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Psalm 111:4
“He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful.”
We have considered God’s omnibenevolence—His all-goodness—and the divine attributes and names that express it. Today we will look at one attribute that especially embodies divine goodness: grace. As we read in today’s passage, “The Lord is gracious and merciful” (Ps. 111:4).
In its broadest sense, we see divine grace whenever God expresses any kind of blessing, favor, or benefit toward human beings. In light of the distance between the Creator and the creature, the Lord does not owe us any good thing. Even before the fall into sin, God did not have to condescend to enter into a relationship with human beings. He did so only on account of His graciousness. After the fall, now that all people deserve only destruction and wrath, the Lord is not obligated to sustain the lives of rebellious sinners or provide for their needs. Yet He sends life-giving rain on the just and the unjust and even shows the love of benevolence toward His enemies (Matt. 5:43–45). Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his book Everyone’s a Theologian that “when God behaves in a favorable manner toward us even though we have no claim to it by our merit, that is always grace.” Thus, grace is defined classically, Dr. Sproul also writes, as “unmerited favor.”
Any goodness that the Lord shows toward human beings manifests His grace, specifically what theologians call His common grace. Most Christians, however, probably have in mind what is known as God’s special grace when they are thinking about divine grace. Special grace is the grace of salvation, and here God shows not only the goodness that we cannot earn because of our creatureliness but also a goodness of which we have done everything in our power to make ourselves most unworthy. The only thing that we deserve at the hands of the Lord is just punishment for our transgressions in the form of His eternal wrath in hell. Thanks be to God, however, He has chosen to redeem us, graciously sending His only begotten Son to satisfy His justice so that we may be declared righteous by faith alone in Christ alone (see Rom. 3–4).
Consequently, we see God’s special grace most clearly in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, John 1:17 tells us that “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” not because God was not gracious to His people before Jesus but because Jesus is the fulfillment, embodiment, and supreme exemplar of divine grace.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
One of the most difficult truths for human beings to accept is that we are undeserving of any good thing at the hand of God. Once we really understand that fact, we begin to know the grace of God. In fact, divine grace shines all the brighter when we recognize our unworthiness and sin. Let us look hard at our own sin so that we can see clearly the riches of divine grace.
For further study
- Exodus 33:19
- Jonah 4:2
- John 1:14–18
- Ephesians 2:8–9
The bible in a year
- 1 Kings 1–2
- Luke 22:54–71