What Is Grace? // Ask Pastor John

We often define “grace” as “undeserved favor.” But the grace of God has another meaning in the Bible that is filled with encouragement and comfort.

What is grace? It seems like a simple question, but the answer has a lot of different angles to it. It is a recent email from a podcast listener named Heather. “Hello, Pastor John! I’m shy to ask this question because I’m embarrassed to admit that I struggle to understand one of the most commonly used words in the church today. That word is ‘grace.’ I often hear it defined as ‘unmerited favor’ or ‘getting what you don’t deserve.’ And I do understand it this way in the context of Ephesians 2:8: ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.’

“But I don’t understand it in the context of texts like 2 Corinthians 12:9: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Or 1 Corinthians 15:10: ‘But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.’ I don’t understand ‘grace’ in these verses. Can you explain it to me?”

Read or listen to this interview at our website: https://www.desiringgod.org/in....terviews/what-is-gra

Find other recent and popular Ask Pastor John episodes: https://www.desiringgod.org/ask-pastor-john

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