Favor

cmp.2009.10.16
ed.2010.01.12

We overly complicate and over theologize the term "grace". When Scripture was written, the terms used were common everyday words--without all of the theological complications that we add today. "Grace" literally means favor--something that occurs in a friendship. If someone does a favor for you, they do it because they are your friend, out of love, not because they owe you, or because you deserve it.

How could we find friendship with God, (favor) if we don't trust Him and He doesn't trust us?

Without trust, it is impossible to find friendship with God. But this is evidently true in every true friendship that we have. Is it possible to have a friend we can't trust? Those people that we don't truly trust, (but we call "friends" anyway out of politeness), are merely "acquaintances". An experience is the starting line for a friendship, trust its milestones, love its energy and power, and unity in intimacy the destination.

Experience -> Trust -> Love -> Intimacy