An ancient Oriental fable tells of a tiny fish that overheard a guru at the river bank teaching his disciples about the life-sustaining importance of water. "If it is that important," mused the little fish, "I must find some of this thing called water, or I'll soon die." He began asking the other fish in the river about water, but none of them seemed to know anything about it. Finally he found a wise old fish who told the little fish that he had been surrounded by water all his life, and that his very life was being sustained by water at that moment. "Enjoy the water," advised the big fish, "appreciate it and draw on it to continue living and thriving."
Like the little fish, the Samaritan woman at the well knew little about the abundant, freely available, life-giving and life-sustaining "living water" that Jesus had described as a "gift of God" (John 4:10). This awesome and inexhaustible gift he portrayed as satisfying and also required for the fulfillment of one's very destiny: "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never suffer thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (4:14).
Being a "gift of God" it can be given only by God (contrary to the heresy of Pelagianism). Jesus alone can offer the gift: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink" (7:37)"the water I will give him" (4:14). While persons not "thirsty" for it (e.g. infants at baptism) can receive this gift, still those with an appreciative "thirst for righteousness" (Matt. 5:6) can increase their supply by purposefully going to Jesus, whose gracious invitation echoes Isaiah 55:1: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters."
What precisely is this redoubtable, awesome "living water"? It is the very life of God himself within us, enabling us to "participate in the divine nature" (II Pet. 1:4). It is a kind of extrusion of God's august presence into us, which is spiritually both life-giving and life-sustaining, for it entails "everything we need for both life and godliness" (v. 3). As a "supernatural" gift (one that transcends our human nature) it is not overstated by the epithet Amazing Grace, the title of the popular hymn by the sailor-turned-clergyman, John Newton.
The New Testament Greek word used for this great gift is charis, a word with multiple meanings in the 160 times it is used, 130 of which are translated as "grace." This more common meaning is found especially in the epistles of Paul, who championed the Christian doctrine of grace. The scripture scholar Thayer describes the connotation of this word in the New Testament as a refinement of the Old Testament word for "favor," "blessing," or "goodwill" of God. He defines it as "kindness by which God freely bestows favors even upon the non-deserving, grants to sinners pardon, and offers them eternal salvation through Christ." Thus gifted by Christ with this God-presence, the soul is enriched with God-like qualities, sharing in God's gifts and blessings, as well as his sin-free state and his eternal life.
The greatest theological expositor of grace, St. Thomas Aquinas, taught that grace is fundamentally God's gracious love that is echoed back to him from the graced person by that person's response in thought, word and act. God's love, thus bestowed as grace, confers on the soul a quota of God's own life and holiness (II Pet. 1:3-4). This makes the soul pleasing to God, because the child of God, when grace-filled, better resembles God, as a child resembles a parent. Your grace supply is nothing other than the grace of the Father dwelling in Jesus that is extended to us by the Holy spirit. That fact alone entitles us to call it "amazing" grace, since God doesn't "order a piece of pie" for us, but keeps giving us big pieces of his own limitless "pie": "From the fullness of his grace we have all received grace upon grace" (John 1:16).
Look again at that phrase from John's gospel: "grace upon grace." It implies that graces are "piled up" like gifts stacked into one's open arms. For instance, the grace of being righteous is added to the grace of becoming righteous. Thus, according to the Council of Trent, an adult cannot move himself to repent of serious sin, but is enticed to repent by God's "prevenient" grace, i.e. an "actual" grace that actualizes or activates (disposes) him to repent. If the person accedes to this "nudge" from God and does repent, then a subsequent grace of holiness ("sanctifying grace") is bestowed. (This process is called "justification" or being made "just," the biblical word for righteous).
Many divine interventions involve similar grace sequences, the most common of which is actual grace leading to sanctifying grace. ("Actual grace" and "sanctifying grace" are biblical concepts, but as technical terms they are derived from medieval theology.) Sanctifying grace is also called "habitual" grace because it inhabits or stays habitually in the soul uncontaminated with serious sin. In this aspect it differs from actual grace, which only momentarily affects the soul by prompting the intellect to a helpful insight or the will to be motivated to do good or avoid evil, "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil. 2:13).
By way of analogy, a car with a dead battery can't start itself, but can be "jump-started" by being linked to another car with a "live" battery. Once the disabled car is started, it needs something further to keep it going, namely gasoline, with ongoing sparks from the spark plugs to activate the pistons, etc. A gratuitous offer made by God to "jump-start" into divine life a soul dead in sin is an "actual" (actualizing) grace. The sinner, by accepting the "jump-cable link-up," is disposed for the subsequent "sanctifying grace" that makes the soul "alive" in holiness (engine running) and capable of growing in that holiness (in gear and moving forward).
Sometimes the grace sequence is multiple. Imagine for a moment that you are a slave on the auction block. The highest bidder pays the price for you and then announces that you are no longer a slave, but a free person. That is an analogy of the grace of redemption, which when received (John 1:12), is called the grace of salvation (or conversion). This grace of salvation induces further actual graces, which in turn foster sanctifying grace. Paul describes this three-step sequence: "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives" (Titus 2: 11-12).
Now suppose that after being emancipated from slavery you become a criminal and are awaiting a death sentence for a crime. But you are astonished to learn that the governor has pardoned you. You are not only emancipated (redeemed) but also acquitted (forgiven). This situation is analogous to God's grace of redemption (salvation) followed by the grace of forgiveness (actualized by repentance); and this is followed by even more spiritual gifts or graces. Again, Paul delineates this multiple sequence: "In Christ we have redemption and forgiveness by the riches of God's grace, lavished on us with wisdom and understanding" (Eph. 1:7).
Like a donation to a street beggar, grace is given to us by God gratuitously. There is no way we could earn it, even if we wanted to, and no way we could deserve it (see Eph. 2:7-9). Yet we have a say in how it affects us: we can use it, misuse it, refuse it, or lose it. Seeing a street beggar carelessly losing the money given him, or wasting it on drugs or liquor, is a disappointment to the donor. The obligation of fostering God's precious gift of grace was the rationale of Paul's impassioned exhortation: "We urge you not to receive God's grace in vain" (II Cor. 6:1).
There are many Christians walking around today half dead because they receive God's life-gift partially in vain. Some receive it totally in vain, as Isaiah noted: "Though grace is shown to the wicked they go on doing evil" (Is. 26:10). Almost as amazing as grace itself is the indifference that some show toward it.
St. Augustine says, "God gives where he finds empty hands." With hands full of baubles one can't easily receive other gifts. Those burdened with worldly interests are poorly disposed to receive bountiful graces from the beneficent hand of God. (See James 4:4-6; I John 2:15). That's why "God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble" (Prov. 3:34). In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis writes:
God shows much more of himself to some people than to others, not because he has favorites, but because it is impossible for him to show himself to a person whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Sunlight, though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one.
If we could see "the incomparable riches of his grace" (Eph. 2:7) and its manifold forms that rain down upon each of us daily and hourly, we would, like thirsty nomads in a desert cloudburst, strive to catch every drop of this "amazing grace" from the loving heart of God, and we would "continue to grow in the grace of God" (Acts 13:43). Nothing would delight God more; his benevolence would be extended "to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (II Cor. 9:8)
