Theological Understandings of Mediated Grace

Everyone here at Northwestern, even though it is a Christian college, has a different view of faith. Some people put it above all and others only know the stories. In the novel Ordinary Grace, Krueger throws challenges at the Drum family. Each family member reacts differently to every challenge thrown at them and has their faith strengthened or destroyed. In William Krueger’s Ordinary Grace, he shows the different levels of faith from the strongest to the weakest, and how they react to different obstacles in life through Nathan, Frank, Jake, and Ruth.

Martin Luther was a very devout Christian, who wanted more than anything for God to be pleased with him. While reading the Bible one day, he came across a Bible verse that read, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” Luther figured that a person could be worthy of God if they had faith in Him. Luther called this “justification by faith”.

Prior to his new understanding of God’s righteousness Luther hated God because he did not know the love of God, he only knew the judging angry God. Luther did not understand how an angry God could be righteous. Consequently, Luther had been taught that, “God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner”. As a result, he believed there was no way for sinners to be justified by God. Luther felt crushed by the Mosaic Law and threatened with God’s righteousness and wrath by the gospel. However, through his studies and meditations Luther came to understand the true meaning of the phrase “righteousness of God”. He described his new understanding to be “the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith.” In other words, the righteousness of God is a gift from God to those who live by faith. Accordingly, Luther felt born again. He found a new relationship with God and the Scriptures. In the light of his new views, Luther was conflicted by the Roman Catholic Church teachings on penance and righteousness. As a result, Luther developed his own doctrine of justification based on

God’s grace is a word frequently used to refer to “gift from God”. In many circles, it is theological defined as God’s unmerited favor (Hughes, 1998, Ryrie, 1963). Within this

The answer to the question posed by the title of Randal Rauser’s new book, What’s So Confusing About Grace? is “a whole lot,” especially if you grew up, as Rauser did, in the North American evangelical subculture of the 80s and 90s. Rauser’s spiritual memoir recounts his life-long struggle to understand both the foundational and the superficial issues of Christian faith (the two are easily confused, as is made amply evident throughout the book).

Divine grace can be defined as the divine influence within humans, which inspires them to resist temptation and endure tribulations. It also signifies the reawakening of people to God. Throughout The Aeneid, Aeneas faces many

"What is grace? In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. (Definition of God's Grace)

Martin Luther was arguably one of the most important figures in the entire history of Christianity. If the creation of the Lutheran Church was not enough of an accomplishment, he can also be credited with orchestrating the division of the Catholic and Protestant churches. Even as a young Augustinian Monk Martin Luther was convinced the Catholic Church had lost its way. He obsessed over his purity and relationship with God, and strongly believed the Catholic Church had lost its way over the selling of “Indulgences”. Essentially, how the Church misinterpreted and taught the concepts of sin relative to temporal and eternal punishment. He was destined to confront the Catholic Church which he did and ultimately led to the separation events that are still highly relevant to this day. This was the primary driver for the first phase of his rebellion. The second was his German translation of the New Testament, which he used to both teach anyone to read and learn the holy book.

Another way to think about this is how Wesley wrote in his sermon The Scripture Way of Salvation. On our journey to sanctification, he states, what keeps us going on the journey are the means of grace, whether they be for ourselves or done for others. His basic point was that once we are brought into awareness of the grace and our need to repent and turn from our sin, the means provide the nourishment our souls need to grow in grace. How else could one grow in grace than by means of grace?

Dunning (p1) refers grace as “unmerited favor” done by God, and he again refers it as enablement or the inner strengthening of one’s spirit. This favor is shown when a human unable to choose to do good to please God. Martin Luther understood this grace as God’s attitude of

Grace or unmerited favor given to believers from God is a word Christian can sometimes take for granted. Grace is given to people for believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Grace is not something people can earn or work for. It is a gift from a merciful God that loves humanity. Grace is the gospel. The Apostles of the early

In this bible talk, David Mier focuses on the idea of grace and “Why it is worth fighting for.” He starts off referring to the well-known historical figure, Martin Luther, whose ninety-five theses were a key catalyst in the reformation and schism of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16-century. He goes on to say how within these were complaints that the Catholic Church had strayed from the scriptures, how they were focusing too much on deeds or religious works and not on grace. He argues against this idea, stating that grace is the only way to be saved.

Grace is defined as “divine help or strength … given through the mercy and love of God.” This grace can help us serve beyond our capacity to love, and in the scriptures grace is frequently used to connote a strengthening or

Once I began reading “The Grace of God” by Andy Stanley, I’ll be honest; it sounded like an uninteresting read. How many different occasions have I sat in church over the course of my life and have heard about “The Grace of God” and how His mercies are new every day. I actually thought to myself, seriously what else is there to grace? Then I actually started reading the book and I must say that I was blown completely away. Comes to find out, I knew a very limited amount about God’s Grace before reading Mr. Stanley’s book, but now I can sincerely say that I have a far more broaden admiration for the Grace of God. Most people in Christianity, including myself, before reading this book, think that Grace is a “New Testament” thing and really can’t see Grace in the Old Testament.

133). John Wesley, according to his sermon, Justification by Faith (1872), felt people are made in the image of God but because of sin are now dead to God unless they are justified by the reconciliation through Christ. Wesley recognizes the brokenness of humanity, but teaches that by the ever increasing gift of unmerited grace we can move into the total perfection of Christ. The sin committed by Adam and Eve corrupted humanity so that our soul and body became subject to death. God sees and judges us accordingly; therefore transformation, sanctification and spiritual holiness are based on His goodness and not based upon any work of people.