Grace is free because God would not be the infinite, self-sufficient God he is if he were constrained by anything outside himself.
Future grace is that grace that carries me from this moment on.
Grace and mercy are fused together, every act of one is also an act of the other.
Grace is goodness toward the one who sins, and mercy is goodness toward the one who suffers / misery.
Pain seems to constrain mercy, but guilt does not seem to constrain grace... looks more free.
If God's grace is his natural response to sin, it is owing entirely to something amazing in God, not in the constraining power of sin.
Suffering constrains pity; but sin kindles anger - not grace - therefore, grace toward sinners is the freest of all God's acts.
Grace is occasionally conditional - though you have not earned the gift, but you met a condition [also a work of God's grace]. Add Ephesians 2:8,9 - the faith is a gift, meeting the condition for grace to save.
Exodus 33:19 - "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious" - to be God is to be free.
God does not look outside his own will for an impulse to move his grace.
Free grace produces life. We were dead and unresponsive before God acted unconditionally. Dead people cannot meet conditions, there must be a totally unconditional and utterly free act of God to save them.
What act could be more one-sidedly free and non-negotiated than one person raising another from the dead?
See Ephesians 1:4-6 - Unconditionally chosen before the foundation of the world - predestined.
Eph 2:6-7 "...in the ages to come....His grace....toward us" Most of the grace toward us lies in the future.
God's freedom nullifies the power of pride [next chapter].
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