As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
28The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you.
With this little benediction, Paul closes his letter to the
Thessalonians. It’s so familiar and simple, many commentators choose to not
even acknowledge it.
However, the truth is these words in a sense summarizes the
entire Bible. In a sense these few simple words form the single most important
truth in all the created universe. You or I could not express a more profound
blessing on our family and friends than to pray the grace of Jesus to be with
them.
All that said, I would like to record what these words mean
to me. As I’ve ventured before -- just in case my grandchildren or great
grandchildren would ever stumble across these feeble scratchings, I’d like them
to know what these simple words meant to me and that I prayed this very
blessing on them.
First of all, I want to note that the verse contains exactly
nine words. It translates directly word-for-word into English, except that
there is no “be” in Greek, as indicated in my translation above by the […]
brackets. In English we have to add the “be” for the sentence to make sense to
us, but my brackets indicate that I’ve added something that is not there in the
original. And why is nine important? Because it’s 3x3. As I’ve noted before, three
in the Bible is God’s number, and, as I have studied down through the years, I
have often observed the Lord do exactly this – to say something really
important in 3x3 words. If I’m right, He’s in a sense earmarking this thought
as extremely important by deliberately expressing it in nine words.
But back to our verse itself, what does it mean – “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with
you.”
Grace is unmerited favor, totally undeserved kindness. Someone
has said, “Mercy is when God does not give us what we do deserve; grace is when
He does give us what we don’t deserve.” What I do deserve is hell. Instead the
Lord gives me Heaven! My heart tells me He’s angry at me, that I’m a lost
cause, that I’ve failed too many times. I feel like He should hate me. But then
I open the Word and my eyes fall on passage after passage of unbelievable
kindness. Instead of an irritated, offended judge, I find the arms of a loving
Father.
And just when it’s hard for me to believe He can stand me at
all, He tells me, “Listen to Me, …you whom I have upheld since you were conceived,
and have carried since your birth. Even to your old, old age and gray hairs, I
am He, I am He who will sustain you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you”
(Isa 46:3,4). That is so, so, so what I need. I need Him to carry me. As I look
back over my life, I realize in fact He has done just that. So many times He
has prevented me from doing stupid things that literally could have wrecked my
life (if not get me killed). On the other hand, He has allowed me to succeed in
so many things that I now realize were completely beyond me. He’s been carrying
me … and He says He will until the end. That’s grace.
The other thing we have to observe is that it is the grace “of
our Lord Jesus Christ.” As much as the Lord may sit in Heaven and want to bless
people, the fact remains that “the wages of sin is death.” The fact is we have
all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. As a just judge, He cannot
simply overlook our sins. They must be punished. I’ve earned hell and it must
be paid. For myself, that is utterly and completely hopeless. It’s not that I
can resolve to do better (as if that would even happen). The fact is I’ve
already sinned. I’ve already earned hell. All the good in the world can’t
change the fact I’ve already done bad. And hell is not only a terrible place,
but it is eternal. The sins I’ve committed have offended an eternal God and
will be punished eternally. It’s not even as if I could do a purgatory kind of
thing and suffer for a few thousand years and then be done with it. Hell is
forever. So I am in big, big trouble.
Enter Jesus. “For God so loved the world, He gave His one
and only Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have
everlasting life.” Jesus said, “He who believes in Me has everlasting life.”
Jesus is the physical embodiment of God’s love. He came to earth and loved us
all the way to the Cross. There he took my hell and yours so that God the
Father could be both just and the justifier of those who trust in Jesus.
Because Jesus paid the price, God the Father is now free to be gracious to you
and me.
Now, even though He should hate me, He’s free to love me.
And the wonder of this is that it isn’t a conditional love. Because
of Jesus, He doesn’t just love me when I deserve it. Frankly, I never deserve
it. Grace means that, like a parent, He never
stops loving me. Even if He has to bring harsh consequences into my life for my
many sins and failures, He carefully crafts those consequences to, in the end,
do me good.
Grace means I can believe Heb 4:16: “Let us
therefore (because of Jesus) come boldly to the Throne of Grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” “…that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Words would fail to
record the many times I have desperately needed God’s help but felt so
undeserving I hesitated to even pray or ask, and then this verse would come to
my mind. That’s grace. My Savior God who is always there.
And then I want to record practically what
this means. It means I can live by grace and not by law. A huge part of the
grace of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. When we embrace Jesus He sends His Holy Spirit
to actually live inside of us. Because of His presence, we can actually want to do right. It’s no longer, “Here’s
the rules, now keep them or else.” Instead we get to actually know God and know
His heart. His law becomes not a list of rules to keep but instead an
expression of the heart of this One we love and long to be like. When I do fail,
I hate it too. He’s not mad at me, He’s there to help me get back on my feet
and try again. He’s soooo kind to me in my failures.
And that then allows me to see the world
through different eyes. I too can love people whether they succeed or fail. My
love doesn’t have to be performance-based. And I don’t need to be judgmental. God
isn’t that way to me. I don’t need to be that way to other people.
Grace means I’m free to love and it means I’m
free to try.
The plain, simple fact is it makes my life
wonderful.
“The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you.”
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