In the Greek New Testament, favor and grace are the same word. Once you see that, the parking space sermons fall apart and something far better takes their place.
The favor of God is His delight and goodwill turned toward a person. In the Old Testament the main words are chen and ratson. In the New Testament the word is charis, the same word English Bibles translate as grace.
So favor is not a reward for the spiritually impressive, and it is not a lucky streak. It is grace with a face on it, given freely in Jesus, and in Him it rests on you now.
That is a bigger claim than the usual one, and a humbler one. You cannot earn it, and you cannot measure it by your bank account or how smoothly your week went.
English Bibles use favor for several words. Side by side, they do most of the teaching.
Grace, favor, kindness, even charm. It is the word in Genesis 6:8. To find favor in someone's eyes means being received kindly by someone with the power to help you.
Goodwill, delight, acceptance, pleasure. It is used of an offering God accepts and of the favor He shows people. It sits behind Psalm 5:12, Psalm 30:5 and the year of the Lord's favor in Isaiah 61:2.
Grace, favor, gift. One word does both jobs, so grace or favor in a given verse is a translator's choice, not two different things from God.
The verb, to grace or to favor. It appears only twice in the New Testament: highly favored in Luke 1:28, and freely given us in Ephesians 1:6.
That last row deserves a second look. The word the angel spoke over Mary is the word Paul uses for every believer. The Blue Letter Bible lexicon entry for charitoo lists exactly those two places and no others.
James 4:6 shows how tightly the two English words are joined. The NIV reads, “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’” Grace and favor in one verse, and in Greek it is charis both times. For the full study of that word, see our page on what God's grace is.
One correction on our own side of the fence. Favor is sometimes taught from the Hebrew hesed, but its heart is loyal covenant love, usually rendered mercy or steadfast love. It is a cousin of favor, not the word itself. Our study of the difference between grace and mercy sets those words next to each other.
Whenever you read favor in the New Testament, you can read grace, and whenever you read grace, you can read favor. God is not handing out two different things.
The clearest way to see what favor is, is to watch what happened to the people Scripture says had it.
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” The next verse calls him righteous and blameless. Some read verse 9 as the reason for verse 8, but the text puts favor first and the description second. That is an argument from order, not a proof. Either way, favor meant a flood and a boat. It carried him through the water. It did not spare him the water.
The Lord was with Joseph and gave him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. Favor did not get him out of the cell for years. It met him inside it.
The angel greets her as highly favored and tells her she has found favor with God. Her first response is that she was greatly troubled. Then comes a pregnancy that could have cost her everything, and Simeon's word in Luke 2:35: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” She stood near the cross in John 19:25. No one in Scripture is called more favored, and few hurt more.
“The grace of God was on him,” says verse 40, and verse 52 says He grew “in favor with God and man.” Charis both times. Jesus was not receiving something He failed to deserve, so favor is not pity for the unworthy. It is God's delight resting on a life. And the most favored person who ever lived went to a cross.
“His glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” The same verb as Luke 1:28. What was spoken over Mary is spoken over everyone in Christ, and it is spoken as something already done.
“The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’”
Luke 1:28Every favored person in that list suffered. Favor never meant a smooth road. It meant God was with them on the road they had.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
Favor is one of the most bent words in American church life, and it bends in two directions.
Favor is the good parking spot, the upgrade, the raise, the loan approval. If you are favored it shows, and if it does not show, something in you is blocking it.
Favor is God's delight given freely in Jesus. It can show up as open doors, and it holds just as firmly in a hospital room or a prison cell.
We believe the favor of God is real, present and personal, and that it rests on every believer in Christ right now. We also believe the way it is usually preached is wrong.
The badge teaching at its strongest: God is generous, Psalm 5:12 says He surrounds the righteous with favor like a shield, so expect it to show. There is truth in that. God does open doors, and we want no part of a faith too cautious to expect anything.
Where it goes wrong is the measuring. Once favor is something you see in results, it ranks people. The family with the new house is favored. The single mom working two jobs must be missing something. The man whose cancer came back must not have had enough faith. That teaching gets used on the people who are already hurting most, and it lands on them as a verdict. Jesus pronounced the poor blessed, which we unpack in whether God wants you poor. Mary would have failed the badge test, and so would Jesus on the cross.
The other error is quieter. It says favor is for the spiritual elite who pray longer and serve harder. That is also wrong. Favor is charis, and you do not attract grace by performing. James does say God shows favor to the humble, and humility in the Bible is worth real study. But humility is the posture of someone receiving a gift, not the price of it.
So we refuse both. Favor is not a badge or a wage. It is the Father's delight, given in the Son, and it is yours.
In Luke 4, Jesus stands up in the synagogue at Nazareth, is handed the scroll of Isaiah, and finds Isaiah 61.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Luke 4:18 to 19Then He rolls up the scroll, sits down, and says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Not someday. Today.
