2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. This is the closing sentence of a long better. Letters bear the stamp of the age in which they are written. Their modes of beginning and ending, and their forms of salutation, are characteristic of nations and periods. This closing benediction may be compared with those of other Epistles. The most simple form is "Grace be with you," and this we find in Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and also in the Epistle to the Hebrews. A somewhat fuller but still very simple form is this: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." This is found in Romans, Philippians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The Epistle to the Galatians closes thus: "Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." Philemon ends in a similar way. In Ephesians there is a peculiar form: "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Comparing St. Paul's mode with that of the other apostles, we find similarity with distinctive differences. St. Peter closes his First Epistle thus: "Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus;" and his Second Epistle thus: "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." St. James has no greeting; nor has John, except to his Third Epistle, and there it is simply, "Peace be to thee." Jude closes with a doxology. From this comparison it appears that the Christian benediction, in its simplest form, is the wish that "grace" may be with the Church. The point of it lies in the word "grace," and in the ideas that St. Paul attached to the word "grace," and to its "being" or "continuing" with the believers. I. THE MEANING OF THE TERM "GRACE." It must be distinguished from the word "graces," as meaning the special gifts and endowments granted to the early Church As used in the singular number, it sometimes means the free favour and love of God as shown to us in our salvation by Christ. Then the full expression is, "the grace of God, and the gift by grace" (Romans 5:15). A characteristic instance of this use of the word may be found in Titus 2:11, 12. St. Paul, however, uses the term in quite another sense. He often means by it what we should call the state of grace, that condition of privilege and relation, that favour and acceptance with God, into which we are brought by Christ and in which we stand - a state of justification and acceptance; a state of rightness with God through faith. This state of favour he calls "grace." Illustrative references may be made to Romans 5:1, 2; Galatians 1:6; Philippians 1:7, and also to a striking passage in 1 Peter 5:12. It seems that the Lord Jesus Christ is regarded as the model or representative of this state or standing of acceptance and favour with God The Father himself testified to it, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Christ declares it to be his abiding state, "I do always the things that please him." He was the perfect, obedient Son, in his trust, and love, and devotion, and obedience, and freeness of communion with the Father, giving us the very model and illustration of the state of rightness, of grace and favour, into which he brings us. St. Paul's burden of benediction is "grace," and he sometimes means by it the state of favour and acceptance with God into which we are brought by faith. Now, this state of grace is so thoroughly that in which Christ himself stands, and it is so manifestly the state into which we can only be brought by him, that it may properly be called the "grace of the Lord Jesus," or the "state of grace of the Lord Jesus." Sometimes this state is viewed on the side of the Spirit that brings us into it, and then it is called the state of faith; at other times it is viewed on the side of the privilege that belongs to it, and then it is called the state of grace. Reading St. Paul's benediction in the light of these explanations, it may run thus: "May you enjoy and enter yet more fully into that state of grace and favour with God which Christ has, by his sonship, and which you have, in measure also by yours: that state of grace, I mean, which consists in these things - an ever-deepening sense of the love of God, and feeling of the impulse of that love; and an abiding consciousness of the communion of the Holy Ghost, whereby ye are sealed." II. THE CHRISTIAN STATE OF GRACE OR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. Surely no fact could be presented that is more calculated to fill our hearts with the "joy unspeakable" than this. No principle of Christian steadfastness can be of more practical value than this. If any one thing more than another is the burden of the Epistles, it is the right of the believer in Christ. In multiplied ways the apostle seems to say - Realize your sonship; enter into your privilege; use your right of access; live as restored and accepted ones; seek to know the spirit of your new state; lift yourselves up to meet the responsibilities resting on your privilege. Ye receive "now the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." "Now are ye the sons of God." Yet surely this is not the thought which, as Christians, we most readily cherish. Too often we encourage uncertainty as to our spiritual status; we hope that all will be well at last, we walk under clouds of doubt, and very feebly welcome even the salvation which God grants. The higher Christian life takes in simple trust, not only Christ, but all the status, rights, and privileges that come to us in Christ. It loses its fears, buries its questioning, and rejoices in having "passed from death unto life." If any longing for a more earnest religious life has been started in any of our hearts; if for our own cold lifeless souls we have been led to pray, "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years!" - then let us be assured that the beginning of better things is this - Enter into, possess, and enjoy your full rights in Christ; not your own rights, but Christ's, which are made yours on believing. Believe that you have been brought into, and do now stand in, a state of grace and favour with God, accepted by him in the Beloved. For assurances of present salvation and privilege, see Romans 8:1, 14-17; Ephesians 2:12, 13, 18-22; 1 Peter 2:5, 9, 10; 1 John 3:1, 2, etc. But how is such a sense of our standing in Christ to be won? Faith - trust - is the answer. Trust is the attitude of our souls which God demands. Trust in his Son Jesus Christ, who "of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and complete redemption." Simple, entire, perfect trust. Taking Christ as he is offered - as our "all in all," not for deliverance only, but also for standing and sanctification. United with Christ, his rights become ours. We are sons with God. We stand in the state of favour with God in which Jesus, the perfect Son, who is our life, stands. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. |
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