Grace and Peace - Philippians 1:2

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

These words convey a warm Christian greeting. Yet, they sound strange to modern ears, largely because few in our day know what grace or peace means. If grace means anything at all to most people, it may indicate charm, good manners, or attractiveness. Peace may refer only to peace as an alternative to warfare. Actually, the words mean much more. In Paul’s usage they refer to the deepest of spiritual realities.
A Common Greeting
The words Paul used to greet the church at Philippi were actually quite common in Paul’s day. The word translated “grace” was a normal gentile address that meant “greetings.” We know this from the use of the word in the thousands of Greek papyri found in the Near East by archaeologists and in the letters written by officials of the Roman empire. An ancient letter might begin like this one from the emperor Claudius to the people of Alexandria in Egypt: “Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Imperator, Ponteifex Maximus, holder of the tribunican power, consul designate, to the city of Alexandria: greetings.” The last word is like Paul’s word for grace. Similary, the common greeting among the Jewish people was “peace” (shalom). One of the kings of Persia used this form of address to write to the people of Jerusalem under Ezra (Ezra 4:17). This was also the common word of greeting in Jesus’ day.
At the same time, however, it is important to note that the words are transformed in Paul’s hands so that they carry Christian meanings. The normal gentile greeting in Greek was cherin, a verb; but Paul uses the noun form of the same root, charis. The difference is slight, but there is a great change in the meaning. For in Christian speech Paul’s word charis was always associated with the grace of God. The emperor Claudius was merely sending greetings to the citizens of Alexandria. Paul was saying, “God’s grace be with you.” In a similar way, although the word itself is unchanged, peace cannot be understood merely as a common salutation. In Paul’s mouth it must always have some reference to the fruits of justification, the result of the reconciliation of the Christian with God.
A Great New Testament scholar Johannes Weiss wrote of these two words, “The fact that these terms connect themselves with the ordinary Greek and Hebrew greetings does not exclude the employment of ‘grace’ in its specifically Christian and Pauline sense in which it denotes the unmerited divine operations of love, which is the source and principle of all Christian salvation. Similarly, ‘peace’ is not to be understood primarily in the technical sense of Romans 5:1, as the first-fruit of justification; but we may be sure of that, in Paul’s mind, the whole state of tranquility and general well-being which was implied in ‘peace’ attached itself at the root to the fact of reconciliations with God.”
Unmerited Grace
The first greeting that Paul has for the Christians in Philippi, then, is grace, and he used it with its full Christian meaning. God’s grace! The unmerited favor of God toward humanity.
It seems unnecessary to emphasize that grace is unmerited, for that is the definition of grace. Yet we must emphasize it. For man always imagines that God loves him for what he is intrinsically. We imagine that God has been gracious to us because of what we hae done- because of our piety, our good deeds, our repentance, our virtue. But God does not love us because of that, and he is not gracious because of that. Paul says that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Christ died for people who were hideous in his sight because of sin. We are like that. If we are ever to understand the grace of God, we must begin with the knowledge that God has acted graciously toward us in Christ entirely apart from human merit.
There is a wonderful illustration of the nature of grace in the life of John Newton. John Newton had been raised in a Christian home in England in his very early years. But he was orphaned at the age of six and lived with a non-Christian relative. There Christianity was mocked, and he was persecuted. At last, to escape the conditions at home, Newton ran away to sea and became an apprentice seaman in the British navy. He served in the navy for some time. At least he deserted and ran away to Africa. He tells in own words that he went there for just one purpose: “to sin his fill.”
In Africa he joined forces with a Portugese slave trader, and in this man’s home he was very cruelly treated. At times the slave trader went away on expeditions, and the young man was left in the charge of the slave trader’s African wife, the head of his harem. She hated all white men and took out her hatred on Newton. He tells that she exercised such power in her husband’s absence that he was compelled to eat his food off the dusty floor like a dog.
At last the young Newton fled from this treatment and made his way to the coast where he lit a signal fire and was picked up by a ship on its way to England. The captain was disappointed that Newton had no ivory to sell, but because this young man knew something about navigation, he was made a ship’s mate. He could not even keep this position. During the voyage he broke into the ship’s supply of rum and distributed it to the crew so that the crew became drunk. In a stupor Newton fell into the sea and almost drowned.
Toward the end of the voyage near Scotland Newton’s ship encountered heavy winds. It was blown off course and began to sink. He was frightened to death. He was sure the ship would sink and he would drown. He worked the pumps for days, and as he worked he began to cry out to God. He began to remember verses he had been taught as a child, and as he remembered them he was miraculously transformed- he was born again! He went on to become a great preacher and teacher of the Word of God in England. It was this John Newton who wrote:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Newton was a great preacher of grace, and it is no wonder. For he had learned what Paul knew and what all Christians eventually learn: Grace is of God, and it is always unmerited. It is to the undeserving- to you and to me- that the offer of salvation comes.
Abounding Grace

Grace in unmerited, but grace is also abounding. Romans 5:20 says that “where sin is increased, grace increased all the more.” At one time I came across an item in the Washington Evening Star that told of a young man who had suddenly become a millionaire. The young man had been working as a four-dollar-an-hour waiter in Clearwater, Florida, and had suddenly inherited a three million dollar share of this father’s lumber business. Suppose now that on the day before the settlement of this father’s estate the owner of the restaurant had decided, entirely on his own initiative and without any real reason on the part of the young man, to increase the young man’s salary to five dollars an hour. That would have been grace, but it would have been a very small thing. In place of this, however, the young man received three million dollars. Instead of a small raise, he experienced what we might call “grace abounding.”
It is the same in the economy of God. God tells us that we have not the slightest claim upon him. We deserve hell at his hands, and anything he might do for us, however insignificant, is grace. But God’s grace is not insignificant, and it certainly does not stop with a single act. It is not a dollar-an-hour grace. It is a grace that has made us millionaires in Christ.
Moreover, the Bible teaches that God’s grace will go on overflowing throughout this life until the moment of our bodily resurrection and, indeed, throughout eternity. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:14-15: “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.” It was by grace that the worlds were hung in space and the earth was disposed for human life. It was by grace that the mountains and the earth were created and the world was filled with life. It was by grace humans are made in God’s image with every capacity for fellowship with him. By grace humans received the biblical revelation after the fall. By grace God chose Israel for a special purpose in history. It was grace that sent the Lord Jesus- to live a life that revealed the Father and to die for human sin. Grace leads us to trust in Christ. Grace sent the Holy Spirit to be our teacher and our guide. Grace has preserved the church through the centuries. Grace will bring forth the final resurrection. Grace will sustain us throughout eternity as we live in unbroken fellowship with God and grow in the knowledge of him.
Grace unmerited! Grace abounding! It is the knowledge of such grace that inspired Paul to write: “Grace to you!” Yes, grace be unto you. Grace be multiplied.
*from an expositional commentary by James Boice

Journal Questions:
How did you define “grace” and “peace” before reading this?
How has your definition changed after reading?
When it comes to our parents, how does it seem like we are shown “grace” and “peace?” In what situations does it seem like it is merited? Unmerited?
Has it always seemed like God’s given us unmerited grace? Has there been changes of this over the years?
It’s a difficult concept, sometimes, to think about how we are actually given unmerited grace. Thinking about how God gives us unmerited, undeserved grace, how does that change how you think God looks at you?


More on peace will be online on the blog this week.