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GRACE AND PEACE
`Grace and Peace to you from God our Father'
Although the art of letter writing has to a large extent been replaced in our day by the internet there remains a faithful few who still write letters - written words that can be treasured and read over and over again. Even so, the opening lines are usually read quickly so that we can reach `the heart of the matter'. But we dare not approach God's Word in such a way, for every word is God-breathed, yet so often this is what happens as we pick and chose verses that reach into `the heart of the matter. Nowhere is this more clearly seen in our approach to the New Testament Letters as we move around taking verses and linking them with even more verses to support our particular doctrine. But each Letters was written as a complete whole and intended to be read to a larger congregation of disciples. Even the verses that are quickened to us by the Holy Spirit need to be put back into the whole context of the particular Letter lest we fall into the danger of using the Word of God to fit our own emotional needs!
With these thoughts in mind let us look at Paul's Letters to the Churches, and as we do so we shall see that on every occasion he writes the same opening words:
" Paul . . . to the church . . . Grace and Peace to you
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. "
It is these two words that are the subject of these notes. So often they are overlooked as we hurry to the heart of the matter, but it is only through our understanding of these two words that there is any `heart' in the Letters at all. Certainly we doubt that Paul would have used these words merely as a way of opening up his thoughts - his love and knowledge of God was too deep for that. Certainly the Hebrew mind responds to a language which is more full and rich in meaning than the Greek language, and such words as Grace and Peace colour and enrich the contents.
We now return to the words Grace and Peace, seeking to enrich our minds in the way Paul intended. In seeking to define the word `Grace', no doubt a short rhyme will be recalled for it is so often used to give meaning to this word, but the use of such a rhyme, although undoubtably helpful, usually appeals to the intellect rather than to the heart. This is the `inheritance' of the Greek culture which we in the West have had to bear with. However we would suggest that the two words Grace and Peace are so tightly woven together in Scriptural thinking that in order to give the emotional impact needed we must at last turn to Scripture. In short we can only understand God's Grace when we know His Peace, and for that we have to go back into the Old Testament - back to the Levitical Feasts, which were a foreshadowing of what we have entered into in Christ Jesus. Our search, therefore, is not for Grace but for Peace - which leads us to the Peace Offering, first seen in the Book of Leviticus. The Peace Offering has three distinctive parts to it, which are: a Thank Offering; a Votive (a vow) Offering; and a Freewill Offering. At this point we need not look at the whole chapter as we are merely seeking to set out the central acts of the Offering:
" These are the regulations for the Peace Offering a person may
present to the LORD: If he offers it as an expression of thankfulness,
than along with this sacrifice of thanksgiving he is to offer cakes
of bread made without yeast . . . . "
In these verses we clearly see that within the Peace Offering there is a Thank Offering, and staying with Leviticus 7 we pick up the Votive (or vow) Offering revealed within the Peace Offering; (v16 in part)
" If, however, his offering is the result of a vow or is a freewill
offering, the sacrifice shall be eaten on the day he offers it . . . "
This Votive Offering is recorded again in greater detail in the Book of Numbers chapter 6, but here in Leviticus 7 we see the three elements of the Peace Offering laid out, with the element of the Thank Offering fully recorded in verse 15:
" The meat of his Peace Offering of thanksgiving must
be eaten on the day it is offered . . . "
It should also be noted that the Peace Offering always followed on after the principal sacrifices of the Burnt, Trespass and Sin Offerings, and in this we can begin to see the righteous demands of a holy God. The Peace Offering - which had within it the offerings of Thankfulness and Dedicaton (a vow) given freely - could only be acceptable to God once He had accepted the perfect sacrifices as an atonement for the sin of the people. We see this clearly in the Feasts of Leviticus, centered this time in the Day of Atonement: (Leviticus 16:1-2)
" The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the LORD. The LORD said to Moses: `Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtains in front of the Atonement Cover on the Ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the Atonement Cover. "
The narrative then goes on to describe the only way in which the High Priest could approach God `behind the curtain in front of the Atonement Cover'. No doubt we are all familiar with the details of the sacrifice which was required - the death of perfect animals, the blood caught and then sprinkled on the Atonement Cover, first for Aaron and then for all the people of Israel. These principal offerings were revealing the fact that a sustitutionary death was needed for the people of Israel, because their sin had separated them from God. We know this to be a foreshadowing of the Perfect Sacrifice revealed in Jesus, and as the Letter to the Hebrews declares to those who have believed in Jesus: `We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all: (Hebrews 10:19-22)
" Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy
Place by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us
through the curtain, that is, His Body, and since we have a great High
Priest over the House of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us
from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. "
These sacrifices recorded in Leviticus and Numbers reveal that they were offered towards God, thereby acknowledging the sins of Israel to be an offence to a Holy and Righteous God, which could only be covered over by the death of another (a substitute), the blood of the slaughtered animal then being applied to the Atonement Seat in the Ark of the Covenant:
" He (the High Priest) shall sprinkle some of the blood on it (the
Atonement Cover) with his finger seven times to cleanse it and
consecrate it from the uncleaness of the Israelites. " (Leviticus 16:19)
