For many years this writer, along with the mass of religious people, supposed that the Bible phrase βgrace and peace be unto youβ was simply a beautiful, spiritual salutation. Thank God we have come to learn that it is much more than a salutation. It is an official proclamation.
Every single one of the epistles signed by St. Paul opens with the declaration: βGrace be unto you and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.β This was the theme of the message which he, as a duly appointed ambassador, had been sent to proclaim.
To appreciate this fully we must remember that God had declared in prophecy that He would reply to the worldβs rejection of Christ with judgment. Psa. 110:1 pictures the Father saying to the Son: βSit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.β Psa. 2:5 declares: βThen shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.β
After the crucifixion and ascension of Christ it seemed that all was ready for the judgment to fall. As the signs of Pentecost appeared Peter declared: βThis is that which was spoken by the prophet Joelβ (Acts 2:16) and it did indeed look as if the rejected Lord was about to return to βjudge and make war,β as Rev. 19:11 puts it. But now, instead of judgment and war, St. Paul proclaims grace and peace. Does this not indicate that in grace God interrupted the prophetic program to bring in the present dispensation under which Godβs ambassadors proclaim with Paul:
βBut where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reignedβ¦ so might grace reignβ (Rom. 5:20,21).
Indeed, Paul the former persecutor was himself the living demonstration of Godβs grace to a Christ-rejecting world. source
Good study!
Thanks, Ashley!