The Hope Series – Grace and Its Work in Human Beings
The lecture explains that grace is divine assistance granted by God to the human person, supporting the weak and increasing the strength of the strong, and encompassing God’s spiritual and material gifts and the talents He grants to the human person. Grace works in the heart, conscience, and will, leading the person to repentance, encouraging him to live with God, and moving him toward prayer, reading the Holy Bible, service, and reconciliation with others. Grace also has an essential role in service, because service is not merely skill or knowledge, but requires the grace of God working in the servant and in the hearts of the listeners.
Spiritual Message
The central spiritual message is that God works through His grace for the salvation of the human person, but He does not force the person to accept what is good, nor does He abolish his will. A person can respond to the work of grace and cooperate with it, just as he can resist it or neglect its voice. Therefore, salvation is connected with the work of God on the one hand, and with the person’s response and spiritual struggle on the other, as the person works with grace and submits to the work of God within him. The lecture explains that grace may visit a person and move his heart toward repentance, and therefore he should not harden his heart or delay his response when he experiences this divine visitation.
Educational Lesson
The lecture teaches us that spiritual influence alone is not enough, but it must be transformed into a response and practical action, because a person may hear the voice of grace and then lose its effect through postponement or negligence. The lecture presents several biblical examples of people in whom grace worked, with some responding while others resisted it, emphasizing the importance of the human will in accepting the work of God. It also emphasizes that the servant needs grace in preparing his service, in his words, and in influencing the listeners, and that the true success of service does not come from knowledge and human ability alone, but from the grace of God working together with human spiritual struggle.
Practical Application
The practical application is for the person to be attentive to the work of grace within him and to respond quickly when it urges him toward repentance, abandoning sin, reconciliation, or performing a good spiritual work. He should not justify his weakness, because grace is able to strengthen his will; rather, he should ask God for assistance and work with grace through a sincere will and continuous spiritual struggle. Likewise, the servant should ask for God’s grace before and during service, and should follow up with the souls that have begun to respond to the work of grace so that the spiritual work may become firmly established in them. In this way, the person grows in grace, recognizing that his spiritual life and service do not depend on his strength alone, but on the grace of God that works in him and with him.
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