It is exceedingly beautiful to mark the way of the Spirit in addressing believers. Knowing, as He does, all their faults and peculiarities, and having some rebuking things to say to them, yet He opens His remarks with these most precious words, “Grace and peace unto you.” And who were those persons thus saluted? Were they remarkable for their holiness, for their fidelity, for their love? Doubtless many among them were so; but, taking them as a whole, were they most amiable, loveable, consistent people?
Let us inquire. First, then, I observe, in turning to whatever Epistle I may, and with very little variation, and only three exceptions—namely, the Epistle of James, and John’s First and Third Epistles—I find these words addressed to all.
That to the Hebrews may seem another but, sweet to relate, if the character of the teaching excludes its use when it opens, the Spirit cannot close—cannot bid farewell, so to speak, to those He so tenderly taught and warned, without using those needed, and, by some, well-known words, “Grace be with you all. Amen.”
But what refreshes one most is not the way the Spirit closes as opens His letters (although that also is worthy of attention, and may occupy us another time). We can all understand how one might close a letter to those they love (after using strong language) with words of comfort; but to know beforehand all the faults and all that required to be said, and still to send such a greeting-this denotes skill in dealing with souls, which only a God of perfect goodness could show, and which required to be shown before we could imitate.
Amazing skill! Amazing grace! Who can comprehend or who can give a reason for it? Only the One who possesses the skill, and ministers the grace can, and, blessed be His name, has made known the wherefore of it all.
Hearken to His own words: — “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness towards us through Christ Jesus;” words used doubtless in connection with a different line of thought, but which include all the dealings of God with our souls, from the beginning of our new being till the time when we shall reach the end in a Father’s love without end. Sweet thought! When God breaks the silence between Himself and His people, it is to utter first of all these words: — “Grace unto you and peace.”
Yet when one thinks of it, what other words could our God have used? for was not “grace” reigning? and had not “peace” been made and as the salutation was from God the Father, and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, so the grace of the One could reign, because of the righteousness established through the cross of the other. The “peace” had been made by His precious blood.
What a mighty leveler grace is as well as sin! (Compare Rom. 3 and Rom. 10) “The grace of God” as the “God of grace,” needing not anything from any man, acting towards man and upon man, as the sun in the heavens shineth equally upon the evil and on the good, the wise and the unwise, the peasant and the peer; and maketh “no difference” between the dew—drop and the mighty ocean, warming and brightening the one as well as the other!
God, viewing His saints from the “top of the rocks,” beholds neither their perverseness nor their iniquity (when the enemy accuses), but the deep, deep need of their souls for what He alone can supply.
Whether they be saints of “Rome,” of “Corinth,” of “Colosse,” or “Thessalonica,” it matters not, “Grace to you,” “Peace to you,” becomes the common greeting.
Strangers to Paul were the Romans, but their faith in Jesus had come abroad. Some, abusing their liberty (pleasing themselves, instead of pleasing everyone his neighbor), were setting at naught their weak brethren; while those weak and fettered, in place of using the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free, were judging their more enlightened brethren, pluming themselves, doubtless, with false ideas of holiness.
Certainly the “strong” required to enter into the “grace” that bore with them, as the “weak” might well avoid their strictures, and thus follow after the things which make for “peace.”
If they had their schools of opinion, as at Corinth, making Paul, or Apollos, or Christ but leaders of some sect; or their schools of legality as at Galatia, needing to be exposed and closed; if some at Ephesus were asleep, or others at Thessalonica were lazy, the salutation is alike to all. How blessed to have our opinions dispelled, our hard thoughts exposed, our sleep disturbed, and our laziness corrected in such a manner, for it is our Father and our Lord Jesus who are thus dealing with their people’s souls.
Some were leaving their early love, others forgetting what they had received and heard; some were forsaking the assembling of themselves together, as others (grown shortsighted) had forgotten the “purging” of their former sins. But, be they love-bearers, grace-neglectors, assembly-forsakers, or cross-forgetters, the unaltered salutation of “Grace and peace unto you,” comes from the unalterable God and Father, and from His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
May it be granted unto us so to grow in “grace” that the “peace” of God, which passes all understanding, may keep our hearts and minds! Amen.