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χάρις (Charis): God’s Unmerited Favor That Saves · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. Today we're doing a deep dive
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that tracks the life of a single word.
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Right. And it's a word that is so
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flexible, so powerful, that it starts out describing something
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like simple human attractiveness.
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And ends up as the defining principle of salvation itself.
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We are zeroing in on trice or karis.
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The Greek term you of course know better as grace.
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And this is a really fascinating one.
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The source material you sent over is exceptional because it
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makes us look beyond the, you know, the highly specialized
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definition we use today. It really does.
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It forces you to appreciate the sheer scope of the term.
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Our goal here is to chart its entire course.
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From its secular, almost transactional roofs in classical
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Greek. Through its use in the Hebrew
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Bible and then finally to its total restructuring by the New
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Testament writers. Where it becomes the central
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feature of the Christian message.
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The idea of unmerited divine favor.
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I find this kind of linguistic archaeology just so helpful.
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We often approach a word like grace as this monolithic.
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Thing it was handed down fully formed.
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Exactly. But the sources show that to
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really get what the New Testament is doing, you have to
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understand the huge semantic fields trees occupied before
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Paul got a hold of it. You have to see the competing
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ideas. The cultural baggage it carries.
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Precisely If we don't understand the classical soil this word
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grew in, we miss just how radical the later definition is.
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So in the ancient world, it wasn't just one thing.
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Not at all. We can, for our purposes, sort
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of break it down into three main categories, and all three are
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prerequisites for the theological sense.
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OK. So the first one, the most
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surface level meaning is outward attractiveness, charm.
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Winsomeness. That aesthetic quality.
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The second moves more into the social world.
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Right favor, goodwill, kindness, a disposition of generosity from
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one person to another. And this is where that whole
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ancient system of reciprocity comes into play.
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It is, and that's what sets up the most critical contrast with
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the New Testament. And the third meaning?
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The third is the response to that kindness.
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It's gratitude. Thanks.
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So attraction, transaction and response.
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That's the entire cultural and linguistic backdrop.
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All right, let's start where the word begins, then, with trice as
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winsomeness and appeal. If you met someone in classical
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Athens who possessed trice, what are we talking about?
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We're talking about someone with a certain magnetism.
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They had a winning quality that just invited a favorable
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reaction from people. So it's an inherent
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graciousness. Yes, but not necessarily moral
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goodness. It's more of an aesthetic
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quality that made being around them or listening to them
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pleasant. And the sources show this
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applied to appearance, but also to how someone spoke.
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Equally to both. You can actually see this
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aesthetic sense in the Gospel of Luke.
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You can Luke 4.22 when the people are in awe of Jesus
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speaking, it notes the gracious words literally 2 nogastos
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cheritos that came from his mouth.
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It's a great example. It wasn't just what he was
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saying, but the attractive quality of the delivery itself,
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the winsomeness. Think about that scene in the
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synagogue. His speech wasn't just conveying
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data. No, it had this inherent appeal
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that captivated everyone. This was a highly valued quality
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in Greek society, especially in rhetoric.
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An orator needed a crease to sway people.
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It's the difference between listening to a dry lecture and a
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truly engaging talk. Absolutely.
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And Paul picks up on this. He writes to the Colossians in
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chapter 4 and elevates this for believers.
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He tells them their conversation should always be and.
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Winsome having charm. Seasoned with salt, he says it's
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a call for discourse that is pleasant and agreeable, not
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abrasive. It's about social tact guided by
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spiritual truth. Which goes back to the
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psychological root of the word. The sources confirm that ancient
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poets connected crease linguistically with Kara.
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Joy or delight? So when something has crease, it
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brings courage to the one experiencing it.
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That's the idea, the embodiment of delight.
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If your speech has charm, it gives pleasure.