Isaiah 61:2 goes on, “and the day of vengeance of our God.” Jesus stops in the middle of the sentence, before that line. What He announces in Nazareth is favor.
Isaiah's favor word is ratson. Luke's Greek has dektos, acceptable. Five verses later Jesus says no prophet is accepted in his hometown, and it is the same word. Nazareth would not accept the one announcing the acceptable year.
Describing Jerusalem's coming fall in Luke 21:22, the KJV reads, “these be the days of vengeance.” That judgment fell in AD 70, within the generation He named. It is behind us, not ahead of us.
Isaiah 61's freedom language draws on the jubilee of Leviticus 25, when debts were released. Jesus announces a release that does not wait fifty years.
Paul says the same thing to Corinth. Quoting Isaiah 49:8, he writes, “I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). The year of favor is not waiting on the calendar. It is the age the Kingdom has already brought, and we live in it. More on that in what the Kingdom of God is.
When Jesus read Isaiah 61 in Nazareth, where did He stop?
Luke 4:19 ends at the year of the Lord's favor. Jesus rolled up the scroll mid sentence and said it was fulfilled that day. The vengeance Isaiah mentions next came on Jerusalem in AD 70, the judgment Jesus warned about in Luke 21.
If favor is already given, the question is not how to get it. It is how to live as though it is true.
Ephesians 1:6 says grace has been freely given in the Beloved. You are not trying out for a part. The favor that rests on Jesus rests on you because you are in Him.
Psalm 30:5 says “his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” The psalm does not deny the night. It refuses to let the night have the last word.
Pray boldly for open doors, healing and provision. The gifts of the Spirit are active today. Just do not treat the answer as your grade.
Luke 2:52 says Jesus grew in favor with God and man. Kindness, honesty and faithfulness build trust over time. That is not a technique. It is what grace tends to produce.
Blessing in Scripture always moves outward, from Abraham to the nations, as we trace in blessings from God.
Some of you are reading this from a place that does not feel favored at all. A diagnosis, a divorce, a job that ended without warning. If someone has told you that your pain proves God has withdrawn His favor, please hear this plainly. It is not true.
Mary was highly favored, and a sword pierced her soul. Joseph was favored in a prison. Job was never told why, which we walk through in the book of Job explained. Favor does not mean you skip the valley. It means you are not in it alone. If you would like someone to pray with you, send us a prayer request any time.
Everything here comes back to one Person. Jesus grew in favor. Jesus announced the year of favor. Jesus is the Beloved in whom favor has been freely given. You do not find the favor of God by studying your circumstances. You find it by looking at Him.
The badge version points you at your own life and asks you to read God's mood in it. The gospel points you at Christ and tells you God's mood has already been declared. He has turned His face toward you. It is the year of the Lord's favor, and it has been since a Sabbath in Nazareth.
If you are on Long Island, plan a visit to Sound of Heaven in Deer Park. For related ground, see grace upon grace in John 1:16, Mary in the Bible and what we believe.
The favor of God is His delight and grace given freely in Jesus, spoken over Mary and every believer in the same word, never a badge or a wage, resting on people in prisons and at crosses, and announced by Jesus as the year we live in now.
Or if you are simply tired of measuring God's love by how the week went. Send us a note and someone at Sound of Heaven will pray with you and talk it through.
The favor of God is His delight and goodwill turned toward a person. In the Old Testament the key words are chen, meaning grace or favor, and ratson, meaning goodwill, delight or acceptance. In the New Testament the word is charis, which English Bibles translate as either grace or favor. So favor is not a separate blessing stacked on top of grace. It is grace, given freely in Jesus, resting on everyone who is in Him, in good seasons and in suffering.
In the New Testament, yes. Both English words translate the Greek charis. James 4:6 in the NIV shows it clearly: he gives us more grace, and God shows favor to the humble, with charis behind both. In the Old Testament the Hebrew chen is also translated grace in some verses and favor in others. The difference you see in English is a translator's choice, not two different gifts from God. Favor is grace, and grace is favor.
The Greek word is kecharitomene, a form of charitoo, which means to grace or to favor. The verb appears only twice in the New Testament, once over Mary in Luke 1:28 and once in Ephesians 1:6, where Paul says God's grace has been freely given to us in the One He loves. So the word spoken over Mary is spoken over every believer. Being highly favored did not spare Mary pain. Simeon told her a sword would pierce her own soul.
If you are in Christ, you have it. Ephesians 1:6 says God's grace has been freely given to us in the One He loves, and it is described as already done. You do not confirm favor by checking your circumstances. Noah had favor and faced a flood. Joseph had favor in a prison. Mary had favor and stood near the cross. Favor is known by looking at Jesus, not by reading your bank balance.
It is the phrase from Isaiah 61:2 that Jesus read in the synagogue at Nazareth in Luke 4:19. He stopped before the next line about the day of vengeance, rolled up the scroll and said that today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. The year of favor is not a future date on a calendar. It is the age of grace Jesus announced and brought, and Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:2 that now is the time of God's favor.