2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to you
Grace is God’s good will and work toward us. Grace always precedes peace in these greetings. We do not work for grace, because grace is what God does. It is all that He is free to do for us because of the cross of Christ (Eph 1:4). It is something God confers on us freely with no expectation of return. We receive grace with an open hand and not by something we earn or deserve.
This is Paul’s customary greeting to local churches. “Grace” is the normal Greek salutation. “Peace” is the normal Hebrew salutation. This is no perfunctory greeting. Paul conveyed his heart for the Ephesians here.
Grace is what sustains us in the Christian life. It is God’s provision for daily living. This is not saving grace. This is grace for daily living. It is grace for the pilgrim path.
PRINCIPLE:
God gives sustaining grace for the Christian life.
APPLICATION:
There are different kinds of grace in the Bible. There is saving grace but then there is also maintaining grace whereby God sustains our life as a Christian.
2 Co 12:9, 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.”
The reason the Bible calls God “the God of all grace” is that He has grace for our salvation and He has grace for living day-by-day.
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.
Grace enables a believer to maintain his spiritual equilibrium (Ro 12:3). A believer full of grace will not go off on a tangent. Grace makes it possible for us to put a proper estimation upon ourselves (Jas 4:6; 1 Pe 5:5). Grace is something that God provides; we cannot earn or deserve it (1 Pe 5:10). God gives enough grace so we can face anything that may come our way (2 Co 12:9,10).
