Our English word, “grace” comes from the Greek word, “charis.” It is used over 155 times in the Bible.

Consider what these men of God have to say about grace…

J. Vernon McGee– God is overloaded with GRACE. You and I just don’t know how gracious He is. He has an abundance of GRACE. GRACE has been defined as unmerited favor, but I call it love in action. God didn’t save us by His love. He gave His Son, and it is by His GRACE that we are saved. He has so much of it. You may say, “Oh, I am so wrong on the inside, so sinful.” Go to Him and tell Him you are wrong on the inside and ask Him for GRACE to overcome it. He will give you GRACE. He is the living Christ, interceding at God’s right hand for you. Now some may doubt the surplus of His GRACE. May I say to you, all the medicine in the world cannot cure the sick; the remedy must be taken. Likewise, God has the GRACE, my friend; lay hold of it! It is possible for a man to die of thirst with a pure spring of water right before him. He has to drink of it; he has to appropriate it before it can save his life.

Ray Stedman  – GRACE is your heritage as a Christian no matter what your circumstances. GRACE is all God’s power, all His love, all His beauty available to you.

D.L. Moody – A man can no more take in a supply of GRACE for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon God’s boundless store of GRACE from day to day, as we need it.

Thomas Brooks – Saving GRACE makes a man as willing to leave his lusts as a slave is willing to leave his galley, or a prisoner his dungeon, or a thief his bolts, or a beggar his rags.

Erwin W. Lutzer – When the mask of self-righteousness has been torn from us and we stand stripped of all our accustomed defenses, we are candidates for God’s generous GRACE.

C.H. Spurgeon – Self-consciousness is a sure sign that there is not much depth of GRACE.

Thomas Brooks – The life of GRACE is the death of sin, and the growth of GRACE the decay of sin. (Rom. 5:20-21, Rom. 6:1, 11)

Vance Havner once gave the following acronym for GRACE:

G stands for Gift, the principle of GRACE. (Eph. 2:8-9)

R stands for Redemption, the purpose of GRACE. (Eph. 1:7)

A stands for Access, the privilege of GRACE. (Rom. 5:1-2)

C stands for Character, the product of GRACE. (2 Cor. 5:17)

E stands for Eternal Life, the prospect of GRACE. (Titus 3:7)

D.L. Moody – The law tells me how crooked I am. GRACE comes along and straightens me out. (Rom. 5:20)

Stephen Olford – Without this GRACE there is no pardon for the past, no power for the present, and no prospect for the future.  (2 Cor. 12:9, 1 Pet. 1:13)

Stephen Olford – GRACE is God’s goodness and severity converging. GRACE is God’s mercy and justice uniting. GRACE is God’s love and power redeeming.

Augustus Toplady  – GRACE finds us beggars but leaves us debtors.

William Hendriksen – God’s GRACE is His active favor bestowing the greatest gift upon those who have deserved the greatest punishment.

Thomas Watson – GRACE is the infusion of a new and holy principle into the heart, whereby it is changed from what it was—and is made after God’s own heart. GRACE does not make a moral change only—but a sacred one (2Co 5:17); it biases the soul heavenward—and stamps upon it the image and superscription of God….

George MacDonald – The miracle of transforming GRACE will be the subject of eternal revelation. Throughout the endless ages God will be unveiling to the heavenly throng what it cost Him to send His Son to this jungle of sin, and what it cost the Lord Jesus to bear our sins at the cross.

J.I. Packer – GRACE, far from being an impersonal force, a sort of celestial electricity received like a battery charge by “plugging in” to the sacraments, is a personal activity—God operating in love toward people…expressing a notion of spontaneous, self–determined kindness which was previously quite unknown to Greco–Roman ethics and theology… GRACE tells how our Judge has become our Savior. GRACE and salvation belong together as cause and effect.

C.H. Spurgeon – It is impossible to mix GRACE and works of the Law, for the one cancels the other. Law means I must do something to please God, while GRACE means that God has finished the work for me and all I need do is believe on Christ. Salvation is not by faith in Christ plus something: it is by faith in Christ alone. To live by GRACE means to depend on God’s abundant supply for every need. To live by Law means to depend on my own strength—the flesh—and be left to get by without God’s supply (It doesn’t work does it? I know, I’ve tried!). A supernatural life, the Christ life, calls for God’s continual supernatural supply of amazing GRACE!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones  – GRACE always leads to peace.

Charles Hodge – The doctrines of GRACE humble a man without degrading him and exalt him without inflating him.

James Denney – GRACE is the first and last word of the Gospel; and peace—perfect spiritual soundness—is the finished work of GRACE.

Vance Havner  – Law condemns the best man; GRACE saves the worst man. The GRACE of God transcends all our feeble efforts to describe it. It cannot be poured into any of our mental receptacles without running over.

Vance Havner  – We hear these days about “cheap GRACE.” It doesn’t mean much to be a Christian. But salvation is the costliest item on earth. It cost our Lord everything to provide it and it costs us everything to possess it.

Thomas Brooks – A man may find out many ways to hide his sin, but he will never find out any way to subdue his sin, but by the exercise of GRACE.

Augustine – The law detects, GRACE alone conquers sin.

Jonathan Edwards – GRACE is but glory begun, and glory is but GRACE perfected.

John Newton – I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be; but I thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, ‘By the GRACE of God I am what I am.’

A fresh look at the song, “Amazing Grace”…