The Greek word charis, or grace, is used 148 times in the NT. Ask any Christian what grace is and they will probably parrot ‘God’s unmerited favor.’
Yes, this is part of it, but if you look at a NT lexicon or dictionary, you will find that it is so much more!
It also means that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness; good will, loving-kindness, favor; benefit, bounty, recompense, reward.
John 1:14 says that Jesus was full of grace and truth…John 1:16 tells ‘For of HIS FULLNESS we have ALL received, and grace upon grace.’ No second-class Christians here, just temples of God, full of HIS fullness and grace! Meditate on THAT for awhile…
Paul's Thorn
When Paul asks to be delivered from the demon sent to torment him, God tells him “My grace is sufficient for you, for power [dunamis] is perfected [fulfilled, finished, completed, paid] in weakness.’ [2 Corinthians 12:9]
Prevailing heresies tell us that this means he had to live with some disease or affliction, even though the Word clearly says it was a MESSENGER of Satan…a demon sent to torment him. And according to Luke 10:19, we have authority over ALL the power of the enemy and nothing will injure us! Psalm 91 says we will tread upon the lion and cobra and TRAMPLE THEM DOWN.
This lie has been repeated over and over again to keep us in bondage—if God wouldn’t deliver Paul and wanted him to continue to suffer with some sort of mystical band aid to help him bear it, then there’s a good chance we won’t be healed or delivered either.
Sufficient
Another interesting word in this verse is the Greek word for sufficient…arkeo. We think it means ‘that’s good enough for you’ or ‘learn to live with it, you’ll get by.’
Back to the lexicon! Arkeo means TO BE POSSESSED OF UNFAILING STRENGTH! To be strong, to suffice, to be enough, to defend, ward off, to be SATISFIED or CONTENTED!
God was telling Paul that His GRACE—joy, pleasure, favor, delight, loveliness, good will, benefit, bounty, reward—was sufficient, or possessed of UNFAILING STRENGTH! For POWER, or dunamis [the miracle-working power that upholds the world] is perfected [complete, finished, fulfilled—TO CARRY OUT THE CONTENTS OF A COMMAND] in weakness.
In other words, where Paul was weak, the miracle working power was full of unfailing strength to do whatever needed to be done, to overcome in any situation.
Hallelujah!
His grace—that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness; good will, loving-kindness, favor; benefit, bounty, recompense, reward—possesses unfailing strength for us! Because His power—the miracle-working power, the power with which Jesus UPHOLDS ALL THINGS [Hebrews 1:3]—is made perfect or complete in our weakness.
Don’t forget…according to Colossians 1:11 the Holy Spirit prayed that we would be strengthened with ALL POWER! The very same dunamis with which Jesus is upholding all things. Not just a drop or two…ALL POWER! [read Dumanis]
And we have this treasure IN EARTHEN VESSELS! So that the surpassing greatness of the POWER [dunamis] will be of God and not from ourselves...[2 Corinthians 4:7]
There’s another prayer, prayed for us by the Holy Spirit though Paul, in Ephesians 3.
'For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with POWER [dunamis] through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints [most holy ones], what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be FILLED UP TO ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD.
'Now to Him Who is able to do FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY beyond ALL that we ask or think, according to the POWER [dunamis] that WORKS WITHIN US, to Him be the glory [splendor magnificence, most glorious condition or exalted state] in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen—so be it, may it be fulfilled, truly.'
Now that’s grace!
Full of God, full of His power, one Spirit with the Lord. Not some hackneyed phrase that nobody stops to think about, not some meaningless church buzzword.
Grace.