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If your appearance is attractive, it is delightful to
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see. And that's an important piece of
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the puzzle, because it ties the early understanding of grace not
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to merit, but to this spontaneous generation of
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pleasure. It's a quality that simply is,
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and in being, it delights. Now, this is the furthest poll
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from the theological definition of God's grace, which is based
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on deliberate will, not aesthetic appeal.
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But the bridge starts here. And that sense of spontaneous
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appeal is well, it's quickly overtaken by a much more complex
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social structure. In the ancient world it is which
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is creases as goodwill as the bedrock of the reciprocal social
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system. This is the second meaning, and
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maybe the most important one for understanding the New Testament
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revolution. Crease becomes a beneficent
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disposition, a favor that is part of a transaction.
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The whole Greco Roman social fabric was woven with this
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system. I give you a crease.
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And in doing so I create an expectation of return.
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We might call it a social contract, or maybe we just you
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know, I owe you 1. But it was much more structured
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in antiquity, when a favor a crease was given, it incurred an
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expectation of debt and obligation.
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The historian Thucydides called it an airy Lima.
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And this wasn't seen as a bad thing, it's just how society
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worked. It's how it functioned, yes.
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It ensured the continuous circulation of status, power,
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goodwill. If you stop reciprocating, you
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are a social outcast unworthy of future favor.
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So a trice is granted, but it comes with invisible strings
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attached. It secures the donor's
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reputation and binds the recipient in a relationship of
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debt. You see this mechanism at work
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very clearly in the political world of the book of Acts.
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For instance, in Acts 24 and 25, the Roman governor's Felix and
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Festus grant a crease to the Jews.
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Right. They're doing something not
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strictly required of them, but they're doing it for political
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approval, to secure favor with a powerful local group.
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The trees is given to get something back.
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It's a political calculation. A manipulation of the social
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debt system. It's a highly pragmatic form of
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kindness. This often gets framed in
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contrast to the Roman system of patronage, where the gift giving
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maintained the social hierarchy. That Roman patronage model is
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the perfect foil for Pauline theology.
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The patron, the powerful one, gives a gift to the client, the
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dependent 1. Not because the client earned
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it. No, but because the patron is
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demonstrating his own superiority and generosity, the
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act of giving reinforces the patrons higher status and
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ensures the client's loyalty. So the gift is undeserved in a
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sense, but it's not truly free because the whole point is to
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maintain the relationship and the patient's position.
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And the moment you hear about undeserved gifts in a Roman
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setting, your mind jumps to the later Christian meaning.
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But the intent is inverted. Completely.
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In Rome, the undeserved gift reinforces the donors
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superiority over the recipient. For Paul, the undeserved gift
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annihilates the distance between the donor and the recipient.
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It destroys the whole system of debt.
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And that's the tension we have to hold on to.
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The carries Paul is about to define doesn't just grant a
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gift, it cancels the entire Athlean Ledger.
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It moves from transactional to unilaterally restorative.
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So if the first two meetings were the act of favor, the
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charm, or the kindness, the third describes the response.
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Karis as gratitude as thanks. It's the reciprocal moment.
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In that ancient social system, if you received a thesis, a
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favor, you were obligated to offer Cherise thanks in return.
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It's the verbal acknowledgement of the debt, even if you plan to
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pay it back in action later. The standard formula for this
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was pretty common, Schering or To Be grateful.
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You see it in Luke 17 in that sort of rhetorical question
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about thanking A servant who just does his duty.
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And this usage moves pretty quickly into the religious
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sphere. It does.
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A powerful religious expression of this is that common
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elliptical phrase charisse cherry.
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Thanks be to God. Paul uses it constantly.
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Romans 7, Second Corinthians 9, and this is where the classical
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meaning starts to really bump up against the divine.
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The idea of acknowledging a powerful, beneficent benefactor
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was already well established. It was, and this religious usage
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is key because it formalizes the recognition that God is the
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ultimate source of all good things.
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By using Shuri's here, the early Christian writers were building
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on a linguistic tradition that demanded you acknowledge the
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giver. What the New Testament changes
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is the content of the gift. Right.
