Genesis 6:8 states, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." This does not mean that Noah did something, therefore he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was exactly like every other person that has been born into this world. He was a sinner with nothing good about him at all. Noah finding grace in the eyes of the Lord is what God did to Noah, not what Noah did. All the scriptures describing total depravity apply to Noah as well as to us.

A proper study of the grace of God will involve much more than this small study on the Attributes of God permits. Every blessing we receive from God, every part of our lives is touched by the free exercise of God’s grace toward us. May the reader study the grace of God in such a way that his study is never ended.

The word "grace" comes from the Greek word "charis" meaning "the manner or act of one being acceptable in the eyes of another". I personally like to say that grace is "unmerited, undeserved favor". Grace is when we receive from God that good thing we do not deserve, while mercy is when we do not receive from God that bad thing we do deserve. There must be a clear understanding of the sinfulness of men before we can begin to have a right understanding of the grace, mercy and love of God.

Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, by Kenneth S. Wuest defines grace as "...especially denoting God’s grace and favor towards mankind or to any individual, which as a free act, excludes merit, and is not hindered by guilt, but forgives sin; it thus stands out in contrast with egra (works), and nomos (law)."

Alexander Whyte defines grace. "Grace and love are essentially the same, only grace is love manifesting itself and operating under certain conditions, and adapting itself to certain circumstances. As, for example, love has no limit or law such as grace has. Love may exist between equals, or it may rise to those above us, or flow down to those in any way beneath us. But grace, from its nature, has only one direction it can take. Grace always flows down. Grace is love indeed, but it is love to creatures humbling itself. A king’s love to his equals, or to his royal house is love; but his love to his subjects is called grace. And thus, it is that God’s love to sinners is always called grace."

With works: Eph. 2:8,9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Rom. 11:5,6, "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." It is impossible to mix works and grace for salvation or service. God either enables us to be saved and serve Him, or we don’t need His grace for salvation and service.

With the law: John 1:17, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." It is impossible to mix law and grace. Moses is the voice of the law, Christ is the voice of grace. Law demands, grace gives. Law condemns, grace forgives. Law separates from God, grace brings man to God. Law condemns the best man, grace saved the worse sinner. Law says, "do and live", grace says, "believe and live". Law demands righteousness, grace redeems from the curse. Law reveals sin, which reigns unto death, grace reigns unto eternal life. Sin damns by the law, Christ redeems from the curse of the law. Hell comes because of sin, grace pays for our sin.

1. Grace does not enable us to keep the law. If grace enabled us to keep the law, our past sins would not be taken care of. If we could keep the law, Christ would be left out and the "word" would become the Holy Spirit and the Saviour.

2. Grace does not overlook our sins or sinfulness. Our sins and sinfulness must be paid for. Some have a god with only one attribute, love. But God also has an attribute of justice. Christ paid for our sins on the cross. If grace could simply overlook sins, Christ died in vain.

3. Grace does not give us works to do for salvation. Church attendance, Bible reading, praying, tithing, singing, baptism and the Lord’s Supper can never save a soul. These are things the saved will want to do, but they are not necessary to salvation.

Grace is not given to us because of some good deed we have done. For example, some believe that certain works enable the unbeliever to come into the presence of God so they can receive salvation. Some of these works are: praying, attending church services, helping your neighbors, being baptized, and obeying the laws of the land. Total depravity comes into play here, because there is nothing a lost person can do to gain favor with God. Psalms 14 and Psalms 53 are almost identical psalms, both declaring that God looked into the future and saw what He already knew, there was not one good person. There was no good person because all had Adam’s nature of sin. All were, and are, and will continue to be, disobedient to His commandments.

A lost person doesn’t heed the preaching of the gospel, which is foolishness to him, I Corinthians 1:21. He can sit under the excellent gospel story, and it will mean absolutely nothing to him because it is foolishness. He just doesn’t believe he needs it because he believes he isn’t quite as bad as the preacher makes him out to be. Eph. 2:1-3 declares that we were quickened when we were dead in trespasses and sin. These verses do not say we were quickened after we stopped being dead in trespasses in sins. We didn’t do some good deed that brought us into favor with God because we were dead in trespasses and sins, and couldn’t do any good works!

Grace is expressed to us in two major ways: (1) grace for the lost so they may be saved, and (2) grace for the saved so they may live an acceptable life before God.

