"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
That was Paul signing his name or placing his personal seal on his letter.
Grace and peace are often abstract to us. We understand their meaning and can talk about them. Our recognition of the role of God's grace in our salvation is fundamental to our orthodoxy. And we value peace highly. On the whole we appreciate that its only through the Lord's hand that we can have peace in a moment of time or in our lives generally. However, when we think of love or joy, grace or peace, though we might understand the concepts, often we find it hard to get a real hold on these things. They are ideas to us and they inform our worldview. We believe in them and about them, but usually they mean little to us.
How do I know? Because I am like you. When I read those books of the Bible I usually skip verses one and two to get to the important stuff content that counts. But what if we've been missing the most important point? Perhaps grace and peace are important. Vitally important. After all, if they weren't, why would Paul use the same phrase to open seven of his letters?
We are quite comfortable with toast and jam. Imagine if Paul had said,
"Toast to you and jam from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Now that would have been easier. A heavenly meal. We can get our teeth into that! He could have referred to coffee and cake, or rubies and diamonds, or a holiday and an ocean cruise. It doesn't matter what we substitute in place of grace and peace, we always end up with a fresh but consistant idea of what Paul is saying. "Here", says Paul. "Here is a hevenly gift in two parts. It's from the Father and I am passing it on to you." And every letter begins the same way. Seven times he passes on a spiritual blessing to us from the Father.
Sin is a spiritual thing and so is grace. Paul in his letter to the Romans talks about an abounding measure of sin, and a superabounding measure of grace. Grace is a spiritual detergent that converges on the rubbish heap of sin in our life, like a great tsunami. It is so much greater than the sin that it erradicates it completely.
Grace is a spiritual force, and it goes far beyond a word in a creed or statement of faith. If Paul is passing on grace from the Father, I want some. In fact, I don't want a little. I want it in full measure. Thank you, Paul.
Love, peace and joy are three of the fruits of the Spirit which Paul wrote of in his letter to the Galatians. Peace is a fruit. Oh, of course. That must mean that as the Spirit works in my life, his efforts bear fruit and I experience peace, love joy and the other things. Fruit must refer to some kind of outcome.
Or maybe when he says fruit, he just means fruit. The Spirit has a wonderful, colourful bowl of spiritual fruit. Well, we know what to do with fruit, don't we. We pick it up and eat it. I have to admit that I have always thought that when God gives us peace it means that he gives us an absence of war, or a quiet time in our life, free from clamour and stress. He adjusts our circumstances so that peace will result. What if he just gives us peace, just as someone would give us an apple? Maybe that is why the Bible describes it as peace that passes understanding. If it came as a result of a change in circumstances, then we would understand it. If we could hold out our hand and take it, bite deeply and taste its sweetness amisdst complete havoc and turmoil, then that would be one of the greatest gifts of all.
With all that in mind I have something to say to you my friend. I have a blessing for you...
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
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