Understanding Grace
Let’s look at the definition of Grace from the Strong’s Concordance,
| NT:5485 NT:5485 χάρις charis (khar’-ece); from NT:5463; graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude): |
The word for grace in the Greek is charis. As you can see above, this Greek word has a root word. Both Hebrew and Greek languages use the concepts of “roots”, when determining the origin and deeper meaning of a word. Here, as shown in the box above, it says, “from NT:5463”, meaning that charis sprouts from another word in the Greek.
Let’s look at NT:5463,
| NT:5463 χαίρω chairo (khah’-ee-ro); a primary verb; to be “cheerful”, i.e. calmly happy or well-off; impersonally, especially as salutation (on meeting or parting), be well: KJV – farewell, be glad, God speed, greeting, hall, joy (-fully), rejoice. |
Grace’s root word “chairo”, is a verb, meaning a type of something in action, and this action means; “to be cheerful, calmly, happy, to be well-off.” In the KJV version of the bible, the word is interpreted as; be glad, joy, rejoice.
Grace then, gives a person a cheerful disposition, it makes their temperament calm, and they appear on the surface to have a happy countenance. So, when it is said of Jesus in Luke 2:40,
“The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”
This means that Jesus had a great personality as a baby and child, and was very likeable to those that He came into contact with. What an insight into the early life and personality of Jesus!
In the next lesson, we will study the Hebrew word for grace. Grace changed and expanded in power, when Jesus was conceived in the earth, from its operation under the old covenant. To fully understand this change, let’s look at these two verses in Matthew 12:41-42,
“The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
“The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”
Jonah’s preaching was extremely effective. Despite running from God and trying to get away from his calling, Jonah in the action of his call, that is preaching to the city of Nineveh, had dramatic results! The king and all the people repented, because of what Jonah was preaching and declaring. As a result of Jonah’s preaching, an enormous city was spared from destruction! Grace, objective beauty, was upon Jonah. Jesus is revealing that a greater grace is upon Himself than was upon Jonah.
Solomon’s wisdom and intellectual attractiveness was in everything that he did. The queen of Sheba was astonished at the wisdom and beauty of everything that Solomon said, did, and built. Solomon had grace and favor, so that nothing compared with him, until Jesus!
Jesus declaring, “something greater than Solomon is here.”
It was the New Covenant of grace from God that made the difference in Jesus’ effectiveness.
Our prayer for today,
Father, pour out upon me Your Grace today, in Jesus’ name, amen!
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