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It makes the gift so vast that the only possible return is
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gratitude, not proportional service.
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The gift becomes so infinite the debt can only be paid by
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continuous things, not by works that could ever hope to balance
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the scale. That's a great way to put it.
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The infinite gift necessitates the perpetual response of
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gratitude. And to really appreciate the
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radical shift Paul is about to introduce, we need to understand
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the prior religious framework, specifically how Chias connected
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to Hebrew thought. All right, so the bridge between
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classical Greek and New Testament theology is the
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Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old
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Testament. Yes, and our source material
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points to the main Hebrew equivalent for Cheers as she's
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or Ching. That's where the semantic roots
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of favor primarily live. In the Old Testament, ching
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means favor, kindness, charm. And the verbal root is Chi's
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ching. Right, which describes the
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action to turn in grace, to show assistance, or to be favorably
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inclined so the. Action.
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The verb emphasizes the direction of the movement.
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It's always from the strong to the weak.
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A consistent pattern. It could be a king showing favor
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to a subject or God showing favor to Israel.
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The grace is always initiated by the superior party in response
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to a need. The element of unmerited
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kindness is definitely in the root verb.
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But the noun Sheen, it undergoes an interesting shift, doesn't
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it? It does.
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This is a critical subtlety. The sources show that instead of
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just denoting the act of showing grace, the noun Sheen starts to
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denote the state or quality of the recipient.
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Their gracefulness or attractiveness.
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Exactly. Proverbs 13 says that good
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understanding gives Sheen. It's an acquired or granted
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virtue that makes the person pleasant or acceptable in the
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sight of another. The focus moves from the
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generosity of the giver to the attractiveness of the receiver.
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And we see this best in that very common Old Testament
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phrase. To find she's or Chun in the
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eyes of the Lord men. This isn't just a spontaneous
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gift being handed out. It's something sought and found.
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It implies an innate quality that drew the divine gaze.
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And the two prime examples are Noah and Moses.
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Genesis 6.8 says Noah found Sheen in the eyes of the Lord.
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And in Exodus 33, Moses pleads that he may find Chen in your
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sight. The language here suggests that
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Chen is a quality the bearer can to some degree possess or
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acquire something that distinguishes them.
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And while we know God's sovereignty is behind it all,
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the language used in the Old Testament often carries the
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strong aesthetic, almost meritocratic accent.
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It implies that those who find favor are already in some way
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desirable. Which is a very different
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trajectory from Paul's assertion that grace is given precisely
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when the recipient is a Sinner, an enemy.
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When they are entirely lacking in any internal quality or
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merit. So the OT concept is often a
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specific act of kindness for deserving or chosen individual
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like Noah. Whereas the New Testament
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concept will be a global, unmerited gift to the utterly
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unworthy. Now we have to bring in another
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related but often confused concept.
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Or cheesed. Right, and this term is distinct
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from Chen. It's usually rendered by Elos
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Mercy in the Greek Septuagint, not by Che.
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And cheesed is the term that really defines the stable,
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reliable interaction between God and Israel.
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We often hear it translated as covenant loyalty or loving
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kindness. That's the key difference.
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While chien can be a spontaneous one off act from a superior to
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an inferior, chies refers to conduct within an ongoing,
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established relationship. It's about fidelity, loyalty,
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dependability. It's what you expect when the
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covenant is in effect. It's often paired with truth or
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stability. You see the phrase cheesed.
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We met loyalty and truth. So if Chiens is like a
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spontaneous cash gift from a rich uncle, Cheezed is like the
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unfailing provision guaranteed by a solid marriage contract.
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That's a perfect analogy. It's not based on a whim, it's
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based on vows. Cheese is the stable, faithful
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disposition of Yahweh toward his people.
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The covenant relationship requires it.
