This is a series on the attributes of God.
Purpose: In this session we shall explore the attribute of the grace of God as it is taught in the Old Testament.
- What is the grace of God?
- What does the Bible teaches about the grace of God in the Old Testament?
- Implications
What is the grace of God?
- The words in the Old Testament
- Verb is hanan, noun is
- “As for hanan, it depicts a heartfelt response by someone who has something to give to someone who has something to give to someone in need.”[1]
- Summarizing definition:
- John Frame: “Grace in Scripture refers to God’s benevolence.”[2]
- John Feinberg: “As for the concept of grace, it is best understood as unmerited favor. That means that something good happens to you even though you have done nothing to merit or earn it” [3]
- That is, when we talk about God’s grace we are talking about God as one who gives favor even when people do not deserve it.
What does the Bible teaches about the grace of God in the Old Testament?
- Why do we want to focus on the Old Testament’s teaching of the Grace of God:
- People often think that the Old Testament is all about Law, wrath and the anger of God to the lack of God’s grace. Some today even think that the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament.
- This however is not true and we want to see that even in the Old Testament God is also a God of Grace.
- The word hen.in the Old Testament shows the idea of unmerited favor
- Prior to Noah’s flood note what God sees in all of humanity: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)
- Note “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
- This must have included Noah too who is also a sinner. Don’t forget Noah was far from perfect as events after the Flood indicates.
- Due to man’s sin God plans to bring out judgment against His creation (Genesis 6:7)
- Then we read these astounding words: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8)
- The word “favor” is Grace.
- Favor is shown towards Noah even though he too was a sinner.
- While the next verse mentions that Noah was blameless for his time we must not forget that Hebrews 11:7 teaches that Noah became an heir of righteousness through faith.
- Prior to Noah’s flood note what God sees in all of humanity: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)
- Grace is explicitly described as an attribute of God in the Old Testament
- “Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and [a]truth;” (Exodus 34:6)
- In context this is God re-giving the Ten Commandments and earlier the people have sinned against God and Moses broke the two tablets.
- Now Moses was going back up to Mount Sinai for the second issuing of the Decalogue.
- Here in this context we see the mention of God’s attributes include that God is “”
- “He has made His wonders to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and compassionate” (Psalm 111:4)
- This is another example where God is explicitly called “”
- How has God shown Himself to be gracious?
- The next verse says “He has given food to those who fear Him;” (Psalm 111:5a)
- The next verse also says “He will remember His covenant forever.” (Psalm 111:5b)
- Also for the Jews, God’s grace is shown “In giving them the heritage of the nations.” (Psalm 111:6b)
- “The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.” (Psalm 145:8)
- Echoes Exodus 34:6 with the same mention of God’s attributes.
- This is a Psalm that focuses on praising God.
- Note it mentions that God is gracious.
- Verse 10 shows us the implication of knowing this truth: “All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, And Your godly ones shall bless You.”We should worship Him!
- “He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” (Jonah 4:2)
- Like Psalm 145:8 this verse echoes Exodus 34:6 with the same mention of certain attributes of God.
- This include the confession that God is “”
- However unlike the other instances here the context it is Jonah complaining to God for showing His grace to others, particularly the Assyrians whom he considered his enemies!
- But this ought not to be! We must be gracious if God is gracious with us!
- “Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and [a]truth;” (Exodus 34:6)
- The Grace of God is shown in the forgiveness of sins
- “They refused to listen, And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery [a]in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake them.” (Nehemiah 9:17)
- In context this takes place in post-Exilic Israel in which the returning exiles assembled to publically confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors.
- Here some of the Levites were blessing the people with a public speech.
- Note the confession of sins in the first half of the verse.
- Note the second half provides the contrast of how God is like which include the truth that God is “Gracious”
- Because God is gracious in His attributes the Levites can say “You are a God of forgiveness”
- “And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.” (Joel 2:13)
- The book of Joel focuses a lot of the Day of the Lord that will display the wrath of God, which is partly described in Joel 2 from verses 1-11.
