Article October 16, 1965 Issue

God's Gift of Grace

MADORA HOLT

A loved , yet perhaps the least understood, vital Christian doctrine is the gospel of grace. The Apostle Paul wrote (Eph. 2: 8, 9), "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."

What is grace? Webster defines it as "the mercy of God . . a free gift of God to man" and so forth. Thus grace may be construed to be providential love transcending human justice. In God's omnipresence there is no iniquity to be accounted for, no failure to be condemned, no reality to death. Divine mercy goes beyond the necessity to identify blame, to personalize or punish guilt, because God's absolute love banishes supposititious evil just as light extinguishes darkness.

But God's grace must be spiritually discerned, for its mighty forces operate only in the atmosphere of sincerity and meekness. God's free gift of grace never countenances sin; never justifies mental, spiritual, or moral inertia; in no way contradicts such Biblical pronouncements as, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). Nor does salvation by grace invalidate that part of Christian Science teaching as stated in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science (p. 22), "Mercy cancels the debt only when justice approves."

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