Grace and PEACE

-

 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  



Picking up where we left off... 

Have you ever noticed how we, as Christians, will take one solitary verse in Scripture and believe it so deeply that we build entire denominations around it, name our churches after it and teach it a dozen times a year to anyone who will listen?  Have you also ever wondered why there are verses that repeat the same theme, almost word for word, literally dozens of times in our Scriptures and we never use them?  Never teach them?  Never see them on bumper stickers or use them to name our programs or have them at the heads of our websites?  Such is the dilemma of this phrase that was once used every time one believer in Jesus' ability to save met another, and now is rarely used at all.



In all my study of the New Testament, I’ve never seen a phrase used more frequently than “Grace and peace to you.” 

What is this strange greeting that our apostles and early believers used so often?  What does it mean?  Why don’t we embrace it?  And what are we missing by ignoring it?


Peace: Not at war.

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus.

Peace to you.

Oh, the beauty and eternal power of this precious greeting.
Greeting someone with "Peace," was a daily,
personal reminder that we are no longer at war
with God Almighty. A hug, a kiss or even a handshake with
the reminder of "peace" was a greeting packed
full of the gospel of grace! Every single day, our brethren
reminded each other, "We are no
longer trying to make ourselves right with God!"
"Peace has been made on our behalf!"
"We live in peace with God!"
"We are right with God because of the finished work of
our Lord Jesus!"

Imagine the strength of a faith that hears the gospel
of grace every time he comes
in contact with a truster of Jesus.

Imagine the strength of a fellowship of believers
who remind each other every single day
that they stand together at peace with God
because of their trust in the work
of Christ.

Imagine growing up in a community of believers
who found the grace of Jesus that gave them peace
with God so profoundly important that
they started and ended every single conversation
with a reminder.

Imagine living in a world where there were people
who greeted you with "Grace and peace..." and
there were people who greeted you with a different
greeting altogether and you knew everything you
needed to know in the first few seconds of conversation.

Imagine hearing talk of a different gospel
or of an old religion and feeling that fear creep
in that asks you,
"Are you really right with God?"
only to run into someone
who embraces you and reminds you
that you are at peace with God, right now where
you stand,because of your faith
in the work of Jesus Christ.

Imagine loving a new believer in Jesus
who just can't seem to grasp that Jesus did
every work for him and he had nothing
to add to his salvation and getting to see him
grow in a community that taught him about the
gospel of grace and the miracle
of being at peace with God
with every single interaction.

Imagine if we hung our every hope on
the gospel of the finished work of Jesus Christ
so much that we couldn't wait to
be that precious, loving, encouraging
reminder: "Grace to you!
You're at peace with God!"

PEACE.



You once were at war with God, but no more!
God sent us a precious mediator, our Lord
Jesus. He obeyed God. He was perfect.
He, in grace, did the work of righteousness
on our behalf. We died with Him.
We live in Him.
Our lives are hidden with Him in God.

WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD.

If you are a truster of the finished work
of Christ Jesus, PEACE to you!
Peace with God, the Father.
Don't wait until you're dead and hope to rest in peace.
Do it now! The work is finished!
Our King has won.
We'll stand with Him in glory! We are peace with God!

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.
I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your
hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." ~King Jesus



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"It's Going to be Okay."

-
Image
 The older I get, the more I realize how much it means to me when my husband tells me, "It's going to be okay."  Other people can try to reassure me, but when the world spins out of control, I find myself holding my breath until he can get home to put my heart at ease.  I need his words so badly, that I rarely even tell other people when I'm anxious because they really can't do much to give me peace.  But he can.   In thirty years of loving Tim Taylor, I've come to be certain that when he says, "It's going to be okay," then it's either going to be okay or he's going to make it okay.  Knowing him, trusting him, watching him, growing with him, seeing him come through time after time after time has made me sure that his, "It's going to be okay" is worth believing.  This week has been one from absolute hell.  People I love are hurting so badly.  Saints that I adore are feeling like failures.  My own life is scattered with detail...
Read more

The Gospel for the Religious

-
Image
What will you say when you stand before the judgment seat of God?   For all of my life, when I envisioned this scenario, I unwittingly stood before God as condemned as any human has ever been.   I hate Satan.  I'm terrified of Hell.  I love church.  I am great at ministry.  I can teach any material you hand me to anyone who will listen.  I've said all the prayers.  I've put in all the time.  I've cried all the shameful tears.  I've been on the mission trips, rocked the babies, paid the tithes, held hands of the hurting, wept with the addicts, followed the leaders, read the Bible, bought the books, done the work.   But, my trust was not in the Lord Jesus.   In my mind, for all my life, if given the opportunity to tell God why I deserved to be in Heaven with Him, I would have started every sentence with "I..."   I am a Christian.   I trusted Jesus with my salvation.  I gave my ...
Read more

What Do You See?

-
Sometimes, the hardest portions of Scripture to study are the ones we've had memorized since childhood.  Once you see a passage a certain way, it's nearly impossible to see it any other way.  Nearly.  For example, when I read about Jesus teaching in the temple, in my mind, I see a stage and an audience. Never mind that the priests hated Jesus and wanted Him silent and dead.  Even though the last thing Jesus would have been granted in His time was a platform, that's still what I see.   When I read about Paul speaking to the church, or letters being read to the church, in my mind, I see buildings with carpeted altars and rows of chairs.  Never mind that the early church met in homes until a politician declared it some other way a couple of hundred years after the birth of our ekklesia.  Even though there is no such thing as a brick and mortar Christian church in Scripture, that's still what I see.   When I read about a tithe or giving, I s...
Read more