"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.". People of many faiths sing that hymn. It is played by trumpet or bagpipes at funerals. It is sung in secular settings like a folk song. "Amazing Grace" is known by many peoples in other lands.........BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHAT IS GRACE?
We define it most often by saying, "The unmerited favor of God.". That is a simple and reliable definition. As with most simple definitions there is so much more. CHARIS is the New Testament word for grace. It's root seems to indicate, "what gives pleasure or joy". The Greek word for "joy" is CHARA and has the same root as the word for GRACE. Joy, to the people in biblical days was an emotion felt as they recognized the grace of God. Jesus did not use the word in any of His biblical sayings. However, He taught it by what he did, and by his parables. The Good Samaritan story is an example. The theologian Brunner stated, "Jesus was the grace of God in person.".
Paul used the word CHARIS almost 100 times! Grace, to him, was the giving and forgiving love of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. For Paul, grace was far beyond any ideas of merit or reward. Romans 11:6 says, "If by grace, no longer out of works, else grace no longer is grace. Paul denied grace as being a reward for works. He affirmed that grace produces works or a new life. Frank Stagg makes this comment: " The grace of God which was embodied in Jesus (John 1:17) becomes embodied in any person who by faith receives Jesus Christ into himself as a living and transforming presence. The grace of God is freely offered but is never coercive. It must be received in faith."
Application: We can sing our hearts out, but until those words become action through Christ being accepted by faith in our lives..... grace is meaningless to us. Grace is seen in God through giving His Son as a perfect sacrifice. Grace is seen in Christ through His own death on the cross. Grace is experienced and SEEN in each person who receives Christ in his/her heart, for then that one becomes a tiny mirror of the Savior.
There are those who refuse to sing our National Anthem for religious or personal reasons. I respect that. Being simply an American-born person does not mean that person is committed to this country. When we doff our caps or place our hands over the heart and SING the National Anthem it should mean we are willing to give all we have and are, if called on, by our nation. You know that isn't always the case. Neither is it in many who gustily sing the great hymn of John Newton, "Amazing Grace".
