Grace Be With You All

And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Amen. (Hebrews 13:22-25, NKJV).

Grace and peace are the conjoined twins of the New Testament, especially as salutations from the Apostle Paul (as he aged, he amended his benedictions to include grace, mercy, and peace – and for those of us who are also aged, we understand completely).

It has rightly been said that you cannot know the peace of God until you understand and accept His grace (unmerited favor) through Jesus Christ. God's grace is that which pours out upon His children all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. It is God's grace that make us coheirs with Christ. It is God's grace that bestows us with eternal life in glorified physical bodies.

His grace is almost the opposite of His mercy, since mercy is not receiving the punishment we do deserve, while grace is receiving all His immeasurable gifts which we do NOT deserve.

Without Christ we can have neither grace nor peace. Without faith in Him we are enemy combatants in the long war against God waged daily by all those who have not accepted the gift of His righteousness through His Son. It is a war that He has allowed to persist from Satan's rebellion until He recreates all things at the time of restoration, so that all those born in sin can have opportunity to repent and be saved.

As His ambassadors and soldiers operating behind enemy lives, apart from His everlasting mercy, we need His grace more than anything to endure and do His will until our time here is done, or His Son returns for His church.

Paul understood and communicated the importance of this grace in each of his epistles. If John, the reformed Son of Thunder, is the apostle of love, then Paul, the transformed legalist, is the apostle of grace. He knew that it was God's grace that was his life's blood, and he exhorted and encouraged the early church to never forget that truth.

From hate-filled Pharisee to the foremost Christian missionary of the 1^st century church, Paul always credited his miraculous metamorphosis entirely to God. It was none of himself and all of Christ. And it was the grace of Jesus Christ that fueled him more than his necessary food.

This is what I know about grace in my own life:

My Savior does not hold against me my time in the enemy's camp, despite the fact that it encompassed most of my life thus far.

My Lord does not return to me evil for evil, but good. He has blessed me beyond anything I could ask or think or imagine.

By His grace I have been washed clean. It is not merely that He has taken my punishment upon Himself – though that is an unfathomable gift in and of itself – it is that He has purposed before the foundation of the world to view me and love me as He does His Son, Jesus. I have not “just” been absolved of guilt, I have been adopted as one of His own.

Christ calls me not His subject or servant, though I am privileged to be both, but His friend.

I am implored by His Spirit to come boldly to His Throne of Grace to find mercy and help in time of need.

By His grace nothing of value in my life is lost, ever. He will restore the years that the locust ate and guarantees that He will complete that good work in me that He began at the moment I came to repentance and faith – an act empowered by His grace.

When I die, it will be a Homecoming that I cannot comprehend or fully understand, but which I know He has prepared for me, uniquely, and which will fill me with everlasting joy.

By His grace, I never have to say “good-bye” to those whom I love in this life, but only “see you later.”

This marvelous Book of Hebrews has been a journey through the revelation of Christ's superiority to anything and everything that can possibly be conceived or worshiped.

His unparalleled beauty, majesty, nobility, power, intelligence, love, and grace has been given to us in this 1^st century letter as a divinely inspired gift beyond price.

Beloved, I urge you to make the truths of Hebrews part of the very fiber of your heart and soul, so that your love and faith in Christ is deepened with each incredible verse.

Grace be with you all. Amen.

The Word of Exhortation

And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Amen. (Hebrews 13:22-25, NKJV).

In Greek, the word here translated exhortation (paraklesis), is the same root word used to refer to the Holy Spirit as Helper in John 14. It's meaning encompasses supplication, entreaty, admonition, encouragement, consolation, and that which affords comfort or refreshment.

This is the essential nature of the entire Word of God.

It is the one source of all those things provided by the Holy Spirit Himself as He inspired holy men of God to record His thoughts, intents, and instructions for all posterity. It is that which shall never pass away. It is that which shall outlast the current material Universe. It is that which saves and transforms and makes alive.

And it is ours for the taking.

What a gift!

Thus it is fitting, as we near the end of this series of devotions on the marvelous Book of Hebrews, to include a brief examination of one of the most tangible gifts from God to men: His Word.

It is His Word that caused Existence to come into being. He spoke and all that ever was or will be leapt into time and space and the spiritual realm.

He spoke and His Word brought forth light and darkness, the heavens and the earth, animals and mankind.

His Word bespoke the curse upon sin and the Promise of redemption.

And it is His Word to which we look for joy beyond measure for in it we find eternal life (John 5).

Yet, sadly, even Christians often neglect the edification and nourishment that comes from feasting on this gift of wisdom and truth. We set aside divine revelation for earthly philosophy and so-called science. We look to human experts rather than to seek first the Kingdom of God in His Word.

It is not that Bible-believing disciples of Christ eschew human wisdom, it is that we measure all such information against the source of wisdom itself. When there is a conflict we align ourselves unapologetically with God's Word.

Otherwise (and this is vitally important), we find ourselves adrift in the turbulent sea of worldly opinion, and the shifting, treacherous sands of fallible and fallen human priorities.

Thus, for example, we spiral downward from the lofty position of the inviolable sanctity of human life, to the evil and barbarous profanity of institutionalized and legalized abortion on demand.

We move from the foundational family of husband and wife to the various and inevitably chaotic alternatives of virtually anything else.

This is not surprising. In fact, this end times apostasy is foretold throughout God's Word, but it is nonetheless tragic. Among other things, it places the gossamer and fragile “wisdom” of man above the revealed will of the Eternal Creator, Himself.

The unmitigated hubris evident in these “modern” trends is astonishing, but it is most decidedly not new.

The long war against God has been ongoing since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden, and is destined to continue until the return of the King, our Lord Christ.

Such statements as these are ridiculed and marginalized by the intellectual and cultural elites in this life. These are viewed as throwbacks to a more “primitive” age, but such arrogant dismissal is merely symptomatic of the long war itself, and should in no way undermine the believer's faith in God's Word and goodness.

On the contrary, this fulfillment of prophecy - this superior and vindictive attitude toward the things and purposes of God - is incontrovertible proof that His Word is true.

What then are we who base our lives and eternal destiny on the Bible to do?

The answer is in the focus verses above: we are to bear with the word of exhortation.

This means to submit to it by the renewing of the spirit of our minds by the washing of the water of the Word.

We are to esteem it more than our necessary food.

And most importantly, we are to live by it as the truth is in Jesus.

The requirements of a godly life are not complicated, but it does entail the one ingredient that makes all else possible: faith.

And we know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.