Grace

Grace is the unwarranted favor of God bestowed freely, without expectation of return. Grace, though, is sometimes the descriptive used to denote the gift or enabling given. In other words, grace is itself the gift given. For example, someone might say he had grace to get through a particularly tough day. What is meant by that is he was strengthened by the Lord to meet the trials of the day. God graciously gave the strength and so it is referred to as grace itself. In this venue, grace is sometimes the discipline to live the Christian life. Discipline, I say, must be worked at. It does not come automatically, as its definition, self-control, determines. Control is something one enacts in and for himself. It must be exercised. And it is this grace that more than not makes life worth living and our Christian life useful.

One caution, though, must be made. This self-control which we call discipline must not be enacted by self-strength, as if we possessed such ability. No. It is the act of God in us, an act of grace. He enables us to be disciplined and use, or act-out, that enabling. This thought is proclaimed in Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (NASB). And the apostle Paul, recognizing this grace of God bestowed on him, said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1Corinthians 15:1, NASB). The entirety of the Christian life must be lived in full dependence on the Lord.