Romans 4:2-4 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

For this reason the Christian community has defined grace as unmerited favor. I find that definition to be inadequate to explain all that grace involves. Simple definitions often do that. If I were to ask you to do me a favor your first response would be “What?” Favor only implies benefit and does not define the benefit.

Here in Romans Paul relates the gracious favor of justification in relationship to work. It is a free gift based on Christ gift to us. All we have to do is receive that gift. Salvation cannot be earned. Where we are looking into these issues of daily salvation and those blessings that are bestowed upon us we add new words into the understanding of those blessings. They define the favor bestowed through grace.

Grace defines the reason for the favor but does not limit those favors to only one thing. The reason God is gracious to us is because once we become betrothed to His Son Jesus Christ, He treats us as family members. Grace is God’s love towards us as His children. If we think of all the things we do for our children because we love them, grace could not explain all that we do, only why.

If that was all that grace is we would be through and move on. Grace has one more fascinating aspect besides being God’s unmerited favor. That definition does not pertain to the residence of grace but merely to the source. One should examine the free gift and see what is does in order to use the gift rather than putting it back in the box and store it in the back of the closet.