Unwrapping GraceSample

Grace and Peace

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. - Ephesians 1:2

Ephesians 1:2 is one of those verses we might be tempted to race by in order to get to the good stuff in Paul’s letter. If you’re familiar with the letters of the New Testament, verse 2 sounds like it could be a typical opening to a letter, the sort of thing you write whether you mean it or not. For example, I usually begin my official letters with “Dear So-and-So,” whether or not So-and-So is actually dear to me. 

Paul did indeed begin his letters by mentioning grace and peace. Six times he used exactly the same sentence as in Ephesians. Was this simply literary boilerplate, a first-century version of “Dear Ephesians”? Or did it mean more? 

In the first century A.D., letters written in Greek usually included the greeting chairein, the infinitive of the verb “to rejoice,” which meant "greetings" (for example, Acts 23:26; James 1:1). Paul chose instead to use the word charis, which meant “grace” and sounded a lot like chairein. To this he added the word eirene, which meant “peace” in Greek and echoed the Hebrew greeting shalom. So, “grace and peace” was a unique greeting that combined both Greek and Jewish elements in a Christian framework. As far as we know, Paul himself coined this particular greeting, which shows up in other New Testament letters (1 Peter, 2 Peter, 2 John, Rev 1:4). 

I find Paul's creativity intriguing. He took that which was culturally common and tweaked it to carry a new message. Though we who know the collection of Paul's letters are not surprised by “grace and peace,” his original readers (indeed, listeners, since his letters were read aloud in churches) might have been surprised by what they heard. It sounded familiar, yet curiously different. They might have wondered why Paul made this unusual rhetorical move. What was so special about grace and peace? 

As we’ll soon see, the letter to the Ephesians underscores the extraordinary importance of grace and peace. These are both major themes of the letter. They are both absolutely central to the good news Paul will reveal as he writes. And they are both absolutely essential for you and for me. 

In this devotional series, we will focus on grace. Though I’m sure grace is familiar to you, both as an idea and as something to be experienced, I’m also quite sure that you need a deeper understanding and experience of grace. I know I do! Most of us, even though we affirm God’s grace, find it easy to slip back into believing that we must somehow earn God’s favor. We turn the Christian life into a matter of good intentions and good works, rather than a living out of God’s grace through Christ. 

As we begin this devotional series on grace, let me encourage you to consider the following questions.

Personal Questions:

When you hear the word “grace,” what comes to mind? What ideas? What images or stories? What feelings?

When in your life have you experienced God’s grace in a profound way?

Can you think of ways you have experienced God’s grace in the last week?

Are there areas of your life where you need to experience more of God’s grace now? 

Questions Relevant to Your Worship Leadership:

How is your worship leadership an expression or reflection of God’s grace?

How do you expect the people you lead in worship to experience God’s grace?

What songs or prayers that you commonly use in worship are explicit celebrations of or requests for God’s grace? 

If your people were to experience God’s grace in corporate worship, how might that make a difference for their lives in the world, at work or at home, among colleagues or neighbors? 

Prayer: 

Gracious God, thank you for your gifts of grace and peace. Such marvelous gifts, so easily taken for granted. Forgive me when I live as if grace and peace are just words, rather than realities at the center of my relationship with you. 

Today, I thank you especially for the gift of your grace. How grateful I am for your unmerited favor, for your undeserved kindness. Thank you for choosing to save me and bless me, not because I earned it, but because of your unsurpassable grace. 

O Lord, please give me this day a deeper understanding and experience of your grace. And then, may I be a channel of these gifts to others in every part of life, including my leadership of worship. Amen.