Grace and Peace

Grace, Peace, and Love

Don’t believe the lie about God or buy the perception that God the Father is harsh and angry while the Lord Jesus is kind and loving. God the Father is stern and strict while God the Son is gracious and mercy, pitting two persons of the Trinity against one another. I’m afraid that many Christians have a faulty view of the Trinity due to a wrong view of God the Father. God the Father and God the Son are not opposed in their will. Notice, in Paul’s introduction in the letter to the Galatians 1:3-5  "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Grace, or underserved favor and blessing to you and the result of this grace is having peace with God. Where is the fountain from which this grace and peace flowed? It’s from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do we get this grace and peace? Through the Substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, who “gave himself for our sins” to deliver us out of this evil world. Christ Jesus came and died for sinners, to pay our sin debt, to redeem us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The penalty for our sins is death and hell, and Jesus bore our sins in “his own body on the tree” and paid the penalty we deserved on the cross, so we can have peace with God. Jesus came according to the will of God our Father. Jesus came to die for those whom the Father had loved and chosen to be children and heirs. Before the foundation of the world, God the Father chose from sinful humanity, individuals to whom he would show His great love and mercy to deliver them from their sins. It was the Father’s will that these sinners be saved. The Father loved the elect and according to His own good purpose, chose them unto salvation. The Son, in covenant with the Father, came to die and save those whom the Father had given him. Don’t believe the lie about God the Father. Don’t project your ideas about earthly Fathers on to the character and nature of God the Father. We say a "mother's love" is the ultimate example of love and devotion, but the Bible speaks of the Father's love as the apex of love. 1 John 3:1  "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." Know that the Father loves, provides for, and personally cares for and hears the cries of His people. God the Father loves his children. He so loved the world, that He gave His Son as a substitute to die for them and give them eternal life.