Definitions of “Religion Words”

Grace is who God is, not what God does.  In short, the grace of God is the collection of all of God’s character traits.  One trait does not overshadow another, rather all of them work together in harmony.  God’s grace does not cause Him to overlook sin, which would set aside justice.  Rather, the balance between His traits produced His plan (formulated before creation) to come to earth to pay off the right-and-wrong system once, for all, so that the criteria for acceptance could be mutual trust and selfless concern.

Glory is a parade of what makes a person valuable.  The glory of a victorious general is the parade of the spoils of war.  The glory of a writer is the publication.  The glory of parents is their offspring.  The glory of God is the parade of His character traits.  Moses requested, “Show me Your glory.” (Exodus 33:18)  God showed Moses His mercy, graciousness, longsuffering, truth, goodness, forgiveness, and justice. (Exodus 34:6 – 7)

Unfortunately, the New Testament word, blessed, has two completely different meanings.  The verb form, the past tense of bless, comes from the Greek word from which we get eulogy, to say good things about.  The noun (or adjective), which we generally pronounce bless-ed, comes from a completely different word that means “above the cares of this life.”  Imagine the ear-catching moment as Jesus started His Sermon on the Mount with, “Above the cares of this life are those who…”  The New Testament contains more than 40 such Beatitudes.

Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.  Mercy goes one step further to include a compulsion to fix what caused the problem in the first place.  When the faithful make bad choices, God’s compassion helps by supporting us through the consequences.  God’s mercy looks back at the cause of the underlying poor decision and, through the power of the Spirit who indwells the faithful, works to fix the character flaw behind it all.

The New Testament word, forgive, actually is a physical action word being used in a figurative way.  Literally, the Greek word means to push aside.  For example, “They immediately left their nets and followed Him.” (Mark 1:18)  They pushed the nets aside, they did not forgive the nets.  “The devil left Him.” (Matthew 4:11)  The devil pushed past Jesus, he did not forgive Him.  When God forgives us, or we forgive others, the hurt is pushed aside so the relationship can be re-established.  Redemption satisfied justice.  Forgiveness puts aside the past.

Sanctification, in the Bible, is “to be reserved for godly purposes.”  Various items in the Temple were sprinkled with blood to symbolize that those items were to be used only for God and nothing else.  One of the symbolisms of immersion is that, henceforth, the faithful promise to be reserved for godly purposes and nothing else.  The reality of that symbol is brought about by the Spirit that is given to the faithful through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus which cleanses the conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14).

Justification, in the Bible, is to be square with justice.  Jesus, who never let go of His faith throughout His earthly life, was the only one who could pay off the right-and-wrong system because He had no debt of His own.  He did this once, for all people at the same time, not repeatedly for each individual.  So, all people have been squared with justice by Jesus’ faith.  After that necessary first step, the criteria for acceptance are mutual trust and selfless concern. 

Righteousness might be better understood if it were called rightness – being described as acceptable by someone in a position to make that judgment.  God counts us acceptable when we trust Him.  On that basis, He trusts us to do what is right as partners in the church, lights in the world, and ambassadors of reconciliation.

To be holy is to have the nature of God.  Holiness has to do with character.  Although focusing on godly behavior may have marginal results, the road is fraught with potholes and wrong turns resulting in an unpleasant trip.  Godly character naturally and seamlessly results in godly actions.  The faithful gain those godly character traits through the power of the Spirit that has been placed in them.

Redeem, in its various parts of speech, is translated from two very different Greek words.  Fortunately, the meanings are only a nuance apart.  One word focuses on the rescue.  Jesus’ death delivered us from the slavery of sin, having become the place where we meet with God.  The other word focuses on the purchase.  The faithful are to purchase time from its downward spiral; Jesus paid our price to justice; and that purchase transferred ownership of us to God.  Applications may be found in the past, the present, and the future.