- The wrath of God is so bad that verse 11 ends with the question: “And who can endure it?”
- Then in verse 12 the focuses change to the topic of repentance.
- Verse 13 gives the answer for why we can repent, namely it rest on the attributes of God as the motivation for repentance!
- Among the attributes mentioned is the fact that “He is gracious”
- “They refused to listen, And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery [a]in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake them.” (Nehemiah 9:17)
Implications
- Does this truth cause you to worship God for being gracious?
- Do you read the Old Testament with more trust in God, knowing that even in the Old Testament He is the same gracious God that we can trust?
- Do you sing to God about His grace? Remember the verse we seen earlier in the Psalms, and Psalms are originally songs of worship!
- If God is gracious we must also be gracious!
- Let God’s graciousness be the motivation for you to repent from your sins and live the Christian life!
- Make sure also as well that you are not jealous of others when God shows grace to people—even those we deem as our enemies!
[1] John Feinberg, No One Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 353.
[2] John Frame, Doctrine of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2002), 424.
[3] John Feinberg, No One Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 354.
[…] God’s grace we are talking about God as one who gives favour even when people do not deserve it.https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/2021/08/11/gods-attribute-the-grace-of-god-part-1/More to follow!Thank you Pastor Jim!Worthy is the Lamb! […]
What a beautiful post/teaching Jim, thank you for starting my morning in the Grace of God. This fits nicely with Mandy’s post of the most enduring reminder of God’s integrity and grace, a rainbow. As I write this I am reminded of Hezekiah’s prayer and God’s gracious reply. How blessed we are as sinful creatures, that we can be bathed in the Grace of God and cleansed by Him – Hallelujah!
Aww thanks for reading this! I’ll have to read Mandy’s post when I wake up, Mandy hinted at it during Bible study last night! Hope you are doing well Alan!
Further still, your post leads to my own post today. I didn’t know that Mandy was in your congregation brother, that is brilliant.
During the lockdowns in 2020 I felt led to ask Jimmy if Nathan and I could join them online. Praise God Jimmy said yes! As such, I have been joining the Tuesday Bible Study for over a year now, praise God! Also, the youth PowerPoints that I shared with you were for the youth at Jimmy’s church. When you pray for those youths to know Christ, you are praying for Jimmy as well! Thank you for your encouragement and I am thankful for how God uses you both, Alan and Jimmy in my life! Love and blessings to y’all and y’all’s families!!
[…] by reading the beginning of a new series on the Grace of God by Pastor Jim, which can be read HERE. As I pondered Jim’s words I was overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of our Father […]
So thankful for the grace of God being shown in the forgiveness of sins.
Thanks for the insight and encouragement.
Blessings.
Thank you Jim for this wonderful meditation on God’s grace. Question: Is the Hebrew word “hesed” used synonymously with the noun “hen”?
pax,
dora
I think it is at times used synonymously; though they overlap there’s shade of meaning with a different emphasis. I plan to do a lesson on Hesed for this series!!! Seems you are biblically informed and you know about this “loving-kindness” of God! That’s encouraging
Looking forward to it. :>)
I hope it’s ok to share this. I would caution against hesed and hen being synonymously. They’re related but distinct.Hesed (covenant faithfulness) is covenantal in language (English versions usually translate this as loving kindness, steadfast love, unfailing love). Hesed is used to describe Yahweh’s covenant with Israel, Israel’s covenant with Yahweh, Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness to individuals and vice versa. Hesed is also used between humans. For example: hesed (covenant faithfulness) is on full display in Book of Ruth, between Ruth and Naomi, Boaz and Ruth, Yahweh’s hesed in lineage where Boaz and Ruth are grandparents to king David and later Jesus, the Messiah. Yahweh will never do anything that goes against His hesed. As you showed, hen is God’s unmerited favor. It is God’s grace that made a covenant with Israel and by grace Israel accepted (suffered lots of consequences for disobedience). Yahweh was and is gracious to whom He is gracious. In both the OT and NT salvation has always been by grace through faith and too often, usually by skeptics He is viewed as either/or (either wrath or love, either gracious or merciful, with covenantal) rather than both/and so thankful for this series on the attributes of God so we can love Him more for who He is and what He does!
