The concept of God's grace has been basic to Christian theology since the earliest days of the Church. In the Bible, Paul often writes on the subject—in fact, the Pauline epistles include more references to grace than the rest of the New Testament Gospels, letters, and other books combined. Paul's epistles regularly open and close with salutations and benedictions of grace. And in the tradition of Paul, the letter to the Hebrews declares, "For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace ...."Heb. 13:9.
From firsthand experience Paul knew much about the grace of God. Hadn't he felt Love's chastening touch as he made his way toward Damascus? God's grace had saved Paul—the effect had been literally to change him from Saul to Paul, lifting him from his position as one who judged and condemned Christians, up to a God-appointed mission as teacher, preacher, healer. Paul now followed in the footsteps of the Master, Christ Jesus. And he knew it had been a direct result of the transforming grace of God: "For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am." I Cor. 15:9, 10.
The Greek word used in the New Testament writings is charis (grace). One Bible authority notes that the root meaning includes "the gladdening, joy-bringing," and that the Greeks commonly saluted one another with "Joy to you!" (The Christians would come to greet one another with "Grace to you!") The same reference work continues, "There is little in earlier phraseology [before the Christian era] to explain the supremacy in the [New Testament] of this specific term; a new experience demanded a new name. 'Grace' designates the principle in God of man's salvation through Jesus Christ. It is God's unmerited, unconstrained love towards sinners, revealed and operative in Christ." James Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), p. 313. And, as the preceding editorial in this issue indicates, another Bible research work expands the definition of charis (grace) as "the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life." James Strong, "Greek Dictionary of the New Testament," in The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (New york: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1953), p. 77.
