has the
free will to turn his back on God
and return to a life of deliberately
breaking God's commandments.
The apostle Peter says ofsuch: "For
it bad been better for them not to
have known tbe way of righteous–
ness, than, after they bave k:nown it,
to tum from the holy command–
ment delivered unto them" (II Peter
2:21).
Grace, we see, is conditional. We
receive God's grace when we repent
of our sins and accept Christ's sacri–
tice for sin on our behalf. We re–
main under God's grace as long as
we continue faithful to God and
obey bim, keeping his command–
ments with the help of the Holy
Spirit within us. lf we inadvertentJy
sin again, we are guilty and must
ask God's forgiveness - bence the
prayer Jesus told us to pray: "For–
give us our trespasses as we forgive
those wbo trespass against us."
Confusion About "Works"
Now, what does grace bave to do
with works? To listen to sorne
people, one would think the worst
thing a Christian could do would be
to have "good works."
Grace and works do not con–
tradict each other. If they did, then
the Bible bopelessly contradicts
ít–
self and would be useless as a guide
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