Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
One thing we know about the grace and peace that come from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is that we cannot get them anywhere else, at least not in the way God gives them. This is a peace the world cannot offer, as Jesus himself explained:
- John 14:27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
While we cannot see the Father or the Son now, we have the Holy Spirit with us—the “Spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29) who produces the fruit of “peace” (Galatians 5:22-23). God is with us by the Holy Spirit, who is in us and at work in us. The Spirit is our guarantee, the spiritual down payment on our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Because of this indwelling presence, the default for a Christian is a joy and peace that the world cannot comprehend. Instead of chasing money, we are content with what we have (1 Timothy 6:6-8), because our souls are full of the riches of Christ. We are not among those who chase the world only to lose their life (Matthew 16:26); we are among those whose souls have been restored (Psalm 23). Christ fills us with satisfaction, and daily we sing praise and rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:4).
Grace
Grace is God’s smile on you, His good disposition toward you. God commanded Aaron to proclaim this blessing on the children of Israel:
- Numbers 6:24-26:The LORD bless you and protect you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Paul takes this priestly blessing and, instead of simply invoking “the LORD,” he makes it deeply personal: “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is intimate. It also expands the blessing beyond the natural Israelites to all nations. This is God’s outstretched arm, embracing people across the boundaries of language, land, and history. It is God’s claim to have a people for Himself from every nation and people group. And when it comes to this blessing, Paul confirms we have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
Jesus is the “Amen” (Revelation 3:14, 2 Corinthians 1:20) to the words God commanded Aaron to proclaim. He is the Amen to the blessing because we have every spiritual blessing in Him. He is the Amen to God’s face shining upon us, which is the essence of grace. John boldly proclaimed that while the law came through Moses, “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
On the cross, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) so that we could cry to God, “my Father!” (Romans 8:15). God forsook Him as He bore our sins on the cross so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The children of Israel could not maintain God’s graciousness because of their repeated rebellion. They were stubborn (Zechariah 7:11), always going astray in their hearts (Hebrews 3:10), and were warned they would pay for it in God's wrath.
But Christians are different. Paul equated the old covenant of Israel with a slave woman, but he said Christians are children of the free woman (Galatians 4:24-25, 31). We have God as our Father, and we have a “joy that is inexpressible” in His presence (1 Peter 1:8).
Peace
Jesus is the Amen to God giving us peace. We now have protection from harm because we have been moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13).
Jesus said, “my peace I leave with you,” clarifying that it is not like the peace the world gives (John 14:27). He told us to abide in Him (John 15:4), promising that while we would have tribulation in the world, we should rest assured, for He has overcome the world (John 16:33).
Peace is not just a feeling, an idea, or a mental effort—it is victory. It is the opposition vanquished, and the battle noise silenced forever. It is the peace the children of Israel felt when they saw the bodies of the Egyptians floating on the seashore (Exodus 14:30). It is oppression gone, darkness gone, and the welcoming of freedom and light.
That peace comes as a result of a serious battle. Jesus has overcome, and we have entered His rest. Rest means nothing without the contrast of turmoil; peace means little without the contrast of battle. Jesus suffered so that we could have peace (Isaiah 53:5); He took on our sin so we could be delivered from this “body of death” (Romans 7:24-25a).
So, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Lord and Ruler who waged war to give us peace, just as Israel had peace in the time of Solomon because his father had vanquished their enemies.
This is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 13:14): the same good disposition God has toward His Son, He now has toward us.
