and groups; and the more I talk to various Christian leaders and teachers and lay persons, the more I am convinced that the most urgent need of the hour is for them to take a fresh look at the biblical words and terms that they use because they are using the words and the terms but at the same time they are evacuating the meaning. The reason for this is obvious they have a defective view of the words and terms they are using.

Let us take for example the word Grace, do they really understand what it means? What is so amazing is this, they say it means the unmerited favour of God, and I agree with them, but then they proceed to support the position that it is really the conditional favour of God. This is what I mean when I say they use the terms but evacuate the meaning. This is quite serious. They are unable to appreciate the fact that the following two positions are poles apart: position number one believing to obtain Grace and position number two believing because of Grace. Position number one is conditional favour. This is false Grace. Position number two is unconditional favour. This is true Grace.

If Salvific Grace is the unmerited favour that saves the sinner, then it must be by definition unconditional favour. The moment you make Grace conditional it ceases to be Grace. If conditional favour is Grace then language has lost its meaning. It also follows that Salvific Grace must be discriminating favour. If it is not discriminating favour then every single person should be saved or will eventually be saved, but we know from the Bible that all will not eventually be saved.

Furthermore Grace is not only unmerited favour which by definition is unconditional favour and therefore discriminating favour, but it is also effectual favour. In other words it never fails of its purpose. Where is it present or has been bestowed, its fruits and effects are always evident. If this was not the case, how could we say that Salvific Grace has been bestowed on us if no salvation has been experienced. It was stated long ago, that the signs of salvation are in the saints but the cause of salvation is in God. Yes we must learn what is the crucial difference between believing to obtain Salvific Grace and believing because of it. Believing and repentance and coming to Christ are the result of salvific Grace and not the means by which we obtain saving Grace. The two positions are indeed poles apart. Where conditions exist to obtain blessing, there Grace does not exist and man has something to glory in by robbing God of the glory that belongs to Him alone. I am saved because I believed. Now answer this question: Why did I believe and not the other person? The answer: God's Grace made the difference.

The meaning of the word Grace How often have you heard testimonies in which God is given the Glory and the praise for the salvation of the sinner and the glory and praise for all the blessings that the sinner enjoys, and then at the end of the testimony, the sinner states that he only has one regret that he did not come to Christ sooner. Here we have a sinner that does not realise fully that it was Grace that brought him to Christ and Grace that saved him. From start to finish salvation is of the Lord. We are saved in God's time as was the case of Paul the apostle (Gal 1:15). We have neither part nor lot in this matter so that no flesh should glory in God's presence.

The condition of the sinner is so hopeless that left to himself he would never be saved. If you accept the fact that the sinner is dead spiritually, blind spiritually, his understanding is darkened, and because of his state and condition he is incapable of knowing or understanding spiritual things; then you should agree that if ever the sinner is to be saved the initiative must come from God alone. So even if, for sake of the argument, God should provide salvation for the sinner and should leave it up to the sinner either to accept or reject the salvation He provided in his Son Jesus Christ; He would have to offer it to all without exception, which He has not done, and to those to whom He offers it, if that is all He does for them, they will not be able, left to themselves to accept it. Thus the need for the divine initiative. God must act on the sinner directly in order that he may be saved. God must quicken the sinner, God must open the sinner's heart, if the sinner is ever to be saved.

Since no one deserves salvation, God provides it by Grace. The fact that all will not be saved must mean that it was never God's intention to save all without exception in the first place. God is not obligated to save anyone.

Those He chooses to save should be thankful for His Grace. Those that he does not save cannot complain because they get what they deserve. John 10 reveals that only the sheep will be saved. It further reveals that all are not sheep.

It further reveals that we do not believe to become sheep, but rather we believe because we are sheep. I realise that this is a hard pill to swallow but it is nonetheless bible doctrine which has plenty of scripture support.

All the blessings that we enjoy flow from the Grace of God. Grace is at the bottom of them all. At the bottom of Grace is the good pleasure of God's will alone. No action on our part whether it be called faith, repentance, or some other thing that comes from ourselves, brings Grace to us. For by Grace are we saved through faith and that not of ourselves. Yes, even saving faith is not of ourselves it is the gift of God. Grace comes to us unconditionally. Grace is not so much something offered requiring an acceptance but a blessing bestowed unconditionally. This is a blessing which God had determined to bless us with before time began (2 Tim 1:9). This is the true Grace of God (1 Peter 5:12).

Please allow me to repeat myself, if Grace is unmerited favour, then it must by definition be unconditional favour. It cannot be otherwise understood and still be Grace.

Now then, Scripture states plainly that we believe through Grace or because of Grace (Acts 18:27). It does not teach that we believe to obtain Grace. If we believed to obtain it, or have to do something to obtain it, then it means that we would have to meet a condition in order to get it, which means that it would be conditional favour. In my definition of Grace I have shown that unmerited favour by definition must be unconditional favour. So if we must meet a condition to get this favour, it cannot be called Grace. You will have to come up with another word or term because the word Grace would be inappropriate, or not suitable to express your position.

Now you cannot have it both ways, Grace is either truly unconditional favour or it is not. This means that it comes to us unconditionally or we do something in order to obtain it. Words like: believe, receive, accept, appropriate, etc. carry the same sense and are therefore interchangeable. We may rightly refer to them as the so-called conditionals. Whichever word you may choose to use, remember this, they all describe an action on our part which we do because of Grace or through Grace, and not to obtain Grace.

The very fact that many leave this world without experiencing salvation which is by Grace through faith and that not ourselves is proof that Salvific Grace has not been bestowed upon them because if it had been bestowed upon them, they would have been saved even as we have been saved.

Our examination of the word Grace is just the tip of the iceberg. We can compare it to a biopsy: the microscopic examination of a piece of theological tissue. What we find in the part will be true of the whole theological system.

In another paper of mine treating the subject of the death of Christ, I demonstrate the fact that no doctrine can be defended in isolation to a system of which if forms a part, to defend the part, is in fact to defend the whole system.

Gary E.E. Smith is one of the founding members of the Discovering Christianity Studies Centre in Bermuda.