Well, what is grace?

It seems like such a simple question, but the answer has a lot of different angles to it.

It is a recent email from a podcast listener named Heather.

Hello, Pastor John.

I'm shy to ask this question because I'm embarrassed to admit that I struggle to understand

one of the most commonly used words in the church today.

That word is grace.

I often hear it defined as unmerited favor or getting what you don't deserve, and I do

understand it this way in the context of Ephesians 2.8.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the

gift of God.

But I don't understand it in the context of texts like 2 Corinthians 129.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Or in 1 Corinthians 1510, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace towards

me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace

of God that is within me.

I don't understand grace in these two verses.

Can you explain it to me?

Well, one of the reasons I love this question, and I know I say that a lot, but I love what

we do here.

I love all these questions, but actually some of them are too hard to love, but this one

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