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You see this in the Decalogue in Exodus 20 where Yahweh says he
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shows cheese to thousands of generations of those who love
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Him and keep his commandments. It's conditional, yes, but it's
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duration and magnitude speak to God's fidelity.
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And the psalmist relies entirely on this.
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Psalm 63 says this divine cheese endures forever and is better
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than life. The expectation is that because
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of the established relationship, God will remain faithful.
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So even though both Chen and cheese involve God's
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benevolence, cheese is structured by the law and the
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covenant, while Chen is more spontaneous and often tied to
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the perceived quality of the recipient.
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And when the New Testament uses trees, it absorbs the positive
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aspects of both Gods unmerited benevolence and his fidelity,
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but divorces them from the legal demands of the Old Covenant.
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Which brings us to the theological sticking point that
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had to be overcome for the New Testament idea of grace to work.
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The rabbinic viewpoint on favor and works.
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This is the crux of it. Rabbinic thought, which
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developed alongside and after the New Testament period,
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maintained a very strong posture that limited trees.
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They acknowledged divine favor, of course, but said it was
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strictly supplemental. So grace in their system only
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showed up where works were absent or where human efforts
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fell just short. It was an aid, a safety net, but
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not the sole engine of justification.
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If you picture justification as climbing a ladder, Rabbinic Tris
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was the hand that helped you up the last step or caught you if
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you stumbled. But.
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The effort, the legal fulfillment, the works remain
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primary. They were the mechanism by which
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one earned acceptability before God.
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So the conclusion from the source material is defining
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here. Judaism cannot accept the
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alternative of works or grace. The concepts were not seen as
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opposites, they were complementary tools.
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And this creates A theological impact past that completely
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clarifies what Paul's project was.
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For the rabbinic tradition, works were not just good, they
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were the necessary precondition for receiving God's favor.
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Divine grace was there to assist the pious, the striving, the
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obedient. It was unthinkable that works.
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Could be just, you know, negated.
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In that mindset, if you eliminate works, you eliminate
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the entire system of accountability and covenant
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maintenance. If grace is the only means, the
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law becomes meaningless. And that is exactly the break.
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The New Testament writers, guided by the Holy Spirit, made
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the introduction of cries as an event that excludes merit.
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Solo Gratia was a radical separation, a complete
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restructuring of the path to redemption.
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They repurposed a concept of favor that it always implied
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reciprocity or conditionality and made it universally free.
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And that brings us right into the New Testament
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interpretation. As we move into the New
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Testament, Luke X really seems to act as is the theological
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bridge. It does.
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Luke still uses Christ with an Old Testament flavor, but you
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can see him gradually infusing it with new meaning.
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When Luke writes that the child Jesus grew and the trace of God
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was upon him and Luke too, that sounds a lot like the Noah and
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Moses narrative. Finding favor, possessing an
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attractive quality that draws divine blessing.
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It's very much in that OT pattern.
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We also see it used for the early Christian community.
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Acts 2.47 says the new believers enjoyed Christ favor among the
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people. It's describing their positive
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social standing, their successful integration, at least
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initially. So up to this point, Therese
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still operates within that old semantic field of a pleasing
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quality or positive social approval.
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But Luke takes the first big step toward redefining it by
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applying the term to the actual gospel proclamation.
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He calls the message of salvation the message of the
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Therese of God in Acts 20. And that's a huge leap.
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Therese is no longer just an attribute of God or a quality of
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Jesus. It is the content of the message
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itself. The gospel is defined by God's
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unilateral kindness. Then, in Acts 15 at the
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Jerusalem Council, Peter makes that powerful statement.
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He does. We believe we are saved through
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the trees of the Lord Jesus, just as they will be.
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That sounds fundamentally Pauline.
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It asserts that salvation is mediated through Christ's grace,
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setting aside the need for the law.
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It does, but as the sources suggest, loose usage.
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While it's forward-looking, it still needs Paul to
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systematically define it. Paul takes this transitional
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concept and elevates it. He makes it the central
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organizing principle of the salvation event itself.