This is way better handled and more accurate than my comment. Your comment is correct and you’re right it isn’t just synonymous. I hope Dora sees your comment!
Thank you brother for this inspiring teaching. But I’m not sure that ‘grace’ “is best understood as unmerited favor”. Jesus “came from the Father, full of grace and truth” couldnt be unmerited favor.
Zac Poonen points to grace, from the Greek word ‘charis’ to mean favor, blessing, kindness and says, “Grace is the power and strength of God”. He says mercy and grace are not the same, ‘mercy’ withholds the punishment which we deserve.
What do you think?
Good observation about the meaning of mercy; I see mercy and Grace are two side of the same coin; mercy holds back the punishment we deserve and grace gives us what is favorable even if we don’t deserve it. I do see Grace in the Greek have those meaning you pointed out but often it is displayed towards recipients in a manner not contingent upon whether the recipient is deserving and that’s how I understand grace; I’ll have to think more about Charis for next week when we look at the New Testament for part 2, but thank you for sharing your comment for me to chew on this in prep for next week!
Thank you Pastor, I look forward to next post. I just realized from your response that you had written focused upon the Hebrew word (OT) and I referred to the Greek (NT)
Not sure how it differs but appreciate your inspiring post on this awesome attribute of our God.
I am so thankful for you showing us that grace does exist in the Old Testament!!!!! The Lord always has and always will be gracious to those whom He chooses. God is gracious to His covenantal people. For what it’s worth, I think having a study on Common Grace would be highly beneficial. I know I need to learn more about common grace! Even skeptics aren’t immune to God’s common grace! It may also help the people of God remember that all people are made in the image of God, all people are born sinners and that God in common grace allows the sun to rise and rain to fall on believers and unbelievers (Matt 5:45). The rainbow is a sign of God’s common grace not to destroy the earth by flood again (Gen 9:12). Excellent study, Jimmy! Love and blessings to you and the fam!
Thanks for this good outline on God’s grace. I am sooooo grateful for His grace! As you know, I was brought up in RC-ism to believe God’s grace was dispensed by priests through the sacraments (like a water spigot) and that grace allegedly helped the recipient obey the Ten Commandments so they could possibly merit eternal life. So it wasn’t really God’s grace at all. What a thrill it was learn the Biblical doctrine of God’s grace!
I am glad Tom you are saved away from a theology of sacramental grace and discovered Gospel Grace. I’ve been edified teaching this last night and look forward to the new few weeks of teaching on God’s grace and posting the outlines on here as a post. How is painting going today?
Thanks, brother! Yup, God’s grace is an amazing “topic” to study.
I was determined to paint all of the trim on one wall and there was lots of it! Hot and sunny in ROC today so I baked! I’d say I’m about 1/3 done with entire painting project.
How’s your day going?
Grace upon grace…thanks much!
Thank you pastor Jim for this great and clearly presented teaching on the grace of God. So grateful for God’s grace. God could’ve killed our first parents …BUT GOD, killed an animal instead.
That is such a beautiful picture of costly Grace and substitutionary atonement: “ God could’ve killed our first parents …BUT GOD, killed an animal instead.” To that I say amen to His grace! Does it seem that the hymn Amazing Grace seems to be more rich as one grow in Christ?
Very true :
Reblogged this on My Logos Word.
Jim, thanks for sharing this lesson about grace. Your teaching amplifies its importance in any Christian’s life. I appreciate the connections with Old Testament Scripture.
Thanks for this outline series on Grace