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The Cross took mankind from a state of disgrace to a state of grace. Lurie becomes his own Christ through his actions - the actions that is an attempt to rebuild his grace.

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David Lurie's trajectory from disgrace to grace can be likened to many aspects of the story of Noah in the Bible.
"The whole thing is disgraceful from beginning to end.Disgraceful and vulgar too." (Coetzee, 1999: 20).
"I am sunk into a state of disgrace..." (Coetzee, 1999: 73)

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Passing judgement, and the fall of the hammer is a metaphor for Lurie's fall from grace.
At Lurie's hearing, he refuses to give in to the provocation from one of the jury and pleads guilty to all his charges. The jury finds him guilty and declares that he must resign from his position in the university and 'go on a holiday'. Basically, the jury slamming the hammer and sealing Lurie's fate is similar to hitting the final nail of his coffin... His fall from grace begins.
'So', says Mathabane, 'to resume: Professor Lurie, you say you accept the truth of the charges brought against you?'
'I accept whatever Ms Isaacs alleges.' (Coetzee, 1999: 22)

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David Lurie's trajectory from disgrace to grace.

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David Lurie's trajectory from disgrace to grace.

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David Lurie attained a degree pf grace at the end of the novel.

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The Golden Retriever dog has a big part in the novel Disgrace. Though dogs are used to characterize his status, they more often reflect his personal, internal trials and tribulations. As things get worse for him and he dives deeper and deeper into shame and disgrace, his character becomes more closely aligned with that of a dog. When he talks to Lucy about his own humiliation at the University following his affair with Melanie, he compares himself to a dog that is beaten for following its sexual instincts, thus the golden retriever who got beaten for his natural instincts (11.20-22). David feels like this dog, because he was shamed and beaten for his own personal instincts which comes naturally to him. In a more concrete way, as David's personal situation worsens, he spends more and more time in the animal clinic helping to put dogs to sleep. On one hand, this act represents letting dogs out of their misery and suffering, but on the other hand, it's a truly pathetic way for them to go. Perhaps it's a starting point to David's path to redeem himself from disgrace to grace, by helping the dogs out of their misery.
Consider the following exchange between Lucy and David as they discuss the humiliation of how things have turned out:

"Perhaps that is what I must learn to accept. To start at ground level. With nothing. Not with nothing but. With nothing. No cards, no weapons, no property, no rights, no dignity."

"Like a dog."

"Yes, like a dog." (22.112-114)

The novel ends with David putting the dog out of his misery by giving it up to Bev for lethal injection. When he does so, we get the idea that he's in some way trying to save the dog from a life that is more disgraceful than death. We can't help but think that he does so in part to symbolically relieve his own sense of disgrace. The persistent presence of dogs in Disgrace pushes us to consider the shame and disgrace that humans go through, even though it plays out through the lives of animals.