Farewell But Not For Long! (II Thessalonians 3:16-18) – PART 4
II Thessalonians 3:16-18, “Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” IV. God’s Grace (II Thessalonians 3:18) Paul concludes his prayer, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (II Thessalonians 3:18). The word grace refers to God’s undeserved favor, or undeserved love and acceptance. God’s grace is embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ. We receive fellowship, a very special and personal fellowship. The church was dear to Paul. He sensed ever so deeply a close tie, a spiritual fellowship that bound his heart to the believers. He became concerned and was aroused to write and deal with the problems that had infiltrated the church. He wrote because of the special bond of fellowship between him and the church. This fact is expressed in John 1:17, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”. There are at least five kinds of grace: 1) Saving grace. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve our salvation because God’s grace is a free gift (Ephesians 2:8). God’s grace can only be received through Jesus Christ. Paul express this fact in Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. The word justified means “to declare righteous.” It has been described as “just as if I’d never sinned”. When we are justified, God declares that all the demands of the Law have been fulfilled on our behalf through Christ’s death on the cross. Because salvation is all by grace, it is given freely, unearned, and undeserved as a gift to the recipient. 2) Empowering, or strengthening, grace. We cannot live the Christian life in our own power. Therefore, when we are saved, God gives us spiritual power. This power enables us to fulfill God’s will for our lives, which can be very difficult at times. We read in Acts that the apostles preached with great power about Christ’s resurrection because great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:33). 3) Equipping, or gifting, grace. God’s power is revealed in our lives through the various gifts He gives us. Every believer has at least one spiritual gift, also called a manifestation of the Spirit (I Corinthians 12:7). There are at least twenty gifts, or categories of gifts, listed in the New Testament (Romans 12:6-8; I Corinthians 12:8-10; Ephesians 4:11; I Peter 4:9). Romans 12:6 describes the source of all spiritual gifts. Romans 12:6, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith...” 4) Enduring, or sustaining, grace. The best example of this type of grace is when Paul had a “thorn in the flesh”. He doesn’t tell us what the “thorn” was. Three times Paul pleads with the Lord to take away this problem because it is harassing, or tormenting him. The Lord told him in II Corinthians 12:9, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me”. When we pray about a problem, God will either remove the problem, or He will give us enduring grace to bear it. 5) Refining grace. As Christians, how we speak to people is very important. Jesus died not only to redeem our souls, but also our mouths. A redeemed mouth is a gracious mouth. How we speak to unsaved people can either help draw them to Christ or drive them away. Our speech should always be with grace (Colossians 4:6). The word grace means our speech should always be kind, courteous, respectful, and loving. Gracious speech is not rude, crude, or dominating (Ephesians 4:29). This is basically talking like Jesus. Our Lord’s speech is described in Luke 4:22, “And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?” If this post in any way, has blessed you, please share this website and its articles with others: www.fellowshipbaptistcarrabelle.com
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AuthorDr. Blackman is passionate about helping others grow in the grace of the Lord. His devotions are centered on how to grow closer to the Lord through a personal relationship with Christ. Archives
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