How Is That Grace?

The Jewish people of Jesus time knew from the Jewish Scriptures that righteousness was required to enter the Kingdom of God or have eternal life (Daniel 12:1-2).

Jesus said the righteousness required was the very righteousness of God...his perfect righteousness (Matthew 5:48)

Part of the perfect righteous character of God was his gracious, compassionate heart...a heart of unconditional love, unmerited kindness, and unearned blessings revealed in the Jewish Scriptures.

The Hebrew word for gracious in the OT is channun.

It is used 13 times in the Jewish Scriptures to describe the gracious, compassionate, and kind heart of God.

The Pharisees were very familiar with this word and the 13 areas in the Jewish Scriptures which described God as channun = gracious.

The Pharisees believed they met the righteous requirements of God...being like God himself in righteousness and, therefore, gaining entrance into the Kingdom of God.

To correct this self-deceived evaluation of themselves and their false sense of righteousness, Jesus taught what we know commonly as The Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is when Jesus exposed the self-righteousness of the Pharisees, showing they did not posses the righteousness of God and therefore had not gained entrance into the Kingdom of God.

One of the ways he did this was by asking them three questions in Luke 6:32-34 (read these verses in context to get the full understanding - most Bible versions use the English words "credit" or “thanks” rather than "grace." However, that is an incorrect translation of the word. The correct translation is the word grace.)

In these questions, Jesus used the Greek word charis, which is the word grace in English.

Here are the three questions:

Question #1: If you love those who love you, how is that grace (charis)? Even sinners love those who love them.

Question #2: And if you do good to those who are good to you, how is that grace (charis)? Even sinners do that.

Question #3: And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, how is that grace (charis)? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.

So why did Jesus ask these three specific questions emphasizing the word grace?

He did this to demonstrate to the Pharisees that they were nothing like the gracious God of the Jewish Scriptures...they did not possess the gracious, righteous character of God since they did not dispense unconditional love, unmerited kindness, or unearned blessings to their enemies as God did.

Not only were they nothing like God, but Jesus told them they were exactly like the sinners whom they despised!

Consequently, the Pharisees remained on the outside of the Kingdom of God looking in!

This is because the Kingdom of God can only be entered by receiving grace.

And who are the people who receive grace?

They are the ones who admitted their unrighteousness (such as the prostitutes and tax collectors) and then received the free gift of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus.

Thus, they become citizens of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Grace.

The Pharisees would never admit they were sinners, like the prostitutes and tax collectors, and in need of grace.

The Pharisees thought they were righteous because of their “morality” and religious activity under the law.

Yet they were not.

They fell short of the gracious character of God who gives grace to the sinners…something the Pharisees would never do.

Therefore, Jesus asked them three questions about grace, to show them they were nothing like God and did not possess his righteous, gracious character needed to enter the Kingdom.