“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” 1 Corinthians 16:23
On Monday we looked at Aaron’s Benediction from Numbers 6…bestowing God’s blessing on His people. This blessing was given to Aaron and the priests after him to place on the people on God’s behalf. This brings us, to a simple definition for a benediction: the giving of a blessing from God by His assigned representatives… (the God appointed Priest in the Old Testament…ordained pastor’s/ preachers in the New Testament). The word “benediction”, from its Latin origin, literally means “a good word”. It is God’s good word of grace to His church. One Puritan put it this way, “The movement of a benediction is from heaven to earth, whereas the movement of a doxology or a prayer is from earth to heaven.” In doxology we praise or sing to God.
Now the text before us is today’s benediction. There really is a lot for us to consider in this blessing from God…but we will only look at 3 things.
First, that this grace is found only in a person, the Lord Jesus. It is the “grace” of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus is accessible only for those who are “in Christ.” So grace, especially saving grace, is of God and from God through Jesus to His own alone! I love this quote from Michael Horton (if you don’t know who he is look him up and read some of his stuff), “In grace, God gives nothing less than Himself.” IT is Jesus’ to give and He gives it freely from Himself…to His own. And, just so you know, it is always there, whether we “feel” it or not!
Second, this blessing that is sent from God the Father through Christ the Son is His continual grace to all who are His. In John 1:16 we read, “For from His fullness we have all received (and keep on receiving), grace upon grace.” One grace has not left us before another is upon us… but it is actually sooner than that. This benediction/ blessing from God, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” speaks of His continual grace. You could almost end it with…“The grace of the Lord Jesus is with you always”. For grace is God’s love shown to the unlovely; His peace given to the restless; His unmerited favor given to us because of the work and sacrifice of another…namely the Lord Jesus Christ which is why He is the one who gives it out of love for His own!
Grace was made available to us by Jesus’ willingness to go to the cross for us and take upon Himself our sin and God’s complete wrath so that we might be imputed with His righteousness. God, who created all things, ordained that His creation, specifically man, the highest of His creation and made in His image… would slay Him. He who existed in eternity past died in time and space …for all His people because of His desire to give us His mercy, grace and love. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” Gal. 4:4-7
Third, it is this grace that comes from Jesus that grounds and empowers everything in the Christian life…from our on-going repentance to the joy of a life well lived for God’s glory. As one author put it, “Through Jesus we have all received grace upon grace…the gratuitous and undomesticated grace of God.
So, Christian, believe this today! “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.”
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
