Word 14: 

Charis

Grace as God’s Covenant Enabling Power

• Greek: χάρις (charis) – grace, gift
• Hebrew: חֵן (chen) – favor, grace

“For by charis you have been saved through pistis, and this is not from yourselves—it is the gift of God… created in Christ Jesus to do good works.”

— Ephesians 2:8–10

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❌ The Word We Got “Right” but Understood So Wrong

Let’s be clear:

Charis is almost always translated as “grace.”

And technically, that’s not wrong.

But what if we told you that the way “grace” is understood today makes the word functionally meaningless in the actual biblical story?

Most people today hear “grace” and think:

• “Unconditional blessing and favor with no strings attached”
  
• “God overlooking my failures”
  
• “A divine free pass to heaven”
  
• “The opposite of obedience or effort”
  

But that’s not how charis was understood when the Scriptures were written.

In fact, nothing about the biblical word implies passivity, indulgence, or irrelevance to how you live.

And when we misunderstand charis, we don’t just distort one word.

We collapse the entire Gospel into a shallow system of legal pardon, instead of a cosmic rescue and transformation.

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📜 What Charis Meant in Paul’s World

In both Greco-Roman and Jewish contexts, charis meant gift, but not like the ones we think of in modern Western culture.

Thanks to Enlightenment ideas and post-Reformation theology, we now associate the “best” gifts with:

• No obligations
  
• No expectations
  
• No relationship required
  

But in the first century, a gift (charis) created a bond—a relationship of loyalty, gratitude, and transformation.

This is what New Testament scholar John Barclay emphasizes:

In the ancient world, gifts were never expected to be “free” in the modern sense.

Instead, they were generous initiatives that invited a response—a return of loyalty, trust, and partnership.

And that’s exactly how Paul uses the word.

What astonished him was not that God expected nothing,

but that God gave this empowering gift of relationship to those who didn’t deserve it—the incongruent, the ungodly, the spiritually bankrupt.

That’s what makes charis radical.

Not that it expects nothing…

but that it is offered to those who had nothing to offer.

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⚠️ The Real Cost of Misunderstanding Grace

If charis becomes synonymous with “do-nothing religion,”

then we’ve severed it from:

• Pistis (loyal trust),
  
• Metanoia (turning from rival kings),
  
• and the Basileia (the Kingdom we’re meant to rejoin and live in).
  

We end up preaching a gospel of cheap grace:

• A grace that asks for no allegiance
  
• Produces no good fruit
  
• Heals no wounds
  
• And restores no Shalom
  

It becomes grace that forgives, but doesn’t transform.

Grace that excuses, but doesn’t empower.

Grace that feels good, but costs nothing.

And in doing so, we teach people to receive God’s kingdom like a coupon code…

Instead of an empowering call to be reborn into His covenant family.

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🔄 Reframing Ephesians 2:8–10

Now reread this key passage through the lens of real charis:

“For by charis you have been saved, through pistis…

not by works, so no one can boast.

For we are God’s workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance for us to walk in.”

Do you see it?

• Charis saves you by initiating a relationship you didn’t earn
  
• Pistis is your loyal response to that relationship
  
• And the result is a life of fruitful participation in God’s Kingdom
  

Grace isn’t opposed to effort.

It’s opposed to earning.

But it absolutely expects transformation—Not as a condition for receiving it, but as the purpose for which it was given and if that change to living a loving life of the Kingdom is absent then Paul would say you have not changed kingdoms and have squandered and wasted the gift emptying it of the meaning for which it was given.

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👑 Charis in the Kingdom Story

In the rhythm of our unfolding series, here’s where we are:

• Hamartia, anomia, and parabasis describe how we gave our allegiance to the powers of darkness.
  
• Basileia reminded us the world was meant for God’s loving reign.
  
• Euangelion announced that that reign is returning.
  
• Christos revealed the King behind that reign.
  
• Metanoia called us to turn from rival lords.
  
• Pistis asked for our allegiance to the true King.
  

And now, charis seals the new covenant.

It’s God’s empowering, undeserved gift that enables us to live out this new allegiance—

not with fear, but with joy.

Not to earn His favor, but to live out of it.

Charis doesn’t excuse our brokenness—

It heals it.

It empowers our restoration into the people God always intended us to be.

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🧠 Word Summary: Charis

• Literal Meaning: Gift or favor—especially one that initiates or restores a relational bond
  
• Biblical Function: The empowering, transforming initiative of God that restores us to covenant life with Him
  
• Theological Meaning: Grace is not a passive pardon but an active, relational force of transformation. It’s incongruent but never without purpose.
  
• In Our Words:
  

Charis is not permission to stay as you are.

It is the empowering gift of God to become what you were always meant to be, that is humans in the image of God’s freedom and likeness of God’s agape love.

UP NEXT

We have just walked the seven-word path that told the story of Shabbat’s breaking — the wound in creation and the long, aching journey back toward wholeness. But now, everything changes. We step into the final chiasm, seven words that sing of Shabbat restored, of the Kingdom breaking in. And it all begins with one radiant word — sozo — salvation, rescue, healing, the great turning of the tide.

And so now it is time to perhaps see salvation like we never have before!

Mistranslated Series: Word 15: Sozo – What does Salvation mean?