IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON February 25, 2008 ISSUE

A weekly column in which writers discuss Bible passages that appear in the Christian Science Bible Lessons.

A LIFE OF GRACE

BENJAMIN F. GLADDEN

THE FIRST CHARACTERISTICS that come to mind when thinking of the concept of grace might be elegance, beauty—perhaps poise under pressure. Yet in Christ Jesus' day the word grace carried even greater depth of meaning. Throughout the New Testament grace is sometimes directly associated with Jesus, as in this passage, which is also the Golden Text for this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson on "Christ Jesus": "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all" (Rom. 16:24).

According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the Greek word translated as grace (charis, pronounced kharees) throughout the New Testament in the King James Version can mean, "the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life." Mary Baker Eddy echoed this idea when she wrote of "the grace of God" as "the effect of God understood" (Christian Science versus Pantheism, p. 10).