THE GRACE OF GOD

THE GRACE OF GOD

By C. I. Scofield, D.D.
Editor of "The Scofield Reference Bible"

"Grace" is an English word used in the New Testament to translate the Greek word, charis (NT:5485), which means "favor," without recompense or equivalent. If there is any compensatory act or payment, however slight or inadequate, it is "no more grace"-charis.

When used to denote a certain attitude or act of God toward man it is therefore of the very essence of the matter that human merit or deserving is utterly excluded. In grace God acts out from Himself, toward those who have deserved, not His favor, but His wrath. In the structure of the Epistle to the Romans grace does not enter, could not enter, till a whole race, without one single exception, stands guilty and speechless before God.

Condemned by creation, the silent testimony of the universe (Rom 1:18,20); by willful ignorance, the loss of a knowledge of God once universal (Rom 1:21); by senseless idolatry (Rom 1:22-23); by a manner of life worse than bestial (Rom 1:24,27); by godless pride and cruelty (Rom 1:28,32); by philosophical moralizings which had no fruit in life (Rom 2:1,4); by consciences which can only "accuse" or seek to "excuse" but never justify (Rom 2:5,16); and finally by the very law in which those who have the law boast (Rom 2:17; 3:20), "every mouth" is "stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God."

In an absolute sense, the end of all flesh is come. Everything has been tried. Innocence, as of two unfallen creatures in an Eden of beauty; conscience, that is, the knowledge of good and evil with responsibility to do good and eschew evil; promises, with the help of God available through prayer; law, tried on a great scale, and through centuries of forbearance, supplemented by the mighty ethical ministry of the prophets, without ever once presenting a human being righteous before God (Rom 3:19; Gal 3:10; Heb 7:19; Rom 3:10,18; 8:3-4); this is the Biblical picture. And it is against this dark background that grace shines out.
(from The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

 

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