Grace: A Benediction
Tuesday, December 20
Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. (Galatians 6:18)
Paul is ending this letter the way he started it: Grace. Grace is such an important thing in the Christian life—an infinitely important reality. He spoke of being called by grace and the necessity of believing in the Gospel of grace. The whole letter was about the grace of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul could pray nothing greater for the Galatians and us than the grace of God. The reason is because Paul wanted them to walk in a relationship with God based on grace instead of the legalistic, performance-based relationship that endangered them so.
Christ dying for us and justifying and redeeming and adopting us and the Spirit indwelling us and the church helping us—all of it is grace. The name Christianity is synonymous with the word grace.
This is an appropriate end for the letter and prayer for all our lives. Paul prayed with a great endearment: “Dear brothers and sisters.” This shows us how we are not alone. The grace of God revealed in the Gospel of Christ has not only changed our relationship with God; it has also changed our relationship with people. Through the Gospel, God created a family, of which you belong to.
One theologian said, “After the storm and stress and intensity of the letter comes the peace of the benediction. Paul has argued and rebuked and cajoled but his last word is GRACE, for him the only word that really mattered.”