Grace

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Message Grace is the undeserved love and care of God.

Contents How does grace manifest itself in human relationships?

The gracious God
Forgiveness of sins
Let us show ourselves worthy of the grace of God

Catechism CNAC-QA 58 (address in the lesson)

CNAC-QA 645-652 (background information)

1 Lead-in
Hint Begin by telling the story of the wicked servant. This is to help the
confirmands understand the concept of grace. Knowledge of this
parable is required in order to perform exercise B in the workbook
(see section 5).
Tell
There was once a king who noticed that one of his servants owed him ten
thousand talents of silver. Since the man was unable to pay, however, the king
decided to sell him, his wife, and his children as slaves. When he heard this,
the servant fell down before the king and implored him, “Master, have patience
with me, and I will pay you all.” The king took pity on the man and forgave him
all his debts.
Shortly thereafter when this servant ran into one of his fellow servants who
owed him a small amount of money he insisted mercilessly on being paid, and
had his fellow servant thrown into prison.
When the king learned of this, he became angry and withdrew his forgiveness
of the servant’s debts (Matthew 18: 23–34).

Summarise By grace, the king forgave the servant’s debt, but the latter did not show any
compassion to his fellow servant.

Hint The interpretation of this parable is not discussed here, but in section 5.

2 How does grace manifest itself in human relationships?

Workbook In order to comprehend the content and scope of grace, the students are now to
exercise A do exercise A in their workbooks. The answers are discussed afterward. What is
common in the first two examples is that grace is usually understood as follows:
someone is given something or forgiven on the basis of compassion.

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21 Grace

If Martina does not receive grace from her teacher or the school adminis­
tration, she will have to leave school. Perhaps she will lose a year, but her
expulsion may even have a far greater impact on her life.
If this man does not receive grace from the responsible authority (president,
governor, etc.), his life will be forfeit.
Human grace, mercy, has great implications for the life of the person in
question.
However, divine grace is of much greater scope, because it not only has
implications for this life, but also for the beyond.
An example of this can be found in Jesus’ promise of grace to the thief on the
cross: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke
23: 43). This promise had a double effect: the criminal was surely able to die
with less anxiety, and at the same time received a positive perspective for his
life in the beyond.

3 The gracious God

What does the What do we mean when we say that God is gracious? This question is
Catechism say? answered in CNAC-QA 58 (please read together and discuss).

Human grace can be understood as a mirror image of divine grace. Human

beings are gracious to their neighbour because they know that they likewise
only live by the grace of God.

Effects of God’s grace for salvation history

God becomes Man in Jesus Christ

Explain Although mankind had rejected God, He still loved them, and therefore sent
His Son (John 3: 16) to establish and show them the path of salvation. “For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of
the devil” (1 John 3: 8). It is by grace that God became man in Jesus Christ!

Jesus Christ sacrifices His life on the cross

Explain With His sacrificial death, Jesus Christ made it possible for mankind to be
reconciled with God—and thus also for human beings to have their sins
forgiven. We are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus” (Romans 3: 24). Jesus died on the cross in order to prepare
the way of grace and show us the love of God!

Jesus Christ establishes the sacraments

Explain “Sacraments are fundamental acts of God’s grace. They are holy acts that are
performed upon a human being in order to allow him to attain salvation, be
adopted into the fellowship of life with God, and be preserved in it” (CNAC 8;
CNAC-QA 472, 473).

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Jesus Christ establishes His church and sends Apostles

Explain Jesus Christ established the church in order to impart salvation within it and
allow mankind to receive God’s word and grace. He sent—and still sends—His
Apostles with the commission to teach the gospel in the proper manner and to
proclaim forgiveness of sins.

Our childhood in God

Explain We are children of God because God has elected us and because we have
made our election sure. His election does not result from any merit of our own,
but is solely the result of His grace: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim
the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not
obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2: 9–10). By grace we
are permitted to be children of God!

Our faithfulness

Explain Our Father grants us His grace daily. He is faithful and desires to help us. For
this reason we can say together with Apostle Paul: “But by the grace of God I
am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15: 10).
Because God grants us His grace, we are able to remain faithful!

God’s grace can be described as follows:

– it is an expression of love, which He grants to sinners.
– it is a gift and cannot be earned (Romans 11: 6).
– it leads us into eternal fellowship with God.

4 Forgiveness of sins
In this section we will discuss the grace that manifests itself in the forgiveness
of sins, which is conveyed in the divine service.

Ask What is sin?

Write answers Sin is anything that opposes the will of God and runs contrary to the nature of
on the board and God, in other words, all words, deeds, and thoughts that go against the will of
supplement God. Sin also occurs when we intentionally fail to do something good (James
4: 17). With every sin human beings incur guilt before God (CNAC-QA 229).

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Ask How is the forgiveness of sins proclaimed?

Listen to answers Forgiveness of sins is pronounced by the Apostle or a priestly minister with
and summarise the following words: “In the commission of my sender the Apostle I proclaim
unto you the glad tidings: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the
living God, your sins are forgiven. The peace of the Risen One abide with you!
Amen.”

The forgiveness of sins is a prerequisite for partaking in Holy Communion.

Ask What do I have to do to ensure that the forgiveness of sins will have its
effect on me?

Listen to answers In order to attain forgiveness of sins, the following prerequisites are necessary:
and summarise – I believe that the Apostles have received the mandate to proclaim
forgiveness of sins from Jesus Christ.
– I acknowledge that everything that is contrary to the will of God is sin.
– I regret my sins and know that I am in need of the grace of God.
– I have the sincere intention to overcome my faults and weaknesses.
– I have the genuine longing to also reconcile with my neighbour, and will
make the effort toward reconciliation.

5 Let us show ourselves worthy of the grace of God!

Ask How can we do this?

In the parable of the wicked servant, Jesus makes a clear reference to that
which our heavenly Father expects of us: we are to forgive and exercise
grace because we too are forgiven and likewise receive grace. If we do not
endeavour to forgive, we cannot be forgiven either. Let us accept the grace
of God with gratitude and humbleness because we recognise how great it is,
how much we need it, and how little we deserve it. We act in accordance with
the example of Apostle Paul: “I do not set aside the grace of God” (Galatians
2: 21).

Workbook Now the students do exercise B in their workbook, which makes reference
exercise B to the parable of the wicked servant. In the conversation on this subject,
elaborate on the full scope of the statement: “And forgive us our debts, as
we forgive our debtors” (Lesson 9 “Prayer”).

The main points

I also want to … … show myself worthy of the grace of God and be merciful to my
neighbour!

Homework In their workbooks, the confirmands do exercise A of lesson 22.

The confirmands read the Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus (John 3: 1–7)
and prepare to tell what they have read in the next lesson.

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