IN his messages to the early Christian churches Paul frequently refers to the spiritual quality of grace; and a study of the passages containing this word reveals a wealth of spiritual truth. He refers to the grace of God as bringing salvation. Elsewhere grace is linked with peace and with truth as qualities indispensable in the working out of salvation. Grace is thus seen to be the gift of God, and indicates a state of true consciousness in which we are exhorted to dwell, and through which salvation may be won. Through the manifestation of this heavenly quality by the individual, the Christ-way, or the Christian life, can be followed in daily experience.
A dictionary definition of the word "grace" is "the mercy of God, as distinguished from His justice;" while "favor, kindness," are presented as synonyms of "grace." Christian Science reveals the grace of God as inseparable from divine justice. The just law of divine Principle is the compelling rod which keeps mortals from their own undoing, and saves them from themselves by destroying all their iniquities or false beliefs, and healing all their diseases. Since God is One, indivisible, no divine attribute of infinite Mind can be at variance with any other eternal divine attribute. The justice of divine Love is, then, infinitely compassionate. Thus, divine grace, as glimpsed by spiritual seers in all ages, could never be separated from unchanging wisdom and unvarying good.
The life and work of Christ Jesus revealed God's love as a tangible reality. The Master's gift to humanity of the Sermon on the Mount, including the Lord's Prayer and the Golden Rule, brought the grace of the kingdom of God into mankind's daily experience. Before Jesus' advent many of the prophets, while recording glorious instances of divine protection and guidance, as well as of human courage and devotion to spiritual truth, still dwelt largely upon penalties under the religious law of those far-off centuries; upon retribution and probation. With the coming of the Messiah, however, the practical possibility of reflecting God's grace was so winningly proclaimed that doubt and dread vanished. The New Testament is one continuous and unvarying assurance of the ability and willingness of God to heal and to save to the utmost those who put their trust in divine help and live in accordance with the precepts given by the Master.
