A Brief Note Concerning the Uneven Occurrence of the Word “Grace”

In the first 1094 pages of my (ESV) Bible (Genesis through John), the word “grace” is used only 11 times. In the last 158 pages (Acts through Revelation) the word “grace” appears 119 times. The word goes from being used about once every hundred pages to being used on nearly every page.

The KJV uses “grace” for a wider range of Hebrew words than does the ESV. But even if we use the KJV for our statistics, the contrast is still startling. The KJV has “grace” 44 times in Genesis through John, and then 126 times thereafter. In other words, the first 87% of the Bible has 25% of the occurrences. In the last 13% we find 75% of the occurrences.

God does not change (James 1:16). His gracious attitude toward humanity was not new at Pentecost. But once that grand act of grace which was planned from before creation had been accomplished, it was time, as never before, to speak openly of grace. It is almost as if the Lord was hesitant to speak too much of his grace, until he had first shown the awful cost of that grace.

Let us remember that cost, whenever we think of his grace. Let us remind others of that cost, whenever we speak of his grace. Let us never neglect to think of the cost, the cross, whenever we sing of God’s amazing grace.

“Thayer Salisbury is a graduate of Oklahoma Christian University (B.A.), Abilene Christian University (M.A.) and Concordia Theological Seminary (Ph.D.). Thayer has served churches in Ohio, Kansas, and Indiana. He has served on the staff of Bible colleges in Nigeria, Swaziland (Eswatini), and Canada. He has also been a guest lecturer at schools in Ghana and Zambia. He and his wife, Chery, have four sons and eight grandchildren. They currently reside in Eswatini, where they devote their time to developing better textbooks for African Bible Colleges and assisting in the work of the local churches.”

He and his wife, Chery, have four sons and eight grandchildren. They currently reside in Eswatini, where they devote their time to developing better textbooks for African Bible Colleges and assisting in the work of the local churches.