Ending Well

As Paul closes the book of 2 Corinthians with a blessing upon the church. Not the building that they met in, as there were no church buildings at this time, but on the people. The believers are the church and the church is the body of believers in a certain area.

In giving this blessing the Apostle Paul confirms the doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is three in one. When we discuss it in reference to God, we mean that the Father is God, the Son (Jesus Christ) is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. One God in three persons. In this verse Paul places the Lord Jesus Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit as equal.

Grace

2 Corinthians 13:14 NASB95

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ…be with you all.

Jesus is the earthly name of the Son of God and points us to His humanity. Christ is the positional name of the Son of God and points us to His office as the Chosen One of Israel, the Messiah, who will rule in majesty, righteousness, and peace over all the earth.

We know that Jesus, called the Word, is God from passages like

John 1:1 NASB95

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

and

2 Peter 1:1 NASB95

1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

Because of His deity, Jesus offers grace, which is His unmerited blessing, to those whom He has chosen.

Common Grace

He has chosen all humanity to receive common unmerited blessing. That is, we enjoy the creation He has made for us as well as the sustaining of His creation by which we live and breathe. He causes the sun to rise every day and the season to return each year according to His promise to Noah. He restrains evil by limiting then reach of depraved humanity, which is one of the functions of government which He established.

These are all examples of common grace.

Special Grace

He has chosen certain humans to receive the special grace or unmerited blessing of salvation apart from our works.

Ephesians 2:8–9 NASB95

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 8:29–30 NASB95

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

His special grace is made possible by His sacrifice for us on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. We are called when the HS energizes the Word of God in our hearts, brings us to knowledge of our sin and need for a Savior. When we respond in faith to His call by repenting and surrendering to Jesus, He justifies us or declares us to be righteous in the sight of God.

So what is Paul wishing for the Corinthians and for us as well? That we would be connected to, appreciate, and apply Christ’s common grace as well as His special grace of salvation. How do we do this?

We connect ourselves to and appreciate His common grace by enjoying the beauty of His creation knowing it, in all its splendor, was made for us. This causes us to praise our Lord for the multi-colored birds and their morning songs or the beauty of the flowers who’s brilliance bring us joy in the spring. We praise our Lord for the abundance and variety of food that He provides for all men on a daily basis. We praise Him for the natural wonders such as the patterns of weather that bring us rain and the warmth from the sun, the power and vastness of the oceans, and the richness of the soil sustains life on this planet.

We also connect ourselves to appreciate and apply his special grace by marveling at His choice of us underserved sinners to be redeemed, adopted into His family, given an inheritance as fellow heirs of Jesus Christ, have our sins (past, present, and future) forgiven because of His death on the cross for us, giving us wisdom through an understanding of the Scriptures by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, placing us in a local church which He designed perfectly to administer His saints from the moment of its creation in Acts 2 until we are raptured to meet Jesus in the air.

Yes! May the grace of Jesus Christ be with us always!

Love

2 Corinthians 13:14 NASB95

14 … the love of God…be with you all.

When the name God is used along side the other persons of the Trinity, we understand this to mean God the Father. God the Father is a distinct person of the One True God.

Galatians 1:1 NASB95

1 Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),

The Father is the Head of the Trinity, which means He fills the role of planning, giving direction and decrees of the collective will of the Trinity to the creation.

1 Corinthians 11:3 NASB95

3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

The grace of God is unmerited and the love of God unconditional.

John 3:16 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

That kind of love gives knowing that we have nothing to offer. It is a love that is fierce and jealous for us. It is a love that sacrifices to give what we need. It is a love that hopes for our betterment, it seek to cleanse us, reforms us, sanctifies us.

Paul wishes we would apply, appreciate, and connect ourselves to that kind of love. When we sin, we should apply the love of God to our hearts and know that because of his love and Christ’s grace, we are forgiven. When we are blessed we should rejoice and give praise to God for His love that provides for us everything that we need and even above and beyond that which we ask. When face difficulty, we should connect that God has a loving purpose for allowing those difficulties. Those difficulties and persecutions may mean that He is showing His love through us to a lost world.

Fellowship

2 Corinthians 13:14 NASB95

14 … the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

The Holy Spirit is also a distinct person of the One True God. In Acts, we see the Spirit called God as Peter confronts Ananias.

Acts 5:3 NASB95

3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?

Acts 5:4 NASB95

4 “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Fellowship = κοινωνία. It means community, communion, participation with or intimacy.

We have such an interesting relationship with the HS. His presence in our life is the presence of Christ in us. He quietly and continually points us to Jesus.

We have been indwelt by, baptized by, sealed in, and filled with Him. He does this in sometimes mysterious ways. We see the effects of Him in our lives as we the effects of the wind, but we cannot see Him directly. He teaches us by enlightening the Bible in our hearts as we study it and meditate on it.

It is the Holy Spirit that pours out the love of God in our hearts. As it says in Romans…

Romans 5:5 NASB95

5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

As believers, our bodies belong to the Holy Spirit. People can be demon possessed. The demon takes control of their bodies, in a different way we are filled with the HS and He should control our bodies as we voluntarily submit to and walk with Him.

We can grieve Him with our sin.

The HS renews us by the washing of the water of the Word of God. It is the HS who facilitates our relationship to Jesus Christ.

All three persons of the One True God have played a role in our salvation and continue to play a role in the outworking of that salvation. That is the picture of trinitarian baptism. It is the only God ordained illustration of the Trinity given in the Bible

Matthew 28:19 NASB95

19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

There is one essence (water/God) with 3 distinct (dips/for each person). To immerse something is to identify it with that substance. When a person is baptized, they are immersed, surrounded by, enveloped by, and identified with the water. They “disappear” under the water and become one with the water. Salvation is the spiritual process where we are immersed into the Father, immersed into the Son, and immersed into the Holy Spirit. We are surrounded by each person of the One True God. We are enveloped by each person of the One True God. We are identified with the Father, we are identified with the Son, we are identified with the Spirit. We disappear into each of them separately and collectively and inso are are made one with our God both individually and collectively. Our salvation is a true spiritual marriage of our souls to The Soul who is the One True God.

Despite the firm rebukes that Paul levels against the church in Corinth, He ends his letter to them with the most encouraging words he muster about the great God which unites them to him.