For the next few weeks, our Sunday school class will be studying Galatians. Each week we will take a term from the lesson and explore its definition. We use the Explore the Bible curriculum from Lifeway, but even if you are not studying Galatians, you may benefit from going deeper into the meaning of words used frequently in the New Testament. We hope you enjoy this change of pace!
Galatians
1:3 Grace5485 be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our
Lord Jesus Christ,
Susie: Many
of us have learned this acronym to define grace:
God’s Riches At Christ’s
Expense
Another
definition of grace I was taught was “unmerited favor.”
Susan: I understood grace as something that God
did on my behalf that I had no power or ability to do for myself. I am keenly
aware of His grace every day because there is so much I cannot do for myself,
and He provides someone else to do those things for me.
Susie: Susan’s understanding of grace reminds me
of a chorus:
I owed
a debt I could not pay.
He
paid a debt He did not owe.
Hear
the whole song here:
Susie: We understand that grace is even more than
mercy. Mercy is not receiving a consequence we deserve, but grace is receiving
blessings we do not deserve.
Susan: In order to gain a better understanding of
God’s grace, let’s look up the definition of the Greek word used in this verse:
The
New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible:
5485
charis – graciousness of manner or act . . . especially the divine influence
upon the heart, and its reflection in the life – acceptable benefit, favour,
gift, grace (-ious), joy, liberality, pleasure, thank (-s, -worthy).
Susie: The portion of this definition that really
stands out as something not made clear to me earlier in life is “the divine
influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.” Is that not what
salvation by grace is all about?
Susan: The divine influence: It is God who does
the work. We cannot be “good enough” to deserve salvation. We cannot work our
way to Heaven.
Susie: In fact, we cannot come to Jesus to accept
His gift of grace, unless the Father does the work to draw us to Himself and
quicken us, make us alive spiritually.
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last
day.
Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and sins . . .
Susie: Grace is God’s influence upon our hearts
drawing us into right relationship with Him. But the definition includes the
result of our surrendering to the Holy Spirit tugging on our hearts.
Susan: The result of grace is “its reflection in
the life.”
Susie: God working in our lives makes a change in
how we view ourselves and relate to others.
Susan: It is going from a “my way” mentality to a
“God’s way” mentality. As that transformation occurs, we realize that God’s way
is the best way.
Susie: When we submit our lives to Jesus, the
Lord’s Holy Spirit enters us enabling us to become more like Christ. One of the
most quoted passages on salvation with grace is:
Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Susie: Salvation is completely by grace. We do
not earn it with our works, good deeds. However, that “divine influence” then
results in our performing the works God has planned for each of us.
Susan: His Holy Spirit working within the
believer empowers us to have the mind of Christ, placing God’s will above our
own and thinking of others before ourselves.
Philippians 2:4-8 Look not every man on
his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
Susie: Even our good deeds and encouraging words,
a.k.a. works, are God working in and through us.
Philippians 2:13 For it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Susan: This is one of my all-time favorite
scripture verses. I an argument with God, going on for six years, telling the
Lord why I was not an appropriate candidate for His assignment for me. He was
calling me to be His mouthpiece, His megaphone to share the Good News of Jesus.
I told the Lord (as if He didn’t know) that I was a woman, used a wheelchair, and
did not feel confident speaking publicly. But we see who won the argument!
Susie: Obviously, God enabled Susan to fulfill
His calling on her life.
1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry . . .
Susie: The empowerment of God in our lives that
helps us to do His will is not a one-time or occasional happening. He continues
to mold us into the image of His Son until He calls us home to be with Him.
Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren.
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ
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