state of grace

Noun

state of grace (uncountable)

1. A condition free from mortal sin, in which one has the favor of God and enjoys unmerited divine assistance.
   • When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He freeth him from his natural bondage under sin; and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor...1646, “Of Free-Will”, in The Confession of Faith of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, published 1946
   • I found these statistics, in a condensed form, in a telegram of the Associated Press, and preserved them. They made it apparent that St. Louis was in a higher state of grace than she could have claimed to be in my time.1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 51, in Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC