1 Thessalonians 5:28 - The Grace of Christ

25 Brothers, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27 I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Target Date: Sunday, 13 August 2023

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

With - μετά mĕta – amid, among, amidst.

This is not simply the receiving of a gift, although that is included. It is the immersion of grace, the complete inundation of these beloved people in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Thoughts on the Passage:

In closing, Paul expressed his longing that the unmerited favor of God (“the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”) would continue to be his readers’ experience and source of joy. His farewells typically included the mention of God’s grace. It was one of his favorite themes. This benediction is identical to the ones in Romans 16:20 and 1 Corinthians 16:23.

In characteristic fashion Paul concludes this letter with a benediction. With the exception of 2 Corinthians, which has a more elaborate threefold benediction (cf. 2 Cor. 13:13), and Colossians, which has an attenuated one (Col. 4:18), the benedictions of Pauline letters show only slight variations. Variations occur in how Paul refers to Jesus (“our Lord Jesus” occurs in Rom. 16:20; 1 Cor. 16:23; and “our Lord Jesus Christ” in Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23; 2 Thes. 3:18; Phm. 25) and to the recipients of the benediction (the simple form “with you” occurs in Rom. 16:20; 1 Cor. 16:23; “with your spirit” in Phil. 4:23; Phm. 25; the more liturgical expression “with your spirit, brothers [and sisters]; amen” in Gal. 6:18; and “with all of you” in 2 Thes. 3:18).

Here at the end, he reminds them once again that this expectation is grounded in the grace that God provides through his Son. Whereas a Pelagius might write to say that there was no reason that they could not lead moral and upright lives in their own power, Paul is more candid in facing the debilitating effects of sin in our lives. Like Augustine after him, the apostle would have our last thoughts to center not on human free will or effort—which must fail us in this life—but on the divine grace that provides our sure hope of eternal life.

Warfield asks why, if God is the One who will sanctify us completely on the day of Christ’s returning, he calls us to struggle in the pursuit of holiness—repenting of sin, praying for strength, looking to God daily in the trial of faith—throughout this present life.

He could, no doubt, make the soul perfect in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, just as He could give us each a perfect body at the very instant of our believing. He does not. The removal of the stains and effects of sin—in an evil heart and in a sick and dying body—is accomplished in a slow process.… We still struggle with the remainders of indwelling sin; though Jesus has bought for us the sanctifying operations of the Spirit. To us it is a weary process. But it is God’s way. And He does all things well.

We are to learn not only how to be holy but also how gracious our God is to poor sinners whom he has saved. Our holiness, therefore, is to breathe the air and exude the aroma of God’s grace, responding to him by singing: “Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.”

Sermon Text:

We come this morning to the final verse in 1 Thessalonians.

And, in one sense, we have come full circle to the benediction Paul and Silas made at the beginning of the letter, chapter 1 verse 1: Grace to you and peace.

If this closing looks familiar to you, that is not surprising.

A form of this ending is found at or near the end of EVERY epistle attributed to Paul in the New Testament.

But just because it is familiar should not stop us from examining the truth behind the statement.

On the contrary, the fact that this is a customary prayer or wish in the Bible should make us take notice even more.

When a phrase is repeated more than 14 times in the Bible in 14 different books, this is certainly a signal there is a great truth here that we must not ignore or forget.

Many of us may know the common definition of grace: unmerited favor.

That is certainly a short and easy-to-remember definition, and it does get to the heart of the meaning.

Because we might misunderstand the word grace to mean simply receiving salvation we don’t deserve.

To look at the state of our life and realize that God has called us to Himself when we were entirely unworthy.

To know that when we were sinners, not looking for God, He called us to come to Him.

That is truly grace.

But if that is all we think grace is, if it is only a description of God’s salvation of those who do not deserve it, the prayer of Paul here at the end of this epistles, and at the end of all his epistles, doesn’t make sense.

What is wishing or praying for?

Praying that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ would be in the midst of them all?

Was he simply praying that everyone who attended that church would come to salvation in Jesus Christ?

No. There is more than that.

Because grace is more than that.

Think of grace with this longer picture when you talk of unmerited favor:

It is the kindness shown by someone of great power and majesty toward someone who has nothing to offer at all.

We saw a picture of it this morning when we read of Mephibosheth.

It was the common practice of every king, particularly when he ascended to the throne in some way other than inheritance, to kill any sons or descendants of the former king to make sure they would not start a rebellion.

Mephibosheth was the grandson of Saul, the son of Jonathan, and his caretakers were so concerned this infant would be murdered by David that the nurse tried to keep him safe.

But in her flight, she tripped and landed on the baby, crippling him for life.

And for his entire life, he had been hiding in a wasteland called Lo-Debar, which means “without pasture”.

This land was so desolate, there wasn’t even a place to pasture goats or sheep.

David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show kindness to you for the sake of your father Jonathan, and will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul; and you shall eat at my table regularly.” - 2 Samuel 9:7

That is grace.

Mephibosheth even asked David “What is your servant, that you should regard a dead dog like me?” – 2 Samuel 9:8

What do I have to offer you?

He had no possessions – until David gave him all Saul’s possessions back.

He had no status – until King David gave him a place at the kings table.

He had no ability to even fight for David – he was lame all his days.

There was nothing in this transaction that flowed back TOWARD David, nothing asked of this crippled grandson of a defeated and disgraced king.

There is only the kindness of the king lavished on this man that David didn’t even know existed.

He had to search for someone to bless for Jonathan’s sake;

Mephibosheth had not made a name for himself.

And if you look in the remainder of the Bible, you will find no place where it says that David was helped or blessed by the kindness he showed Mephibosheth.

Two more times we see him mentioned, and each of those times, David must dispense MORE grace to him.

Mephibosheth never pays it back.

He never COULD pay it back.

That is GRACE.

Grace is not something we need just once, and then our good works take over.

It is something we need over and over and over again.

It is not something we need occasionally applied to our soul:

We need to be immersed, absolutely dunked in it all the time.

That is why Paul and Silas ask for the grace of Jesus Christ to be WITH us.

To surround us, to permeate us, to be the air we breathe and the words we speak with that breath.

Grace doesn’t just come alongside someone who is doing ok, but needs a little help now and then.

The grace of Jesus Christ blesses the bankrupt in spirit.

Grace welcomes the prodigal who has squandered what he had been given.

Grace declares forgiveness to the woman caught in adultery.

Grace allows the one who denied three times to declare his love the same amount.

Because the key to grace is the more you need it, the more you get.

Precious child of God, if you are His, there is NEVER a sin His grace will not cover.

Now, I want you all to hear this next point though:

The grace of Jesus Christ never justifies the SIN; it justifies the SINNER.

Grace isn’t God saying that sin is ok;

It is God saying you are forgiven even though your sin is evil and damnable.

It is God declaring that Jesus Christ PAID in full for that sin – He was punished by the full force of God’s wrath, and you are forgiven.

It is God adopting you into His family from which you will never be ejected.

How many Christians spend their life MOURNING the fact they cannot measure up to God’s Law?

How many spend their lives looking at others and shaking their heads that those others don’t measure up to God’s Law?

Child of God, you, more than any people in the world, have cause to be joyful:

You have peace with God that NO ONE can take away.

The failures of yesterday do not condemn your tomorrows.

God’s forgiveness is not based on your goodness, but on His grace ALONE.

You will NEVER be good enough to merit a single touch of the grace of God.

Never.

Not once.

There is NOTHING you can do that will make God say, “Now THAT is why I saved him.”

Brother or sister, do you realize that the very grace that saves you is the same grace that the apostle Paul needed EVERY DAY OF HIS LIFE?

He is no more a child of God than you are.

You are no less a child of God than he is.

He NEEDED the grace of Jesus Christ every day for himself.

That is why he prayed so fervently for his beloved friends to be surrounded by it.

Now, I suppose this is where I should make some counterpoint to this:

Explaining that teaching grace unfiltered is dangerous because it might give people the idea they can sin with no consequences.

Or perhaps they might even think that if they sin more, God will give more grace, so that might be a good thing.

But I don’t think I will.

Because grace IS dangerous – but it is not OUR danger to calculate.

If God has called you in His grace, you might become the prodigal who wastes what He has given you.

Who violates everything God has told you is good.

Who looks only for your own pleasure.

And then finds, after all is said and done, the Father still has more grace to give.

Or you might be the self-righteous son who remains close to home and resenting the fact he did.

Who works joylessly because it is what HE decides to do.

Who lives with no love, no compassion, to grace toward his brother.

Who cannot rejoice when he repents and returns, but simply declares:

‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; 30 but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. – Luke 15:29-30

Or perhaps somewhere in-between these examples.

The point of the parable is that it is the FATHER’S grace to give, and HIS risk to take.

And each child of His is recipient to exactly the amount of grace he or she needs.

Beloved, please hear these two sentences. Write them down – it is important.

1. You are not a worse Christian than anyone else.

2. You are not a better Christian than anyone else.

If these hurt your feelings, you have a problem.

I don’t care how many times you have sinned this week, you are not a worse Christian than anyone else.

Every sin is an opportunity to repent, to confess your sin, and experience more of God’s grace.

I don’t care how inconsistent you have been in prayer,

How many times you have lost your temper,

How many days you skipped reading your Bible,

How many times you have lied.

The brother or sister beside you needs JUST AS MUCH GRACE as you.

I don’t care if you think they sin less or a lot more, they require the SAME GRACE,

They have to be immersed, baptized, to the same extent in it, as you.

Sin is sin, and God has given you grace to be forgiven.

And He has given every one of His children that same grace.

How much joy does that give you – that God has forgiven every sin you will ever have?

You are at peace with God.

Your sins have ALREADY been judged – on the cross of Jesus Christ.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. – Romans 8:1-4

What is Paul talking about there when he talks about a “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”?

Is he talking about an intensification of the Law of Moses, along the lines of the sermon on the Mount’s “you have heard it said…but I say to you”?

Is he declaring that Jesus Christ has declared to us an even stricter law code than Moses did?

If so, how exactly did that new law free us from the Law of Moses?

If we were unable to perfectly keep God’s Law as given to Moses, how would we be expected to keep a more stringent law?

There is no way we could.

Because that is not what the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” is talking about.

When he says that, he is saying that we have been given freedom from the law by the grace of God.

sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us…

The requirement of the Law is, through Christ, fulfilled in us.

If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. – Romans 8:10-11

What does this mean for us, Christians?

You are a work of grace, not of the law.

You are a beloved child of God.

God loves you as a unique individual, not as a copy of another believer.

And the grace by which you stand at peace with God is the same grace you are called to represent to the world.

To find those trapped in sin and introduce them to the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Because the path to salvation is not in the Law, but in the grace of Jesus Christ.

If you have not found God’s forgiveness in your heart,

If you think God is punishing you for sins you have already repented of and left behind.

Hear the good news of His wondrous grace that He gives freely to those whose hearts are His.

Feel the freedom he will give you because He has removed the guilt and shame, placing it all on Jesus Christ.

So many times, we tell ourselves that God will love us more, be more pleased with us, smile on us more, bless us more

If we just obey Him more.

That is works, that is Law, and that is hoping to put God into our debt.

That has nothing to do with grace.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ inundate us all.