Grace and Peace
Notes
Transcript
Paul uses a conventional Hellenistic and Jewish greeting
Paul transposes both terms into the key of the Gospel
APP: all our lives should be this way. Renewing our minds,
The Grace of God
The Grace of God
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Grace in the Old Testament
A common way of describing human graciousness toward another person is “to find favor in [their] eyes.”
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Moses found grace, i.e., favor before god.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Human Favor and Graciousness
In the Old Testament, many individuals’ primary hope was to find favor (i.e. grace) with a more powerful person.
Grace in the NT becomes focused. It is not just favor: it is finding demerited favor.
Grace is now primarily about finding favor with a God to whom you have utterly and completely offended. You have done everything possible to not deserve it. but you need it. You want it.
God gives us grace, but his grace is expressed in a person.
God’s grace is not just a good feeling God has about us but is expressed in the salvation of an undeserved people by the self-giving of his Son.
What does that lead to?
The Peace of God
The Peace of God
Comes from OT word “shalom.”
The Lexham Bible Dictionary In the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, “peace” carries the fundamental meaning of welfare, prosperity, or wholeness as well as the absence of hostility.
23 And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them.
Joseph greats his brothers by saying peace to them.
Peace also means an absence of war or aggression
17 Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
The peace of God is the status of being a friend of God, in perfect harmony with him and in a loving and caring relationship.
This is what we desire, and this is what Christ gave us.
Romans 5:1 “1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”
Revelation 22:1–2 “1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
APP:
Notice which comes first: grace, then peace. That isn’t an accident. It’s Grace first. Then peace.
You cannot mix it up.
You also cannot loose it. Shalom is not something that is temporary: it is abiding and unchaning.
Cannot get it without Christ.
Paul is equating the Father and Jesus as joint sources of divine blessing.
This is a Trinitarian overture — the Spirit isn’t named, but He is the One who applies this grace and peace.
Reformed Insight: Already, Paul is obliterating any bifurcation between a wrathful Father and a gentle Jesus. The grace and peace come from both. Their will is one. Their love is one.
Imagine if the President wrote you a personal letter that began, “Unlimited funds and guaranteed protection to you, from me.”
Paul’s opening does that — only better. He announces that heaven’s riches (grace) and heaven’s security (peace) are not offered for negotiation, but declared as already granted — because of Christ.
Grace is the gift, peace is the result, and both come only through Christ.
