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Gurnall's use of the word "grace"
As evangelicals, we usually read the word "grace" in only one of its senses. I think this has been an obstacle for us as we read William Gurnall when he uses it in its other biblical senses. We often define grace as "unmerited favor." Ephesians 2:8-9 most clearly uses "grace" in this manner:
Salvation belongs to the Lord. We can never earn it. We don't deserve it. Yet He gives it. Through Christ's merit (His redemptive work - His perfect obedience and substitutionary atonement for our sin), we are recipients of the gift of salvation. The principle of grace as unmerited favor is of utmost importance in understanding our new position in relation to God and our inheritance of riches of Christ and the fruits of His work. Our tradition holds that this view of salvation is taught in Scripture from cover to cover. It isn't plan B. It isn't the way of salvation for some and not for others. If we are to be delivered from our sins and given eternal life, this is the only way it is done. In Christ, God's saving kindness and mercy is bestowed on sinners like us. We hated him. We were His enemies. We were justly condemned by Him for our sins. "But He had mercy ... " This understanding of grace is essential for knowing anything about the character of the redemption which Jesus accomplished and applied. But Gurnall (and many parts of Scripture, I believe) use it in a related but more specific sense. Grace is also used to describe a particular sort of gift - an endowment. A relational bequest or bestowal from a superior to His subject, from a parent to his or her offspring, from a king to His courtier. It is given in the context of a close, personal relationship. With this particular kind of gift comes a responsibility to steward it well. It bears abundant dividends for many when it is well invested and used. Some other secondary usages of "grace" are noted in good dictionaries:
[You may have noticed that the Puritans use "excellence" in the sense of some particular virtue of a person. We can read "grace" similarly. Click here for some Bible verses using "excellence" in this way.] For example, we speak of a person's endowments or gifts. We may remark that a person has been granted some special privilege or influence. We say that a person is endowed with (has been given) certain talents, gifts or abilities. The person is said to be "gifted." In God's economy, they have been granted a benefit to be used for God's glory and in service to others. Such a grant is an expression of the love of Christ. In Gurnall's usage, the person has received a grace. Gift can also used as a verb. This use means "to bestow gifts upon; to endow." We speak of a person "gracing us with his or her presence." In the same way, when God promises us His abiding presence. He is with us, living and reigning in us. His presence is a grace. In Late Middle English, endowment was used to describe an attribute of mind or body; a natural gift. To endow is "to furnish some gift, faculty, or quality; to equip." A bestowal is something conferred and applied (put to use). It is a deposit, the contents of a trust. It is something given with trust - with confident expectation - with the certainty of future payment for property or goods received. When used as a noun, trust means:
Synonyms would include commission and commitment. Think of Scriptural teaching about our stewardship of God's costly, valuable gifts to us - all of them undeserved. Or Christ's stewardship of His redemptive mission given by God the Father. He was given a trust. God gives us many such graces by virtue of His saving grace. Gurnall mentions them often. (Please enter such passages on our message board. Click here to do so.) Click here for New Testament references using grace as an endowment. Click here for biblical references to the terms "grant" or "bestow." **Click here for Louis Berkhof's explanation of this "third" biblical sense of the word "grace." ** Other Graces (not in the Bible):
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