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He transforms it from a general descriptor of God's kindness
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into a precise systematic theological doctrine.
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Let's turn to that Paul's radical redefinition, his
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understanding occurs, doesn't just describe God's character,
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it dictates the mechanics of redemption.
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Paul's doctrine is distinctive because he anchors tourists not
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in some abstract philosophy, but in the historical finished work
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of Christ. And the central non negotiable
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feature is. Freedom Paul's Tourist is free,
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unmerited and utterly unconnected to the recipients
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qualifications. This is where we need to 0 in on
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that Greek term durtin or durian.
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Right, which is often translated as freely or as a gift.
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Durian is the word Paul uses to guarantee that grace isn't some
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hidden form of payment. In Romans 3.24, he says
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believers are justified durian by God's charity.
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It is a gift given without any expectation of return or prior
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merit. It's rooted entirely in God's
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free sovereign intention. And he explicitly contrasts this
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gift with that old transactional system of reciprocity we talked
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about. Earlier he absolutely does,
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using the language of debt cancellation.
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Romans 4.4 is definitive on this.
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He contrasts the person who works, whose wages are counted
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as a debt, and O FEMA. With the person who does not not
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work but believes if justification were by works it
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would be a payment. Since it is by grace it is a
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gift. The old IOU system is
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obliterated. So Paul is fundamentally
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separating God's economy from human social economy.
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God's giving isn't done to reinforce his status.
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But to save the object of his affection entirely apart from
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any system of debt. And this free gift is
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established, manifested, and delivered entirely through the
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person and work of Christ. The cross is the historical
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event that makes grace concrete. Galatians 2.21 is such a
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powerful assertion of this. If righteousness could be
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obtained through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
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Christ's death is the proof. The grace alone works.
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So for Paul, trice isn't an abstract concept.
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It's an event, an active intervention established in the
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crucifixion and resurrection. Which is why the theological
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structure is so clear. Paul's crease is built around
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the crucial antithesis of grace versus law and works.
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This is the definitive structure that separates the New Covenant
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from the rabbinic understanding. Grace is set in direct,
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irreconcilable contrast to IGA works and Numa's Law.
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You see this contrast everywhere.
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Paul talks about justification. Romans 6.14 we're told believers
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are not under law, but under crease.
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Galatians 5.4 warns that those seeking justification by the law
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have fallen away from crease. In Second Timothy 1.9 says God
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saved us not because of our works, but because of his own
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purpose increase. It's the declaration that since
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grace is not owed or earned, the only proper mechanism for
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receiving it is beasties faith. Faith is just the hand that
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receives the gift. If the means of reception were
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works, grace would cease to be grace.
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Romans 11.6 famously states it. If it is by priests, it is no
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longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, crease would no
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longer be crease. He creates an airtight
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theological. To protect the absolute freeness
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of God's saving action. The law cannot justify because
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it inherently seeks merit which is structurally incompatible
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with a gift. Now, this radical assertion that
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grace excludes all human merit naturally brings up the most
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serious potential misunderstanding.
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Which Paul addresses directly in Romans 6.1.
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The charge of libertinism If grace is free, doesn't that
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encourage sin? Shall we continue in sin?
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That Teresa may abound. This is such a vital question
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for you, the listener, because it forces us to clarify what
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Paul means by trice. If grace were just a judicial
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decree, a moral license, then the logic of sin, more so grace
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can look better, might follow. But Paul calls this pseudo
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logic. Because it fails to grasp that
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grace is not merely a legal pardon, it is an impartation.
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Let's expand on that Grace isn't just a get out of jail free card
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that leaves the person unchanged.
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Not at all. Paul sees Crees as an active,
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indwelling force. When we are justified by grace,
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we are simultaneously united with Christ's death and
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resurrection. Grace is the vehicle for new
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life. For sanctification.
