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Chitu Okoli chitu.okoli.org

Posted on Aug 13, 2008 in Rivers of Living Water

New Testament Grace

Grace is often defined as “unmerited favour.” This is certainly true, but this definition is not complete. You could say that this is an Old Testament definition of grace–that God smiles on undeserving people with His favour. However,

 Joh 1:17  For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.

Here, we see that in the time of Moses, there was not the grace and reality that existed when Jesus Christ appeared. (Actually, “came” in Joh 1:17 is “come into being” in the Greek; it is exactly the same word in Greek as “came into being” in Joh 1:3 and “became” in 1:14.) Surely in the Old Testament, there was grace. But this grace was merely unmerited favour in a general way. But when the Word became flesh in Jesus Christ, grace came into existence that did not exist before–God Himself came in the sphere of Christ to be Himself as the Favour to man:

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved;

Christ as the Beloved Son of God is the sphere in which God now comes to us as grace. This is the New Testament grace that came into being through Jesus Christ. Grace is now God coming to us in Christ to be life, enjoyment, and everything to us. It exists only in Christ as the sphere.

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