“The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Pet. 5:10). Peter, in both of his epistles, addresses the believers among the Jewish diaspora (1 Pet. 1:1; 2 Pet. 3:1). Christians of the time experienced persecution from both Jew and Gentile, with some of the fiercest opposition (especially for the Christian Jew) coming from the former. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says: “Ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men” (1 Thess. 2:14-15). Those epistles which specifically address Jewish believers—Hebrews, Peter, and James—all touch on the subject of trials. This was a difficult thing for a saved Jew to understand. They understood earthly blessing to be a sign of God’s approbation, whereas suffering signaled His disapproval. Certainly, as a nation, they had experienced the chastening hand of Jehovah many times—drought, conflict, division, captivity, and subjugation. For a Christian, however, whether from among the Jew or Gentile, earthly blessing is not our hope; we have no promised land here. We have a better hope and a heavenly one (Heb. 10:34; 11:16). Suffering is our present lot (Rom. 8:18). “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12; see also John 15:19-20, etc.).
God has not, however, left us without resource. The activity of God’s grace does not end with salvation. It is our privilege to come “boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). There we find a sympathetic High Priest—a high priest like no descendant of Aaron ever was or ever could be. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). The Man, Jesus, experienced the wilderness with its depravations and trials (Matt. 4:1-11; etc.). There is not a trial or difficulty that Christ has not passed through before me and found His resources in God the Father. He will supply the needed grace to my heart. Many, no doubt, will recall the penultimate verse of Revelation: “Yea, I come quickly. Amen; come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20 JND). To escape this scene of confusion and creature complaints will surely be a mercy—the sooner the better! Indeed, Jude presents the rapture in this way: “Awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 21). But do we remember the final verse of Revelation? “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints” (Rev. 22:21). His supply of grace will sustain us throughout life’s dreary plain until the very end.
It is quite wrong to suppose that only the weak and helpless need grace, or that it is just for a time of trouble. It is when we are strong that we are in the greatest danger, for it is then that the enemy’s darts find the chinks in the armor. Our own strength will always prove to be our greatest weakness; and in our greatest weakness, God’s grace will manifest its greatest power. “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
In his second letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul encourages a faithful, yet disheartened servant of God. He speaks of tears, of rekindling the gift of God, a spirit of cowardice, of not being ashamed, enduring hardness—not that all these characterized Timothy; nevertheless, there was that danger. Discouragement has ever been the bane of the saint of God—consider Elijah, David, or Hezekiah. When things do not turn out as we hope, or when we stumble in our own strength, the door is opened for discouragement to set in. What is the remedy? “Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). We do not have strength within ourselves; we should never be surprised when we discover (or rediscover) this truth. This is the very state where the grace of God is unhindered to act. Grace cannot be stored up—this would only lead to independence from God. We must avail ourselves of it daily. Just as the children of Israel had to collect the manna fresh each morning, so do we. Returning to the verse that we began with, “The God of all grace” (1 Pet. 5:10), we note that Peter’s epistle is a wilderness epistle—our inheritance remains a future thing (1 Pet. 1:4). God sustained Israel in the wilderness, and He will also sustain us (Deut. 8:2-4).