What is Grace?

It sounds like a simple question. "What is grace?" It was posed to us in our small group discussion on Sunday morning. Lynn Riley provided an answer that I was not expecting. I may be paraphrasing but she said "undeserving love from God". I guess I have never really studied it before so Monday and Tuesday I spent some time looking up "What is grace?"

I am starting to refer to Wikipedia more and more these days. I liked the definition of Divine Grace and the additional reference information posted. Granted Wikipedia provides a very technical definition but I am a technical kind of guy. A few of the excerpts from this site…

• divine grace refers to the sovereign favor of God for humankind — especially in regard to salvation — irrespective of actions ("deeds"), earned worth, or proven goodness.
• The New Testament exhibits a tension between two aspects of grace: the idea that grace is from God and sufficient to cover any sin, and the idea that grace does not free Man from his responsibility to behave rightly.

There are many resources for studying “What is grace? Just type in a Google search and see where it takes you. It leads to other definitions and comparisons...Grace, Love, Mercy, Kindness, Forgiveness….

So my questions are:

• We all can receive God’s grace but can we give grace to others? Perhaps we cannot give divine grace, (forgiveness of sins and the promise of salvation) but think about how you could show love to another irrespective of their actions or worth.
• Or is it Grace comes from God and how we can “show grace” in our lives is through the Fruits of the Spirit? Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control.

john