Divine grace is not something we earn; it is the gift of God to men. It is not capricious; it acts as impartial and unfailing law. But there must be a response to it. Such grace calls forth our most unselfed sense of gratitude. It does not enter an ungrateful heart. When responded to, divine grace has the power to relieve anyone of any untoward situation.
Hastings Dictionary of the Bible gives one definition of it as "God's unmerited, unconstrained love towards sinners, revealed and operative in Christ." In Christian Science it is not unusual for one to experience God's grace in the effortless and immediate release from some serious affliction. Later on, he may find himself again in need of healing and seemingly find it necessary to struggle to gain his freedom. This is the time for him to devote himself earnestly to understand what divine grace really is, and how, as law, it continuously acts in bestowing its blessings.
One may be helped to gain his freedom by realizing that susceptibility to sin or disease often indicates a degree of spiritual impoverishment that requires prayerful attention. This impoverishment may not be as obvious as physical impoverishment, but it is even more weakening and enervating. Physical impoverishment makes one inferior merely to his physical environment, but spiritual impoverishment renders one inferior to his mental and moral, as well as his physical, environment. Such a condition evidences one's need to partake of the meat and bread that nourish spiritually.