1. Grace for salvation. Certain men from Jerusalem came to Antioch teaching that salvation is not by grace alone. They taught that a person couldn’t be saved unless they were circumcised (performed some kind of work). In the discussion by the apostles and elders, Peter said, "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they." Acts 15:11. Christ paid our sin debt on the cross, therefore, there is nothing for us to do. If there were anything the lost had to do, they couldn’t do it because they are dead in trespasses and sins. This makes salvation completely of grace.

2. Grace for living. Phil. 2:12,13, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." These verses are the perfect solution to grace and works. It is by the grace of God that we are enabled to work out our salvation. If God wasn’t working in us to do His will and good pleasure, we would do our will and good pleasure.

I Thess. 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." This passage reveals that man is trichotomous; that is, he has three parts. God saves more than just the spirit of man, He also saved the soul and body.

1. Salvation is by the grace of God.

a. The spirit (past tense) is saved by the grace of God. Rom. 3:25 shows us that Christ paid "...for the remission of sins that are past..." Job says in 14:17 that his sins are sealed up in a bag until the one comes that is able to pay his sin debt. Jesus came to the earth, taking the form of a man, yet without sin. He paid our sin debt on the cross, bearing our sins in His own body, I Peter 2:24.

b. The soul {life, feeling and/or mind} (present tense) is saved by the grace of God. The soul, in our discussion, is human feelings and emotions. Whenever our spirits are saved from hell, we are left with our sinful nature which we battle the remainder of our lives, Rom. 7:15-25. The Bible says in Phil. 2:12,13 that we must work out our own salvation, for it is God which works in us. This working out of our salvation is not done by the power of the flesh, but we learn to live by the faith of Jesus Christ, Gal. 2:19,20. This daily looking into the Word of God and applying it to our lives will cause us to be slowly and continually changed into the image of God, II Cor. 3:18.

c. The body (future tense) is saved by the grace of God. The salvation of the body we are speaking of occurs at the resurrection. Our corruptible, mortal body shall put on incorruption and immorally by the grace of God, I Cor. 15:52-56. This is the meaning of Rom. 5:9, "we shall be saved from wrath through Him."

2. Justification is by the grace of God. Justification is a legal term meaning that a person stands before the judge without any legal guilt at all. Our justification means that we stand before God, the righteous judge, as completely innocent as far as the law is concerned.

a. Our spirits (past tense) are justified by the grace of God. The justification of our spirits is by faith, Rom. 5:1. Abraham was justified by faith when he believed the promise of God concerning a saviour that would come to redeem not only Israel, but the entire human race from sin, Gen. 15:6, Rom. 4:3. Joshua 2:10,11, Rahab believed when she heard of the power of God toward Israel. Her faith produced Godly actions which led to the saving of herself and her household. The ungodly faith of demons, James 2:19, does not produce Godly works, but trembling in the presence of God.

b. Our souls {life, feeling and/or mind} (present tense) are justified by the grace of God. As just mentioned, there is a definite connection between true faith and true works. The true faith of Abraham resulted in true works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar as God commanded, James 2:21. Rahab’s true faith caused her to receive the messengers, protect them and send them out another way, James 2:25. Our true faith will produce true works which show to the world the inward work of God. If there are no works, faith is dead.

c. Our bodies (future tense) are justified by the grace of God. I Cor. 15:52-58 shows that one day we will stand before God in bodies that are sinless. I John 3:2 says that in the resurrection the saved will be like Jesus.

3. Sanctification is by the grace of God. The word "sanctification" does not mean to get better and better. It means "to be set aside". Anything or anybody could be set aside for any purpose, good or bad.

a. Our spirits (past tense) are sanctified by the grace of God. Eph. 1:4. It is by the grace of God that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. God has set us aside especially for Himself. We are bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

b. Our souls {life, feeling and/or mind} (present tense) are sanctified by the grace of God. I Thess. 4:3,4. It is God’s will that we be sanctified, that we may know how to possess our bodies, abstaining from fornication or any other sin.

c. Our bodies (future tense) are sanctified by the grace of God. God has determined that we will have perfect bodies, even though they are now completely immersed with sin. Our bodies are groaning, "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body", Rom. 8:23. There is coming a day when our bodies will be changed from sinfulness to righteousness.