Grace as God’s ability

After looking thru a few of the commentaries about this week’s LifeWay lesson “What about God’s Grace?” from Romans 5:12-21, I think we can fall into two traps. One is to get balled up in a theological discussion regarding “original sin”, and two, settle for a technically correct explanation of “grace” as “unmerited favor” but which doesn’t really help us grow much in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the favor? Stopping at “unmerited favor” could be confusing. In preacher terms, it’s difficult to explain the “so-what” unless one first clearly explains the “what.”

The LifeWay Adult Leader Guide really only explains grace as “an undeserved benefit” (p. 79). The LifeWay Adult Commentary goes further by noting, “God’s grace is the kindness by which God bestows favors even on the undeserving and grants to sinners the pardon of their offenses and invites them to accept eternal salvation through Christ” (p.75). Does this mean grace is the same as God’s kindness?

On his blog, Joe Kennedy quotes James Richards defining grace in “Grace: The Power to Change” (p. 22) as “Grace is God's ability working in man, making him able to do what he cannot do in his own ability”. He emphasizes “God’s ability”. Impact Church offers an individual drama Missing Grace that you might want to order and use to introduce your lesson as a frst step.

Or, it might be instructive to have members read the focal verses that use the word grace and substitute “God’s ability” or simply “Ability” (with a capital A) in place of grace as they read. Ask, “What do we learn about God by reading the verses in this way?” Joe offers the additional verses John 1:14, 1:16-17 to read. Prepare these on a slide with “Ability” substituted for grace to see how the new reading makes sense, and if so, what can learn about Jesus as a result?