What is grace? Grace is nothing other than God's great work accomplished freely in His unconditional and boundless love for helpless, unworthy, and sinful man. God's grace is just God working for man. How does this contrast with the law? The law is God requiring man to work for Him, while grace is God working for man. What is the law? The law is God's demand for man to do something for Him. What is work? Work is man's effort to do something for God. What is grace? Grace is neither God requiring something nor God receiving man's work, but grace is God doing His own work. When God comes forth to do something for and on behalf of man, that is grace.
The emphasis in the New Testament is not on the principle of the law. In fact, the New Testament opposes the principle of the law because law and grace can never mix. Is it God who is working or is it man who is working? Is God giving something to man or is He asking for something from man? If God is asking for something from man, we are still in the age of the law. But if God is giving something to man, we are in the age of grace. You would not go to someone's home to give him money while you are there to collect money. Likewise, law and grace are opposite principles; they cannot be put together. If man is to receive grace, he must put the law aside. On the other hand, if he follows the law, he will fall from grace.
If man is to follow the law, he must have God accept his works. If there is the principle of the law and of works and if man is to give something to God, he must give God what He demands. The Bible indicates that man's works should be a response to God's law. God's law demands that I do something. When I do it, I am responding to God's law. This is what the Bible calls works. But when grace is here, the principle of law and of works is set aside. Here we see that it is God working for man instead of man working for God.
Grace, which is God working for helpless, poor, and troubled man, has three characteristics or natures. Everyone who wants to understand God's grace must remember these three characteristics or natures. If we forget these three characteristics, we as sinners will not be saved, and we as Christians will fail and fall. If we see the characteristics and nature of God's grace, we will receive more grace from God for timely help. Let us consider briefly these three characteristics from the Bible.
What are man's works? Generally speaking, there are three things to man's work: (1) his wrongdoings, (2) his achievements, and (3) his responsibilities. The works of man that are evil are his wrongdoings, those that are good are his achievements, and those that he is willing to bear are his responsibilities. Here we have three things: of the things that man does, those that are not done well become his wrongdoings, those that are done well become his achievements, and those that he promises to do for God are his responsibilities. In terms of time, wrongdoings and achievements are things of the past, and responsibilities are things of the future; they are things that a man is responsible for. If God's grace is God working for sinful, weak, ungodly, and helpless man, right away we see that God's grace and man's wrongdoing cannot be joined together. Neither can God's grace be joined with man's achievements and responsibilities. Where the question of wrongdoing comes into play, grace does not exist. Where the question of achievement comes into play, grace also does not exist. Likewise, where responsibility is, grace does not exist. If God's grace is indeed grace, wrongdoings, achievements, and responsibilities cannot be mixed in. Whenever wrongdoings, achievements, and responsibilities are mixed in, God's grace loses its characteristics.