"the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings."
Well. That makes things so much easier. What's manifested mean? How about we just replace that with demonstrated for now. We can basically summarize grace as God saving us and giving us all the good things that He has given us - without us having deserved any of it one bit! It means that we don't work our way to God. It means that He came and stooped down to save us even when we wanted nothing to do with Him. And salvation? (cue the Salvation = starvation bit from the last post). Salvation here means being saved from sin and its consequences. What exactly is sin? You know all the wrong things you've done? The times you disobeyed your parents, the times you weren't nice to your brothers and sisters? None of us is perfect (Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). What happens when we sin? Well, the Bible tells us that if we sin, the consequence is death. (Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death) Now you see why grace is so important? We could never get to God on our own. And there is just something so irresistible about God's grace... We all try to fill ourselves up with something. Sometimes it's work, sometimes it's fun things, but all these things fail to fill us up completely and we feel empty because we were designed to have a relationship with God. We were designed to be satisfied in knowing Him, and until we find our meaning in Him, we will always be looking for something that will make our lives meaningful.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
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