The Grace of the Lord Jesus

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ he with your spirit’’ (Phil. iv. 23).

And so this letter, which began in a prayer of grace, ends in the same petition. It is a little volume of graciousness, bound within the covers of grace. It is therefore a model letter, and should be regarded as the type of all Christian correspondence and conversation. Intercourse which has its springs in grace, and which returns to its fountain, will always be pervaded by vitalising and fertilising power. Water rises no higher than its source, and the same law prevails in the realm of human fellowship. We don’t begin high enough to keep at a high level. We begin somewhere in the country of our own self, and therefore our

neighbourly communion does not attain to the heights. The only hope of a lofty correspondence with our fellows is that we begin in “the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” away in the spiritual uplands, in the august and mighty altitudes of grace. And the blessed privilege of the Christian life is this, that all our affairs can have mountain origin, and can be children of the heights. Even a homely letter can take its rise in grace.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus!” Yes, but what is grace? We can no more define it than we can define life, or love, or God. But there are certain aspects of it, which are described in the Scriptures, and which, in the present stage of our experience, are really all we need to know. For instance, whatever it is, in its very essence, it is something which we have not merited or deserved. We cannot secure it by our virtue; we cannot earn it by our toil. No man can put out his hand and demand it as a right. The outstretched hand must be the hand of a suppliant, and he must take it as a favour. Grace is the spontaneous gift of our God to children who have nothing to offer in return.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy Cross I cling.
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace.

Then, in the second place, grace is much more than a favourable attitude of our God. It is more than benignity of countenance and friendliness of regard. It is a real, positive energy, as real in the spiritual realm as electricity in the realm of matter. Never let us think of grace as only a passive sentiment — a sort of indolent good-nature, a pose in which the awful lightning hides its threatening darts no more. No, grace is a positive power, an unthinkably active beneficence: grace works. If any one will take the many references made to grace by the Apostle Paul, and bring this clue to their interpretation, he will be amazed what a world of benign activity will open out before him. Here is one, taken almost at random: “We have good hope through grace.” That great word surely means more than that the good Lord has flung open the pearly gates, and that at the last we shall find an abundant entrance into His everlasting kingdom. The good hope is kept alive, not only by an open door, but by a present, active ministry of spiritual force, which is just the grace of God. The light in the old lighthouses was kept burning by unfailing supplies of oil. And grace is just the oil-energy in my life, and by its ministry the light of hope is kept burning in my soul, and I remain a consecrated optimist, a child of light.

Or take this other reference of the Apostle: “Singing with grace in your hearts, unto the Lord.” Am I to interpret this grace as just my conception of God’s goodness, or is it the real energy of God’s goodness working in me? I know the season when song becomes natural, and when my life breaks into spontaneous music like the melody of the brook. It is when my soul is fresh and buoyant, and I breathe a spiritual air which is like the new, quickening air of the morning. Now, this is accurately descriptive of one of the ministries of grace. It purifies the climate of a life, it washes and cleanses the spiritual atmosphere, it is concerned with my breath and breathing, and by the gloriously tonic and invigorating air it gives elasticity to all my powers, and my very feet become “like hind’s feet,” and I spring to my work with a song. I might multiply similar examples, for the New Testament abounds in them, and I think they would bring confirmation to the teaching that grace is the beneficent love-energy of the eternal God, actively ministering in the lives of men, and seeking their loveliness in a perfected redemption.

And so grace produces graces; graces are just its flowers and fruits. To whom, then, is it given? “He giveth grace to the humble.” Grace can enter the heart of the humble publican who stands afar off smiting upon his breast, and he goes down to his house “justified”; but the self-satisfied Pharisee is impervious to its influence, and dry-rot is proceeding within. Pride makes the heart graceproof; grace cannot get in. “To this man will I look, even to him that is of a humble and contrite heart.” Such a one will joyfully find that “where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound,” and these energies of the mighty and loving Redeemer will perfect His love-purpose until the man is “all light in the Lord.” And therefore we may all heartily and sincerely offer the Apostle’s prayer for one another, for it is the greatest prayer that can pass across human lips, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”