Grace is defined as the unmerited favor of God.  Chesed (חסד) is the Hebrew word most commonly translated as grace or loving-kindness in the Old Testament.  Loving-kindness was first coined by Coverdale for use in his translation.  The Greek word used is charis (χάρις).

God’’s use of this grace is not the same as man’’s.  God’’s idea of grace is enduring and a part of His Word.  His love for His people continued even when men were truce breakers, covenant breakers and liars.  He protected His people, even while suffering a form of adultery that man committed with idols.  When men worshiped false gods, we cheated on God.   Imagine the pain of adultery, and the devestating effects it has on a mairrage.  Now look at what man has repeatedly done to God!  Yet, for all our unfaithfulness, He has loved us.

In fact, God has loved us so much that He put in place a concept of love so great as to be unthinkable to man today.  Let us imagine that we are on a small island.  There are several villages on this island, and all live in peace and harmony.  Unfortunately for this cradle of joy and happiness they are visited by strangers who visit peaceably for only a short time.  These visitors leave behind a little creature known as a rat.

The rats multiply and eat all of the nuts from the indigenous trees on the island.  With no nuts, no more trees grow, eventually, the rats die out having no more food to scrounge.  The trees were destroyed, and life seems dismal.  Eventually there is nothing else left on the island to eat…

This is when man turns upon man, village against village and men look after their own self preservation… including cannibalism.  That”’’s absurd you say!  Well, tell that to the Donner clan in 1846.  Tell that to the inhabitants of Easter Island.  Men will do what they need to do to survive.  They look after their own preservation.

What about God?  Even though we do not deserve grace, and we have no goodness in us, God created a body for Himself, put Himself through the shame of the cross, and died that we may live.  That, my friends, is grace.  That is loving-kindness!  That is joy unspeakable!

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