“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:2 NIV)
Grace (charis) was hard for ancients and is hard for moderns to believe. We want to earn our respectability. Or we feel we have rights entitlement. Because we do not understand the depth of our self-centeredness, the brokenness of our relationship with God, we cannot comprehend the impossibility of our saving ourselves by our own actions. Grace is God’s work in Christ Jesus to give to us the undeserved favor of God. Grace puts things right; grace is love’s unmerited initiative that frees us to love God in return.
We do not phantom peace until we shudder before wrath. When things are not in line with what God wants, nothing is right. By the act of God in Christ Jesus, wrath is replaced by a healthy, right relationship. Peace is rightness with God, in which inner tranquility is matched by outer harmony. To live “in Christ” is to live in undeserved favor, in harmony and accord with God’s plan of rightness and compassion.
-- Richard and Julia Wilke in “DISCIPLE: Remember Who You Are”
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