“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.”
Verse three is the salutation to 2 John. A salutation is not a prayer but a confident declaration. God continues His word of assurance in verse 2 with this verse. Where truth and love prevail, grace, mercy, and peace predominate.
Grace,
“Grace” is all that God is free to do for us because of Christ. Grace places emphasis on the work of God and not on our work. God extends His grace to us without merit on our part.
PRINCIPLE:
God’s grace is all the resources He is able to give the believer freely.
APPLICATION:
We never outgrow our need for God’s grace, mercy, and peace. We cannot operate our Christian lives effectively without these graces. We could no more do that than we could exist without food and water.
God’s grace enables believers to give grace to others. It is not normally our nature to give. We are naturally born selfish. Jesus was grace personified. Grace is something given, not earned. We cannot curry brownie points with God. God donates His grace on a gratis basis.
Jn 1:14, 16, 14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth…. 16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.”
Ro 12:3, “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
1 Co 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
2 Co 1:9, “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Jas 4:6, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
‘God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.’”
1 Pe 5:10, “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”
God corners the market on grace. He allows for no middlemen, no wholesaler, or retailer. He gives it directly and without strings. He allows no black market on grace.
He 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
God gives His sustaining grace to enable us to maintain our spiritual equilibrium. When something upsets us, we display our old nature. We display this nature when we do not draw on God’s grace but rely on our own resources. We discover that we are not nearly as spiritual as we thought we were.
