Waypoints and Words by Thomas Fideler

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A journal of commentary, narrative and poetry about navigating through life

Leaping and Dancing with Grace

An inquisitive mind is a terrible thing to waste. I have a friend who frequently asks questions about things that many people have long ago relegated to the “I already know that” category. And good questions, if pursued, are most often the building blocks of deeper understanding. Her question regarded the concept of grace as it relates to the work that God performed through Jesus Christ. She felt that within the New Testament word grace there might be more meaning than is portrayed by the traditional Christian definition, “unmerited favor,” — as wonderful as this definition is. Since that conversation I have pondered her question many times. Then, this morning while I was reading 1 Peter, I came upon these words:

“... gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ...” (1 Pe. 1:13)

The words “...grace that is to be brought to you...” piqued my curiosity; I dug deeper to discover other shades of meaning in the word. The Bible uses this word in many different contexts. For example, “...by grace you have been saved ... not of works...” or “ The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” or “And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips.” My research yielded some surprising facts regarding the origin of the word and its fuller meaning.

The Greek word that is rendered “grace” is charis (kar-ece) meaning “favor or to freely give favor without consideration of merit.” The root word from which charis is derived is the Greek word chairo (kah-ee-ro), which means “to rejoice, to be glad, to be full of cheer.” Some translators believe that this root word chairo may be related to a Hebrew word that means “a young sheep or lamb,” implying the skipping or frisking of a lamb for joy (Merriam-Webster defines frisking as: leaping, skipping, dancing). An example of the application of the root word chairo is found in Matt. 5:12, “Rejoice [chairo] and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great...” It is also applied in the story of the journey of the Magi in Matt 2:10: “When they saw the star, they rejoiced [chairo] exceedingly with great joy.”

So with that joyful perspective let’s look the word charis or grace. Based upon its root I would think that the meaning of grace would contain some element of “rejoicing.” The Greek reference texts seem to bear this out; this is how they define charis1:

“Joy, favor, acceptance, a kindness granted or desired, a benefit, thanks, gratitude, grace; that which bestows pleasure or delight; the friendly disposition from which a kindly act proceeds; a favor done without expectation of return; to be in favor with; absolute freeness of the lovingkindness of God to men, finding its only motive in the bounty and free-heartedness of the giver.”

Charis, or grace, stands in direct antithesis to the Greek word erga meaning “works.” The two words are mutually exclusive.

This broader understanding of the word grace seems to imply at least two meanings: 1) that God’s grace or favor is manifest in his freely offered forgiveness and redemption that directly addresses and affects our previous state of sinfulness and separation from Him; 2) Grace not only results in forgiveness for the repentant sinner, but it is integrally connected with rejoicing and thankfulness in relation to the absolute freeness of the lovingkindness of God toward us.

So, I fix my hope daily upon the giver of grace and upon the joy, favor, acceptance, benefit, and gladness, both now and that which will be brought to us all at the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ. Surely this is reason enough to leap and dance, frisking like lambs as we live out our salvation by means of charis in a relationship with the living God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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