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So to continue in sin is to act against the very nature of the
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trees that's been imparted. Grace is the destruction of sin,
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not its enabler. If we are under crease, as
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Romans 6 says, we are released from the constraint of the law,
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which couldn't deal with sin. And we are now powered by a
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principle that motivates and enables true obedience.
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This leads directly into understanding the qualitative
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nature of grace. Crease as a surpassing operative
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strength. Paul sees grace is having
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absolute supremacy over sin. That famous phrase in Romans 5.2
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illustrates it where sin increased, overflowed.
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Or literally hyper overflowed. The ways to sin.
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It's not just superior in volume, it's qualitatively
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different and more powerful. And this qualitative supremacy
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is necessary for the believers ongoing life.
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Paul gives us the ultimate definition of operative grace in
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his personal story in 2nd Corinthians 12.
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After begging the Lord three times to remove his thorn in the
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flesh. The Lord replies, My curious is
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sufficient for you, for my ability is made complete in
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weakness. The sources interpret this as a
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2 fold defining statement. First, Paul's request is denied.
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No extra aid is coming. Second, no additional aid is
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necessary. The Divine Shreeze contains
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within itself all the necessary strength, all the.
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This is the theological culmination.
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God's ability doesn't supplement our effort.
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It's made visible and complete precisely in the believer's
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weakness where our effort fails. This ensures all glory goes to
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the gift, not the recipient. It completely reverses that Old
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Testament idea of finding trine because of some inner quality.
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No grace is demonstrated through an inner lack.
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OK, we've established Tri as the free, unmerited source of
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salvation. Now we need to look at its
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outflow. How this divine favor shows up
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in the life of the church and the believer.
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This is where we get into the specific gifts of grace, a
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trismata. A trisma is essentially trees
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viewed as a concrete result or action, a specific benefit or
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gift. It's a specialized term, largely
23:14
confined to Paul's writings. Mostly, yes.
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It appears once in First Peter, but these are the spiritual
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endowments given to believers. So trees is the theological
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principle, the disposition of the giver.
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And trisma is the tangible spiritual effect, the mechanism
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by which grace operates in the community.
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And Paul had to spend a lot of time regulating these gifts,
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especially in Corinth. Did where manifestations like
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speaking in tongues and prophecy were being misused for
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individual status? Paul insisted that God gives
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individualized gifts to each person, but the purpose is
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strictly corporate. For the common good, for the
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building up of the church, the gifts are for service, not
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status. The sources highlight a specific
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triad Paul uses in First Corinthians 12 to establish the
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unified, sovereign source of these varied effects.
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And this triad is crucial for understanding the Trinitarian
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unity behind the visible diversity in the Church.
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Paul lists Karzmata gifts linked to the Spirit.
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Dikakani Ministries or service linked to the Lord.
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And in Gamata, operations or effects linked to God the
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Father. This structural mapping ensures
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that while the manifestations are manifold, speaking,
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teaching, helping, leading, they all flow from one Divine Source.
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The Spirit gives the gift, the Lord provides the ministry, and
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God the Father affects the operation.
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There are three different perspectives on the same unified
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divine action. And notice the breadth of that.
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The inclusion of Diakoni ministries or service among the
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charismata is so important. It means the mundane acts of
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everyday service and assistance. Are just as much a manifestation
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of the Spirit's operation as the spectacular gifts.
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The GIF is provisional for the current time, and its value is
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measured only by how effectively it builds up the body.
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So if the gift, the trisma, is the outflow of Tracy, then the
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appropriate return flow, the human response is Thanksgiving.
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It just literally means good Teresis Thanksgiving.
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It represents the received grace that flows back to God.
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It moves from being general gratitude to a formalized
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religious and corporate response.
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We see this reflected immediately in Paul's style.
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He often begins his letters with a lengthy Thanksgiving section.
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The Epistolary Eucharistia. And this is more than just
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polite letter writing. Oh, absolutely.
