What Grace Is (eBook)

CHAPTER 1

GOD’S GRACE IS A LANGUAGE

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever.

He does not deal wth us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.

—PSALM 103:8–11, A PSALM OF DAVID

When people speak of grace, they could be referring to someone’s character or to the way one moves. The first would be in reference to someone who is generous and takes no offence at criticism. Of such a person we might hear it said, “He has the grace to acknowledge what he owes to others.” The second would be in reference to someone’s physical ability. Of such a person we might hear, “She glides across the ballroom floor with grace.” Of course, both nuances can be combined in the word “grace.” For example, we sometimes hear people say of someone, perhaps on the occasion of retirement, “He will no longer appear on the stage that he has graced for thirty years.”

However, the far more profound association of the word “grace” is in reference to God. God is himself characterized by grace, and he also is a giver of grace. Divine grace forgives, heals, restores, and imparts strength, especially in reference to moral decisions in the face of temptation. It is grace that makes it possible for God to love a rebellious sinner. But this grace is not limited to God; it is also a characteristic of humans who show grace to one another. This is not surprising, for humans are made “in the image of God.” So if one of God’s characteristics is grace, it should be one of ours also.

Before we look at examples of grace in action, it will be helpful to take stock of the vocabulary of grace. A review of the language of grace in Scripture will help us understand the range and application of the meaning of this word. Grace is one of the most important themes in the Bible. One could say that grace undergirds God’s redemptive work. For if God was not a God of grace, it isn’t likely he would bother with errant, foolish humanity. Yet, he does. Let’s start by considering Hebrew personal names. That may seem strange, but Israelites took their names very seriously, for they expressed character and hope.

GRACE EXPRESSED

Some fifty names in the Old Testament derive from the Hebrew ḥēn (“grace”) word group. These include Baal-hanan (“master of grace”; Gen 36:38), Elhanan (“grace of God”; 2 Sam 21:19), Hananel (“grace of God”; Neh 3:1), Hananiah (“grace of Yah”; 1 Chr 3:19), Hannah (“grace”; 1 Sam 1:2), Hanun (“gracious”; 2 Sam 10:1), Jehohanan (“grace of Yah”; 1 Chr 26:3). (Yah is a shortened form of Yahweh, the name of the God of Israel. Scholars believe Yahweh means “he is,” though it could mean “he causes to be.”) Even the Punic names Hanno and Hannibal derive from the word “grace.” (The Punic language, like Hebrew, is Semitic.) One of my favorite rabbis from the approximate time of Jesus is Hanina (“Favor” or “Grace”) ben Dosa, a pious holy man believed to have been especially favored by God. Some rabbis even imagined Hanina as a little boy sitting in God’s lap.

Modern masculine names derived from the word “grace” include John, Johan or Johannes (German), Jean (French), Juan (Spanish), Giovanni (Italian), Jan (Dutch), and Ivan (Russian). Modern female names include Hannah, Anna, Ann, Nancy, Anita (Spanish), and Annette (French). One would be hard-pressed to find another Hebrew word that generated so many names.

Some may recognize the Hebrew name Channah and its shortened version Hannah as the mother of the great prophet and priest Samuel (1 Sam 1–2), the man who near the end of his life anointed David as Israel’s king. The childless Hannah begged God for a son and, in keeping with her name, God graciously answered her prayer. The mother of Samuel is the only person in the Old Testament to have the name Hannah, yet because of this story, her name became very popular in later times. In the New Testament we have Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:36), who, in a context probably meant to remind us of what happened in the books of Samuel, recognized in the infant Jesus the approaching redemption of Israel. From the time of Christian beginnings and the circulation of the Gospel of Luke the name Hannah/Anna became commonplace throughout the world.

The Hebrew word ḥēn comes from the verb ḥānah, which means to “show favor” or “mercy.” A related noun is ḥānînâ, which is usually translated “favor.” The verb that lies behind this noun is ḥānan, which is usually translated “be gracious” or “have pity.” The adjective ḥannûn means “gracious.” These words—and there are a few others from the same verbal family—occur more than one hundred times in the Hebrew Bible (i.e., the Old Testament). These words are also part of the vocabulary of the ancient Near East. They appear in ancient Assyrian and Babylonian texts in the sense of “granting favor.” An ancient letter found among the El-Amarna texts is addressed to Pharaoh of Egypt: “If the king, my lord, has mercy on me [yi-ih-nanuni] and brings me back to the city, I will protect it as formerly.” Another man, protesting his innocence, petitions Pharaoh: “May the king be gracious [yi-en-ni-nunumi] to us.”

Scholars wonder if the original meaning of ḥānah was to stoop down or condescend for the purpose of helping someone. Not all agree with this suggestion, but it is agreed that the basic meaning of the verb is to have a kind attitude toward someone and to be willing to extend something gracious and beneficial. This idea is seen in Genesis 33:5, where the Lord (Yahweh) is gracious to the patriarch Jacob in giving him children. In three-quarters of the occurrences of this verb the Lord is the subject. In many of these examples the Lord extends favor to the weak, lost, and poor. Typically it is to those who humble themselves and cry out for help to whom the Lord extends grace.

An important aspect of God’s grace is seen in his covenant with Israel. God’s grace, like his covenant, is a gift. It cannot be earned. After Israel’s dreadful sin of idolatry, God is willing to renew his covenant. Why? “I am gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,” the Lord explains to Moses (Exod 33:19). When God renews the covenant and passes before Moses, he proclaims: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exod 34:6–7; echoed in Joel 2:13).

In the time between the Testaments most (or perhaps all) the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek. This was done because many Jewish people and gentiles interested in the Jewish faith read Greek, not Hebrew, at this time. The Greek translation allows us to compare the Greek equivalents of the Hebrew words for grace and its word family.

The nouns ḥēn and ḥānînâ are frequently translated as charis (“grace”) and eleos (“mercy”) in the Greek Old Testatment. These words appear frequently in the Greek New Testament. The adjective ḥannûn is typically translated with forms of oiktirmōn and eleēmon, both of which mean “merciful.” In fact, these words often appear together. Not from the same verbal family but often linked and similar in meaning is the Hebrew word ḥesed, often translated as “lovingkindness,” “kindness,” or “mercy.” This word occurs more than two hundred times in the Old Testament, and in Greek it is usually rendered as eleos (“mercy”). But sometimes ḥesed is rendered in Greek as dikaiosunē, meaning “justice.” In the New Testament these Greek words—charis, eleos, and dikaiosunē—occur some 250 times.

The importance of this vocabulary lies in the fact that it does not presuppose reciprocity, or quid pro quo (“something for something”). That is, this vocabulary revolves around the concept that God—and people following God’s example—is willing to extend grace, mercy, and kindness to people who do not necessarily deserve grace, mercy, and kindness. This is why theologians sometimes define grace (whether in reference to the Greek or Hebrew words) as “unmerited favor.” Thus, grace is something beneficial that is extended to someone who might not deserve it or has not earned it, nor can he or she pay it back. Grace is nowhere better illustrated than in forgiveness, for forgiveness often does not entail restitution. It does sometimes entail restoration but often it does not require repayment or punishment.

When we remember that life in the ancient Near East (that is, the time of the Old Testament) and in the Roman Empire (the time of the New Testament) was difficult and fraught with danger, we can all the more appreciate acts of grace. Often, acts of grace made the difference between life and death. The ancient...