Does anyone know the difference between Grace and Mercy?

The word Grace from God is often understood to be Gift.
When God forgives us due to His mercy it is a gift, therefore a grace.
When God provides us this any of His blessings they are all gifts due to His love.
Separating Grace and Mercy is difficult for they can be understood to be the same.
There has been a bumpersticker going around that says, "Grace Happens".
To me that says God's generosity happens.
So Grace to me also means love.
In my mind God's grace equals mercy and love.
Peace and kindness,
Fred (arcura)

mercy is goodness, kindness, faithfulness (what one man does unto another)

Luke 1:72-75 To perform the mercy [promised] to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

grace is favour, charm, and to be acceptable to him (Gen 6:8 19:19 32:5 33:8)

Luke 2:4 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

To paraphrase someone I can't recall:

Grace is a gift/reward we don't deserve.

Mercy is the sparing of just / deserved punishment.

I 've also heard forgiving someone is letting go of the punishment you think they deserve - to leave that up to God.





G&P

To paraphrase someone I can't recall:

Grace is a gift/reward we don't deserve.

Mercy is the sparing of just / deserved punishment.




I've heard that too. I just thought I got it mixed up.

Thanks. =)

sndbay and inthebox,
I must agree with you both for grace and mercy covers a lot of ground.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

I agree with inthebox

Grace is getting what you don't deserve.

Mercy is when you DON'T get what you DO deserve.

I agree with inthebox

Grace is getting what you don't deserve.

Mercy is when you DON'T get what you DO deserve.

That's how I understand it!

classyT,
LOL
Right on
Fred

The way I see it, Grace means favor, and mercy means forgive
Or pardon. "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need" Hebrews 4:16 NKJV

Maggie 3

Maggie 3,
I agree
Peace and kindness,
Fred

I agree with inthebox

Grace is getting what you don't deserve.

Mercy is when you DON'T get what you DO deserve.

Yes, I think these are good, practical, working definitions of these two biblical concepts. Arcura noted how difficult it can be trying to distinguish the terms and that may be because grace and mercy often go together when they are mentioned in the bible.

I'm thinking of one verse that gives great force to the concept of grace:

Titus 2: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

In this passage, Jesus is described as the grace of God. Why? Because he came to bring salvation to all people (who believe). If I understand grace in this context and define it according to Classy T's definition of grace, it is grace because I should be the one hanging on the cross for the due penalty of my sin; it is only fair according to God's justice that I pay for what I have done. So the idea of Christ setting me aside and being crucified and separated from God—when it should be me—is definitely something I do not deserve. And mercy follows because God, by rights, should be punishing me, but instead he is choosing to forgive me and be merciful to me.

jakester,
Well said.
Well done.
Fred

Mercy is the heart of God’s law. Even on Earth our justice comes with mercy because it’s the centre of the law. Grace is the key to our repentance (Accepting Christ) Grace is described as “God's unmerited favour”, by church culture and we accepted it hook, line and sinker. Mercy by Favor is the tactic God used to secure our Grace. Grace is: The divine influence on your heart and it’s reflection in your life. In essence, God’s measure that is in you which empowers you to do what righteousness demands done. It is grace that causes us not to want to sin when we turn to Christ. It is not a cover up, but an empowerment by God, since we are no longer operating by the letter of the law. The Grace of God was upon Jesus. How do you think he was able to do what righteousness was demanding? He was strong in spirit and filled with wisdom and he had God’s undeserved favor? No He had God’s empowerment. There is nothing undeserving about Jesus. Listen to what you say. Grace has been taught amiss. Forgive me if this offends any one. Like Jesus teaches… offence is taken not given. Grace removes offence. This is its power.

Son of Joshua,
One should keep in mind that mercy is a grace.
Grace is a gift of God. That is what the word grace means; gift.
Jesus had/has divine power because He is divine, God the Son.
We can receive grace (gifts of various sorts) from The fater, The Son and The Holy Spirit.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

Statement of Grace

Grace is love from God

God sent HIS grace Christ Jesus

Love for Christ, and love given to one another is how we fulfil the law.

Love is the discipline of the heart, where by we love God above all things, as God loved us.

Luke 2:4 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

Acts 11:23 Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.

Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

God grace be with you all

Statement of Mercy

Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us

God's mercy is rich and comes to us because of God's great love for us.

Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)

Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus



Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Thank you for your words. I am sorry I did not reference mine…
The Websters dictionary tells us straight away that the etymology of Charisma is grace or favor, then it gives us 2 meanings in translation that we in the English speaking world use instead. We refer to Charisma as the following Websters meaning…
1 : a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (as a political leader)
2 : a special magnetic charm or appeal
When was the last time you used the word Charisma and thought of God's Holy Grace? We don't because of Websters, Oxford, Wikipedia, etc: The world dictionaries are not the place to look up Bible words. They will set you in the wrong direction. This is why we still think Grace is what it is not.
There is another word that comes out of the root of Charisma and that word is Charis and also Chairo, which manifested translates to: “The divine influence on your heart and its reflection in your life�. Like all virtues of God in the Bible, Grace too is a verb. God, His word and his people are all verbs: action. Grace is the gift of God, but it does not mean “gift�. We get to the gate and don't walk in and thus we are held back. Grace by Bible translation, not Websters translation is: The divine (God) influence on your heart and its reflection (action) in your life. In essence- Empowerment to do what righteousness is demanding done because we are no longer by the letter of the law. Grace is God's gift of empowerment. The same Grace Jesus was filled with. We call it a free gift, but we never say what the gift is and we have settled for that shortcoming. The gift is Empowerment. If someone gave you a gift, would you not want to open that gift? Puts man's fake eloquence and Websters dictionary meanings aside and look it up for yourself beyond what church culture and Christianese has taught you. Now that I have brought an opposing view, you are charged by The Mighty to see which is true. Search Spirit Holy and He will do the revealing. I am not to be believed. Truth is to be believed. We have lived in the shadows of propaganda too long. Putting a scripture beside a word does not make that word understood. The word must be understood to understand the scripture. Jesus came to free us: our hearts and our minds… I speak a hard word for some and I will no longer comment on this. Be a blessing as you have been to me.

Son of Joshua,
Thank you for that post.
Yes biblical mentioned grace is a gift of various sorts.
I learned that in both Protestant and Catholic Churches.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

I speak a hard word for some and I will no longer comment on this. Be a blessing as you have been to me.

Son of Joshua,

Speak the hard words of truth, and fear not for God is with you.

Scripture tells us to put on the gift which God has sent to us. So we too, can be one with Christ, as Christ was One with the Father in Heaven.

1 Timothy 1:14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

When Noah found grace in the eye of God (Genesis 6:8) the hebrew word "chen" was in english translated to grace meaning favour, charm, acceptance.

And then in the greek translation of "charis" that is found in Timothy, the english meaning was what is due to grace, a spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine reward. So we are governed by love and were commanded by the spirit of grace. Love conquers all, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the gift of grace.

John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Translations of greek and hebrew words identified in the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

~God grace be with you

I believe grace came from God earlier than from Jesus sauch as when the bible tells us of the gifts he gave to individuals and the Hebrews in the Old Testament.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

I believe grace came from God earlier than from Jesus sauch as when the bible tells us of the gifts he gave to individuals and the Hebrews in the Old Testament.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

1 Corinthians 10:1-2-3-4 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

sndbay ,
So??
Fred

sndbay ,
So???
Fred

Well I trust that scripture is telling us that the same grace was given because the same spiritual rock Christ Jesus followed them.

they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ


Fred are you saying that grace through Christ came long before Christ was introduced in the NT? because I would agree that is true. The Word of God was their grace to follow, not yet made flesh

sndbay,
I believe that Jesus is referred to often in the O.T. but not as Jesus.
Examples, Though it is said that no person has seen God the Father yest the bible tells us of people like Moses and Abraham who have seen God face to face.
Abraham even served a meal to God.
Peace and kindness,
Fted

The grace of God is the giving of un deserved mercy,kindness or favor but stems from God's amazing grace in where he is not a respector of persons.. Mercy is first to recpicate towards the call of God. "Grace is a nurse to holiness, and not the apologist to sin." to quote Charles Spurgeon

Grace is something we can only receive after we have obtained mercy. Redemption comes about through "mercy" and as believers we are free to receive the grace gifts that God can offer His adopted children. You can fall from grace, but you will always be redeemed!!