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By dedicating the preface to Thanksgiving, Paul immediately
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sets the theological stage for the entire letter.
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He grounds the readers in the reality that everything he's
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about to discuss is predicated on the thanks due to God for his
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saving work in Christ. And Paul is careful about the
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orientation of that. Thanks.
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He is Paul asserts that Thanksgiving is properly
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directed to God the Father, but it is mediated through Jesus
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Christ. The prayer of gratitude is
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reserved for the ultimate benefactor of the Father.
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And Christ is the essential link, the one who made the gift
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possible. This idea of giving thanks
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eventually leads to the single most institutionalized term in
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the church. The Eucharist.
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That's the cultic usage in the early church.
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The verbal form estios was initially used in the general
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Jewish sense of blessing food, like in Mark 8.6.
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In the Jewish tradition, you bless God for the food.
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But the sources note that Mark and Matthew use both Tilagos to
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bless and Eschos Teo to give thanks interchangeably in the
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Lord's Supper accounts. Suggesting they were synonymous
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expressions of the same Jewish practice, the later
26:39
institutionalization saw eshja become the technical term for
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the Lord's Supper. To noting the central prayer of
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thanks and by extension, the blessed elements themselves.
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So the term for gratitude became the name for the central act of
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worship. It permanently links the Lord's
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Supper to the necessary response to God's ultimate trace in
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Christ's sacrifice. The ACT itself is a perpetual,
27:03
ritualized offering of thanks. It is.
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And finally, let's circle back to that initial linguistic
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connection we noted at the very beginning.
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The tie between trace grace charm and chase joy.
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This relationship is fully realized in the New Testament.
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New Testament char isn't based on some fleeting charm or
27:21
happiness. It's rooted in the Apostolic
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message and is described as a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians
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5. It's a state of being, not an
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emotion dependent on circumstance.
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Which leads to the paradoxical nature of Christian char.
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It's maintained, even magnified in the face of suffering of
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loose. Paul talks about overflowing
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with joy even in all his affliction in 2nd Corinthians 7.
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The joy doesn't rely on positive empirical experience.
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Because it's rooted in eschatological hope, the
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realized victory of Christ, it is a permanent status
27:52
established by. Trice, the joy of faith
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mentioned in Philippians 1. Exactly.
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Worldly circumstances can destroy happiness, but they
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cannot nullify a state of tribe that is an impartation of the
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Spirit flowing from the secure knowledge of God's saving grace.
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What a remarkable path for a single word.
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It started as a way to complement a handsome face or a
28:13
pleasant speech. And it became the conceptual
28:15
mechanism for redeeming the cosmos.
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We have completed our deep dive into trees.
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We've tracked its linguistic evolution from human charm and
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transactional favor. Through the Old Testament
28:25
concept of spontaneous favor tied to the recipients perceived
28:29
worthiness their chin. And finally, to the single
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defining action of God's free favor in Christ.
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So the take away for you is the essence of the theological
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concept Paul articulated. She's dictates that salvation is
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given not because of anything we possess or perform, but solely
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out of God's sovereign goodwill. It is a gift, a durian that
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annihilates the system of works. Yet simultaneously acts as an
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impartation, A qualitative force that empowers us for new life,
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manifesting in specific trismata and crowned by the perpetual
29:05
response of Sheda. It is the foundation of the
29:08
faith, the principle that makes the New Testament cohere.
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And if we connect this final outflow back to the source,
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consider this If the spiritual gifts you exercise, the service
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you perform, and the very Thanksgiving you offer are
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themselves the outflow of God, she's operating in you, what
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does this tell you about the relationship between divine
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sovereignty and your actual good works?
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The early church thinker Augustine made a famous
29:30
observation reflecting the materials we've discussed today.
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He said if God crowns your merits, He is truly crowning His
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own gifts. Something to consider as you
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reflect on whether the goodness you see in the world is truly
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derived from human effort or entirely sourced in the infinite
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operative and unmerited citrice of God.