Faith
Key words in plain language
Grace, sin, justification and more: what they mean, where they are in the Bible, and where the churches explain them differently.
Grace, justification, atonement: words you hear in every church, but that nobody ever explained to you. Here they are in plain language, with what they mean in Hebrew and Greek, a picture to remember them by and the Bible passage where they belong. Where churches explain a word differently, each explanation stands next to the others, in its own words.
Some words in church sound hard, like grace or forgiveness. Here you learn what they mean, with a little picture in your head to go with them.
Nine words
Pick a word: you'll see the Hebrew and Greek behind it, a picture to remember it by and the verse where it belongs.
Grace
- Hebrewchen, chesedfavour; faithful love
- Greekcharisgift, favour
Grace is love you don't deserve and can't earn: God gives, simply because He is good.
Grace is like a big present from God. You don't have to do anything for it; He gives it because He loves you.
A picture: A present you get while you have nothing to give back. If you had to pay for it, it wouldn't be a present.
Paul sets grace against merit: “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”. Grace is also the power that changes people: “My grace is sufficient for you”.
for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,How the churches explain it
Grace is God's favour and also his life in us, which sanctifies us from within. God gives it above all through the sacraments. People cooperate with grace, but even that cooperation is itself grace.
Grace is God himself giving himself: his “uncreated energies”. Through them people come to share in God's life (2 Peter 1:4), a path the Orthodox Church calls theosis, deification.
Grace is above all God's unmerited favour: He accepts the sinner for Christ's sake. “By grace alone” (sola gratia) was one of the foundational words of the Reformation.
All the major churches say together: salvation begins with God, not with us. No one can work their way into heaven.
Do you remember?
Five short questions about the key words.
Question 1 of 5
What does the Greek word for sin (hamartia) literally mean?
Sources
Sources
- Lutheran World Federation / Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999)”
- Wikipedia, “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (later signatories)”
- Vatican, “Catechism of the Catholic Church, on grace and justification (1987–2029)”
- Wikipedia, “Ancestral sin (the Orthodox view)”
- Wikipedia, “Theosis”
- Wikipedia, “Atonement in Christianity (the main views)”
- Project Wittenberg, “Martin Luther, the Ninety-Five Theses (thesis 1)”