This act of sprinkling the blood of the substitutionary sacrifice on the Atonement Cover, an act towards God - sometimes called `a propitiation) which has a meaning of `appeasing the Offended One' - was accepted by God as covering over the sins of the people. The penanlty for their sin was paid by the substitute, and a State of Grace was released from God towards the people who had paid the penalty of their sins by an acceptable sacrifice. In this State of Grace which came from the accepted sacrifice there was now a shared fellowship between God and man - seen in the Peace Offering, which would now follow. There would be a vow made to Him, a Thank Offering for His goodness and fellowship with God in the State of Grace which now existed. With this in mind we are now in a position to enter into the details of the Peace Offering, seen particularly in Leviticus 7 (v 28-34)
" The LORD said to Moses, `Say to the Israelites: Anyone who brings a Fellowship Offering to the LORD is to bring part of it as his sacrifice to the LORD. With his own hands he is to bring the offering made to the LORD by fire. He is to bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast before the LORD as a Wave Offering. The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast belongs to Aaron and his sons. You are to give the right thigh of your Fellowship Offerings to the priest as a contribution. The son of Aaron who offers the blood and the fat of the Fellowship Offerings shall have the right thigh as his share. From the Fellowship Offerings of the Israelites, I have taken the breast that is waved and the thigh that is presented and have given them to Aaron the priest and his sons as their regular share from the Israelites. "
Clearly the Peace Offering was a fellowship meal between God (now appeased) and the offender (now reconciled to God). The sacrificial animal had been slain, the blood sprinkled, the fat burnt, and the breast accepted by God. The priest ate the choice parts and the offender ate the rest. It was a Covenant fellowship meal between God and the Israelite offenders. But these were merely shadows which pointed forward to the Substitute . . the Perfect Sacrifice, whose death and sprinkled Blood were accepted by God, resulting in a State of Grace being available to all men, so enabling them to enter into the perfect Peace Offering revealed in Jesus.
We turn at last to the New Testament, and we find Paul writing this amazing truth to the Church in Ephesus: (Ephesians 2:13-14)
" But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been
brought near through the Blood of Jesus. For He Himself is our
Peace (Offering), who has made the two one and has destroyed
the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. "
We know this applies to all who have believed in Him! No longer is the Peace Offering restricted to the nation of Israel: (Ephesians 1:11-14)
" In Him we also were chosen, having been predestined according to the
plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of
His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might
be for the praise of His Glory. And you also were included in Christ
when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation. Having
believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those
who are God's possession - to the praise of His Glory. "
The `old' foreshadowing now leads into the fulness of the `new', seen in Jesus, who through His sacrifice (a substitutionary Sin Offering for the sin of the world which was accepted by God) made it possible for God's Grace to be available to all men. The well-known verse from the Gospel of John reveals this: (John 3:16)
" For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
to save the world through Him. "
God's Mercy and His Love could have `saved' the world, but His Holiness and Righteousness demanded appeasement: (Romans 5:19)
" For just as through the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many
were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one Man
(Jesus) the many will be made righteous. "
Later in his letter Paul expounds his revelation: (Romans 6:12-14)
" Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its
evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments
of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been
brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as
instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because
you are not under Law, but under Grace. "
Jesus, in being the Sin Offering that was accepted by God, released God's Grace in all its fulness - which enables men everywhere to be able to respond to the message of salvation. Mankind is therefore now in a `savable position' through this release of God's Grace! Those who have believed in Jesus as being the sufficient Sacrifice now find themselves in a Peace `Offering' Covenant relationship with God, for as we have seen in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians: `He Himself is our Peace (Offering)'. Jesus was the fully-accepted, all- sufficient Sacrifice for sin so that God's Grace was released to all mankind:
Jesus became a Peace Offering; `making peace on the cross'
Jesus became a Votive Offering; `I have come to do Your will, O God'
Jesus became a Freewill Offering; `He humbled Himself and became obedient
to death, even death on a cross'
Grace and Peace are now joined for eternity in Christ Jesus - our Shalom, our Peace, is found in Jesus, who released God's Grace for all mankind, and we need only to unfold the mystery of God's love to see the fulness in these two words: (Galatians 2:20)
" I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. "
These are no emotional or sentimental words of Paul, but a triumphant statement of fact! Those who accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour have been placed in Him by the work of the Holy Spirit: `For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one Body' (1 Cor: 12:13). The living word of Scripture is more powerful than any natural man's oratory, and the Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul's pen, reveals the power of the living word and what it means to be placed in Jesus: (Romans 6:5-11)
" If we have been united with Him in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. "
Jesus has become our Peace (Offering), and as we have been placed into Him, we, in Him, can enjoy all the Covenant blessings this entails - unforfeitable and unmeritable salvation! (Ephesians 1:13-14 in part)
" Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy
Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption
of those who are God's possession - to the praise of His Glory. "
In conclusion we would suggest that it is not a question of asking for more Grace - for that was fully released by the death of Jesus and the acceptance of that death by God. Grace and peace are found in Christ Jesus alone, therefore God's Grace is also found in the life of Jesus in those who believe - which we have as we abide in Him:
John 15:1-8
" I am the true vine and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to My Father's Glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples. "
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