Multiple Meanings Of Marvelous Grace Series

A snowstorm made it impossible for a guess speaker to get to the

church where he was to preach. Therefore, a local man was asked to

come in as a substitute. The speaker began by explaining the

meaning of substitute. If you break a window he said, and then place

a cardboard there instead--that is a substitute. After his sermon, a

woman came up to him, shook his hand and wishing to compliment

him said, "You are no substitute. You are a real pane."

Unfortunately, verbal communication does not reveal how a word is

spelled, and so, if he heard "pain" rather than "pane" as she

intended, he would have received a message just the opposite of

what she meant to convey. We must constantly be aware of the

complications of language if we hope to effectively communicate.

Words can be alike and yet be very different depending on the

context. If I say you have good vision, or you have good sight, these

words are very close in meaning. But if I say my daughter is a vision,

and yours is a sight, I am in trouble, for some how they do not

remain synonymous in this context.

When we come to the word grace, or charis in the Greek, we are

dealing with one word that can mean opposite things depending

upon the context. We miss the complexity of this word because in

our English translations there are 11 different English words used to

translate this one Greek word. We are not even aware most often

that charis is being used. The root idea of the word is that which is

pleasing, or which gives pleasure. From there it develops numerous

connections with various kinds of pleasure and favor. It's meaning

becomes so diverse that it is hard to see how the same word can be

used for so many things, and often with no apparent connection.

Our English word grace has followed the same pattern in a small

way. You have a 30 day grace period on your insurance policy. This

fits the idea of unmerited favor. They carry you for 30 days even

though you don't deserve it, because you have not paid your

premium. But what has this got to do with saying grace before you

eat? You do not say unmerited favor, but you say thanks, which is

your expression of favor to God. But if you say the swan has grace,

you do not mean it has unmerited favor, or that it has thanks. You

mean it has natural elegance, beauty of line and movement. It makes

a favorable impression on us by its grace. We haven't begun to list

all the meanings this word can have, but it is clear from these few

examples, that the word has to be constantly redefined according to

the context.

A man living on the boarder of Minnesota and Wisconsin was

puzzled for years as to which state he actually lived in. Finally he got

around to having a special survey made. When the surveyor

reported to him that he lived in Wisconsin, he tossed his hat in the

air and shouted, "Hooray! No more of those cold Minnesota

winters!" Of course, redefining where you are located does not

change the weather, but to redefine a word can change the whole

atmosphere of a passage.

Grace is a warm and positive word usually, but it can be used in a

cold and negative way. Charis means favor, and favor can be shown

to those who do not deserve it, and thus, you have unmerited favor.

Sound great doesn't it? But what if you were a student who worked

hard for a scholarship and fulfilled all the requirements, but the gift

went to student x, who didn't do a thing, but whose sister was the

wife of the teacher, and so got it because of connections? Here is a

form of unmerited favor which we call favoritism. It is unjust

because it favors someone at the expense of another more deserving.

Greek citizens had to swear an oath not to show this kind of charis

for or against a fellow citizen.

Charis, in this sense, is equivalent to the Hebrew idea of respect

of persons. The Bible makes it clear that God is no respecter of

persons. He shows no favoritism. That is why the universalism of

God's grace is stressed in the New Testament. Christ died for all

men. This avoids any danger of reading the negative idea of

favoritism into God's grace.

The word is used this way in the New Testament, however. Paul,

the apostle of positive grace, was a victim of negative grace. In Acts

24:27 we read, "Felix desiring to do the Jews a favor left Paul in

prison." Here was favor, or grace, expressed for a selfish reason,