Subject: Re: Jesus Plays Favourites?
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 14:39:53 +0800
From: Nigel Mitchell < 
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian

Graeme:
>>> This began with me asking you how you would define grace. 

Nigel:
>> It actually began with you butting in on a conversation I was having with 
>> Darren.

Graeme: 
> Oh my!  I saw you mention the word “grace” and simply asked you to
> define it. Was I being presumptious to ask such a simple question? Od
> course, if you thought I was intruding you could have ignored the
> question.

But instead of ignoring it, I answered it.

I reprinted my answer in my previous post, and 
you have responded below.

>> You asked how I would define Grace.
> 
>> Earlier in the same post, I posed the question; “When we are talking about 
>> God, is there a distinction between Love and Grace?”. That was a 
>> rhetorical 
>> question, expecting a negative answer.
>> 
>> At the level of evangelism (which is what I was talking about with 
>> Darren), I 
>> do not think there is any distinction between “Love” and “Grace”. The two 
>> terms are interchangeable.
>> 
>> If we are to discuss the technical use of the terms, I would say that 
>> “Grace” 
>> is an attribute of God, and “Love” is how God interacts with humanity.
> 
> I wonder how you can say that grace is an attribute of God when you
> don’t really define what grace is. Your definition actually suggests
> that love is not an attribute of God. 

What are you looking for here, Graeme? 

I suspect that you could look up the word “Grace” 
in your dictionary as easily as I can.

using Dictionary.com, Grace is defined as
The divine favor toward man; the mercy of God, as 
distinguished from His justice; also, any benefits His 
mercy imparts; divine love or pardon; a state of 
acceptance with God; enjoyment of the divine favor.

The same source defines Love as

A feeling of strong attachment induced by that which 
delights or commands admiration; preeminent kindness 
or devotion to another; affection; tenderness; as, 
the love of brothers and sisters.

In these discussions, I have been using the words 
“Love” and “Grace” with these 
meanings. Although “Grace” and “LOve” 
are both words that _can_ be used as both nouns and 
verbs, mostly I use “Grace” as a noun, 
describing a characteristic of God, and “Love” 
as a verb, describing the way God relates to us.

> You say also  that you do not think that there is any distinction
> between love and grace. How can you say that without defining grace?
> And for what reason do you say they are the same? 

What I said was that in sharing the Gospel with 
someone I would not make a distinction between 
love and Grace. I would use the terms interchangeably, 
and probably be more inclined to use “Love”, 
because most people know what that means.

If I were writing an academic essay differentiating 
between Divine Grace and Divine Love, my answer would 
be very different to what I would say to an enquirer 
about the Gospel.

cheers
N+