Grace

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Grace
By: Melissa Beauvais
 
 
“With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. (Acts 4:33-34a NIV)”
The word grace appears over 150 times in the New Testament. The Greek word is charis; interestingly, this word is a noun, not a verb. The literal translation of charis is a divine gift given to a person’s heart transformed by the power of God. That grace is then manifested in the believer’s life as a reflection of the One who gives.

In Acts 4, the Jewish believers have recently received the Holy Spirit and were living out the grace received by those around them. Their lives were the living testimony and reflection of the resurrection of Jesus that they were testifying to all people. In other words, they walked the walk and talked the talk.

We, today, have this same grace dwelling within us. We, too, have our responsibility, not out of obligation but out of transformation, to live out and extend grace to those in need.

“In need” can and does mean those who are less fortunate, but it also means those who live on the margins, those who are held down by systems that oppress, those who are foreigners in a land not their own, and those who are spiritually dead.

When extended to someone outside your circle, the grace that is living and dwelling within you may be the mustard seed that is planted for the Holy Spirit to grow. Grace upon grace God is the gift God freely gives that works so powerfully in us that the gift is then shared with others.