TERM PAPER THEO 467

The Bible tells us that the living God is the Creator of the universe; He freely created everything and set Man apart from the creation by making him in His image and likeness[ “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1: 27 NIV)]. Man as a creature is composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God. This likeness of God is mainly in the soul: soon or later the body will die or return to the ground but the soul is like God because it is a spirit having understanding and free will, and is destined to live forever. The first three Chapters of the Old Testament show that there has been some type of transition of Adam and Eve from the state of innocence and obedience to the state of disobedience and sin. In fact, God put the obedience of Adam and Eve to test by commanding them to eat of all the tree of the Garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil; but unfortunately they disobeyed God, committing the sin of pride, and as results sin and death entered in the world. However God did not leave mankind in their shame and fame: in the Garden God spoke, promised, provided, cursed, and finally gave grace. This grace is found in the work of salvation of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 NIV). The Apostle Paul said: “just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Ad...

... middle of paper ...

... what is evil as good, and what is good appears to be evil. Therefore in order for Man to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”, he needs the grace to God operating in him, enabling his mind to see things according to the light of God. Only then will he be able to be more prudent and do good deeds, to act as son of light.

From all above, it follows that grace is a favor that God gives to human for the purpose of helping them on their journey to the Celestial Jerusalem. God’s grace affects both the inward and the outward of the human person. It has the power to justify, to sanctify, to strengthen the will, to enlighten our mind, and to move us to do good deeds - which we cannot do on our own due to our fallen nature – all this for our salvation. The Holy Spirit enables us through His gifts to actively participate in this work of our salvation.