The meaning of "Grace"

The concept of "grace" for most evangelicals includes some notion of unmerited or undeserved favor or gift. I want to argue that the Biblical concept of grace (gk: charis; heb: chen) does not necessarily have to be unmerited or undeserved, and viewing it so can lead to misinterpretations.

Genesis 6:8

The Greek of the LXX interprets the Hebrew chen of Genesis 6:8 as charis (grace): "Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." The very next verse (Gen. 6:9) describes Noah as "righteous", "blameless" and that he "walked with God." The point seems to be that the reason Noah found favor with God was that he was righteous, blameless and walked with him. The same logic seems to be involved in Genesis 7:1 where the LORD commands Noah to go into the ark because Noah alone was found to be "righteous".

Evangelical gambit

The evangelical retort would be to claim that Genesis 6:8 precedes 6:9 and so it is the grace that makes Noah righteous. However, there are two major problems with this gambit. First, the fact that Genesis 6:8 precedes 6:9 may only be due to structural concerns. Genesis 6:8 acts as a sort of introductory proclamation that is interrupted with a genealogical comment on Noah in 6:9-10. [In fact, some scholars would say that the rest of chapter 6 (6:9-22) is an interruption and that the story doesn't pick up again until 7:1 where again we are told that Noah was righteous!] Second, and more importantly, there is no indication in the story that Noah was a part of the wickedness that led to the LORD's decision to wipe out humanity. We are never told that Noah was a bad man and that the LORD's choice of him is based solely on the LORD's whim. On the contrary, the statement that the earth was corrupt "in the view of the LORD" (6:11) seems to be purposely contrasting itself with 7:1 where Noah was righteous "in the view of the LORD." Also, the statements about Noah's righteousness are not relativized to after he was made righteous by the LORD's grace but are relativized by "in this age" (6:9 and 7:1); this would be an odd way to put the fact that Noah was a bad man until the LORD's grace made him good. The natural way to read the flood narrative is that Noah was chosen because he walked with the LORD (6:9).

Other uses of "find favor" in Genesis also seem to undermine the fact that grace must be unmerited. In Genesis 33:15, Jacob protests to Esau: "Why should I find such favor in the eyes of my lord." The logic is that Jacob is wondering what he has done to merit Esau's favor, indicating that favor is usually given in response to something merited. This seems to be the case in Genesis 39:4 where Joseph finds favor with Pharaoh but only after we are told that Pharaoah saw that the LORD was with Joseph and that all he did succeeded (39:3).

Luke 2:40

In Luke 2:40 we are told that the grace of of God was upon Jesus. Grace cannot involve something that is unmerited because Jesus is not a sinner. If anything, God's favor is due to Jesus' strength and wisdom, descriptions which immediately precede God's favor.

Theological upshot

We must be careful not to allow a certain theological picture dominate how we think about and interpret Scripture. "Grace" is an important concept in Christianity and it behooves us to be clear what it means in all contexts and uses.