Grace and Peace

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

GRACE AND PEACE

Rev 1:4-5

4 John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

NIV

John has his introduction and in it we see he is addressing the seven churches in the province of Asia. We are going to see these seven churches and although many scholars have debated for many years as to exactly what these seven churches were or are or represent, we are going to see some real truths for our own lives. What we have here is a greeting in which the grace and peace to us is given from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. That is a mouthful to describe God the Father, God the Spirit and God the Son. What is grace and peace? In order to fully understand the significance of being given grace and peace we need to understand what that means in the Greek.  What was the meaning in the original language? Grace is translated from two distinct Greek words, one meaning unmerited favor, which is not used here. The other used here as well as many other places means the divine influence upon our heart and how that is reflected in our lives. The word peace has been translated in many ways, most of which include some opposite of war or havoc, but in the main sense used within the spiritual application it carries the meaning of the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthy lot, of whatsoever sort that is. We see this truth in Paul’s letter to the Romans when he tells them the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. So we have a choice in life, to either live according to our own ways, or live according to the influence of the Spirit and have the assurance of life, eternal life. The rest of this greeting has everything to do with everything we believe. God always was, always is and always will be. There is no time with God, He is always. That is so much to believe. Many people struggle with that fact, they cannot understand it with the finite human capacity of understanding. We are among that group, but we believe it simply because he said it was true. We do not have to understand to believe because we have faith. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. Heb 11:1 We also can know that Jesus is faithful, he is the witness to all that is true. He spoke all the truth we will ever need to know in order to experience eternal life. Although we spend so much time on trying to discern how to live the Christian life, all the do’s and don’ts, all the rules and regulations, in essence what we truly need to know is that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, and if we are in Christ we too shall be born from the dead. This is in both senses, the spiritual and the physical. First we have to die spiritually before we can be born again. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus. That in order to enter the kingdom of God we need to be born again. We cannot be born again unless we die. But this also means born again in the physical, as Jesus was, resurrected from the dead. We will rise from the grave and live in the realm of his kingdom forever and ever. Of course this will be in a glorified state as he was after he resurrected, able to appear or disappear at will. We also see here that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth. We worry so much about how things are in our world. We get anxious over the evil rulers who declare war on others, killing their enemies, especially today with the evil in the Middle East and the brutal murders of Christians. We get anxious about who will lead our country, and how that will impact our lives. We will be harmed financially? Will any of our freedoms be infringed upon? We are concerned about how those who oppose our point of view, our belief system will change the course of our country. But in reality Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth, whether they what to admit it or not, he rules over them. No matter what happens in this world we have the confidence we need, because we are in Christ. We have learned to be content in whatever situation we are in, whether that is in plenty or in want. The world can collapse all around us, and we can stand firm, holding steadfast in our Lord, for he has everything under his control. We live with the grace and peace from God.