One man's thoughts about Life, Torah, and Messiah

Does G-d give mercy (chesed) in order for us to find grace? Absolutely. The Torah makes clear that G-d’s choosing of Israel as His people was out of mercy. He did not choose them because they were a large or impressive nation (Deuteronomy 7:7-8) but because of the covenant promises He had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The sages teach that Israel had reached the 49th degree of depravity while in Egypt. The 50th degree is a term used to describe a state in which redemption or turning back is impossible, a state of irreversible and total abomination.

Through this we see that the rabbis understand that the Exodus from Egypt was an act of G-d’s mercy, it was not something merited by Israel. But, it’s also interesting to note that G-d gave one command for the people to follow before he would bring them out, the command to apply the blood of the paschal lamb to the lintel. G-d would have been perfectly justified to bring them out of Egypt without any participation or obedience on their part. He could have done it merely to fulfill His promises to the Patriarchs.

I think the key is that G-d’s favor is obtained through man’s actions. What we do does affect how G-d responds to us, because it’s a real relationship. G-d in His mercy gave Israel the means to find his favor/grace though they didn’t deserve it. Upon choosing to obey Him Israel experienced or obtained G-d’s favor, His grace.

The idea that a person is totally incapable of pleasing G-d or doing anything right is not a Biblical concept, in my opinion. If we are totally incapable of pleasing G-d then we really don’t have free will, do we? In order to exercise free will we must have the ability to choose between right and wrong, good and evil. This must be a “real” choice, not just a hypothetical choice.

Granted, the evil inclination in us is strong and due to the sin in the Garden, there is an “imbalance” toward following the “flesh” (nephesh), but that doesn’t make us incapable of choosing to obey. Even Paul said in that when the Gentiles by nature do the things that are contained in the Torah, they are a “law unto themselves” (see Romans 2:14-15).

An example of this is found early on in scripture with the account of Cain in Genesis 3:7

“Surely, if you improve yourself, you will be forgiven. But if you do not improve yourself, sin rests at the door. Its desire is toward you, yet you can conquer it” (Stone Chumash)

G-d says here that Cain can conquer the evil inclination, he can choose to obey. Related to the discussion regarding grace vs. mercy, I would conjecture that G-d in His mercy gave Cain this admonition and instruction (do right and be forgiven, conquer the evil inclination). Inevitably Cain did not find grace (favor in G-d’s eyes) because he chose to disobey.

In trying not to be overly lengthy in my responses here I left out a portion of my study on grace that covers chesed and chen as related to the Apostolic Scriptures, as given below.

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It has been proposed by David Bivin (Jerusalem Perspective) that the reason Grace is so prevalent in the Apostolic Writings and much less so in the Tanakh has to do with the completion of the Septuagint. According to Bivin, at the time the Septuagint was being completed the distinctiveness between “chen” (grace) and “chesed”(mercy) had been mostly lost and the two words were being used interchangeably. The translators of the Septuagint tended to us the Greek word “charis” (grace) to render “chesed” (mercy).

The translators of the Apostolic writings follow the same pattern used in the Septuagint. Therefore charis (grace) is used to translate both chen (grace/beauty/charm) and chesed (mercy). Therefore, the AS seems to contain more “grace” than the Tanakh. According to Bivin, most of the uses of the word “grace” in our English translations encompass the idea of “chesed” (mercy, unmerited favor) and not “chen” (grace, in its original definition).

This confusion is quickly seen in the first usage of “grace” in the Apostolic Scriptures (Luke 2:40)

And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

The above verse is speaking of Yeshua and describes him as having the grace of G’d upon him. Now, if grace is unmerited favor, or not getting what one deserves or getting what one doesn’t deserve, we have a problem here. If it was necessary for Yeshua to have the unmerited favor of G’d upon him, that assumes in some way that Yeshua could not merit G’d’s favor on his own.

Yeshua did not need require G’d’s unmerited favor (mercy) because his perfect/sinless totally obedient life merited the full acceptance and favor of G’d.

In this first usage of grace in the AS we see the sense of “chen” (beauty/charm/favor) being used. The favor (chen/grace)of G’d was upon Yeshua. Why? Because he was filled with wisdom, fully following the ways and will of G’d as he grew and matured.

This is just one example to show that as English readers when we come upon the word “grace” in the AS, we have to be careful to consider the context, because “grace” can translate “chen” (to find G’d’s favor) or “chesed” (unmerited mercy) based on the usage. I’m definitely no expert in figuring this all out, but from the little bit of study that I have done on this it would seem that:

“G’d’s grace”, “received grace”, “given grace” and “grace and peace to you” – all encompass the sense of “chesed” or unmerited favor because it is given and/or received “from G’d and Yeshua”.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus”—encompasses the sense of “chen” or the full favor of G’d (complete attractiveness/beauty in G’d’s eyes) that Yeshua attained through his perfectly sinless and obedient life.

“Grace be with you/with your spirit” – seems to encompass “chen” in that the writer is desiring that the qualities that are attractive to G’d be with (or among) his people and is a phrase often used in conjunction with Yeshua and/or faithfulness in the walk.

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Again, this is all just food for thought, as I work through these issues myself as well.