Putting A Handle On Grace

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†. 1Cor 1:3 . . Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ.

I seriously doubt the average rank and file pew warmer even knows what
grace is. I suspect that most are under the impression that grace is
somehow a quantifiable substance like butter and gasoline; but in regards to
God, grace is an abstract noun that expresses qualities apart from
substance.

The New Testament Greek word for grace is charis (khar'-ece); which
means: graciousness.

Webster's defines graciousness as: kind, courteous, inclined to good will,
generous, charitable, merciful, altruistic, compassionate, thoughtful, cordial,
affable, genial, sociable, cheerful, warm, sensitive, considerate, and tactful.

Cordial stresses warmth and heartiness

Affable implies easy approachability and readiness to respond pleasantly to
conversation or requests or proposals

Genial stresses cheerfulness and even joviality

Sociable suggests a genuine liking for the companionship of others

Generous is characterized by a noble or forbearing spirit; viz: magnanimous,
kindly, and liberal in giving

Charitable means full of love for, and goodwill toward, others; viz:
benevolent, tolerant, and lenient.

Altruistic means unselfish regard for, or devotion to, the welfare of others;
viz: a desire to be of service to others for no other reason than it just feels
good to do so.

Tactful indicates a keen sense of what to do, or say, in order to maintain
good relations with others in order to resolve and/or avoid unnecessary
conflict.

Compassion defines a sympathetic awareness of others' distress, coupled
with a desire to alleviate it.

The Old Testament Hebrew word for grace is chen (khane); and means the
same as charis (e.g. Gen 6:8).

When you put all those lovely attributes together, you get a pretty good
picture of the bright side of God's personality; and the extent of His good will
towards the Corinthian church. There's a dark side too, and plenty of ill will;
but grace doesn't go there.

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I picked up an interesting line from an exasperated father in the final
episode of Downton Abbey that goes like this:

"As my son, I love you, but I have tried, and failed, to like you."

The father who spoke that line wasn't a difficult man. He was actually a very
decent man who had it up to here with his grown son's toxic personality.

That so reminds me of a passage in the book of John: here paraphrased a
bit:

"For God so loved the world, that He offered His only begotten son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did
not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
should be rescued through him." (John 3:16-17)

Yes, God loves His human creations; enough to even sacrifice His only son's
life and limb to protect them; but I honestly believe that he has tried, and
failed, to like them. For example:

"Now the Lord observed the extent of the people's wickedness, and he saw
that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was
sorry he had ever made them. It broke his heart. And the Lord said: I will
completely wipe out this human race that I have created. Yes, and I will
destroy all the animals and birds, too. I am sorry I ever made them." (Gen
6:5-7)

Bottom line: God doesn't owe humanity anything. God's offering of His only
son wasn't an obligation; it was a courtesy. Far from deserving kindness,
humanity deserves the cold shoulder. But God, being the sensitive person
that He is, willing to go the extra mile, still finds it in Himself to extend
humanity an opportunity to turn itself around and give Him cause to like
them instead of humanity, with its overall toxic personality, always making it
impossible for Him to do so.

In too many Christian minds, it is truly believed that a sinner's salvation
rests upon the grace of God; but in most minds that is nothing in the world
but a mental spin to mask their true belief that it is by the grace of God that
they now have a chance to earn their salvation, where before, they had no
chance to earn it.

So when you strip away the spin, you're right back to the reality that the
plans of salvation enjoying the widest acceptance are essentially merit
systems based upon personal performance rather than solely upon the
kindness and generosity of God's altruistic nature. Thus they rule out the
principle of courtesy, and stick to the old rule of proving one's worthiness.

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[iakov]

When you put all those lovely attributes together, you get a pretty good
picture of the bright side of God's personality; and the extent of His good will
towards the Corinthian church. There's a dark side too, and plenty of ill will;
but grace doesn't go there.

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That is God's personality. Everything He does toward mankind is done through love.

That includes the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the order to exterminate the Canaanites. Those acts were all done to stop the spread of the overabundance of sin which was a real and present threat of spreading like a cancer to all of mankind. (As it had done before the flood.)
God's chastisements are acts of love. (As when a parent spanks a 5-year-old for running into the street after his ball in order to make a connection between running into the street and pain. The brief pain of the spanking teaches the child to avoid the pain of being hit by a bus, a consequence outside of his experience.)

Even when God allows people to reject His love, it is an act of love. Forcing them to love Him would be like giving them a lobotomy; they would become "less human" and less of His image by removing their free will.

iakov the fool



[SIZE=9pt]You have chosen to subject yourself to the rantings of iakov the fool. No warrantee is declared or implied. Individual mileage may vary. Enjoy the rest of your day. [/SIZE]

 

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Grace is a lethal religion. It quite literally, in some mysterious way that I
don't quite understand; put Christ's believing followers to death.

†. Rom 6:3 . . Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

†. Rom 6:6 . . Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him

†. Gal 2:20 . . I am crucified with Christ

†. Col 3:3 . . For you died when Christ died

The "old man" can be roughly defined as everything about people that's
related to Adam; viz: their human life and their human nature.

One of my chronic fears as a Roman Catholic was that something fatal would
happen to me in between confessions. Well; you can just imagine my relief
at discovering that people punished on the cross with Christ are in no danger
of double jeopardy; which Webster's defines as: putting someone on trial for
an offense for which they have previously been put on trial under a valid
charge viz: two adjudications for one offense.

In a nutshell, the principle of double jeopardy protects Christ's crucified
followers from being put on trial for their lives all over again seeing as how
that was done for them once and for all when Christ went to the cross.

†. Heb 2:9 . . Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, that he, by the
grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

The Great White throne event depicted at Rev 20:11-15 is for the purpose of
putting people on trial for their lives. Afterwards they will be executed by a
mode of death akin to a foundry worker falling into a vat of molten iron.

If I appear at that event at all, it will be only as a spectator and/or a witness
for the prosecution because I was put on trial for my life when Christ was
put on the cross, and I lost my life when he lost his. I have no clue how this
works; I only know that I'm supposed to reckon it true. (Rom 6:3-11)

Grace offers a version of Christianity that guarantees a Ten Commandments
proof, God proof, sin proof, Devil proof, temptation proof, fool proof, human
nature proof, human error proof, mortal sin proof, fail-safe rescue from the
wrath of God (John 3:14-18, John 5:24). It just amazes me the number of
people, even those warming pews in old-school Christian churches, who
want nothing to do with it.

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