#DailyDevotion Grace & Peace Are Yours In Christ Jesus
Romans 16This includes you who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ —7to all in Rome whom God loves and has called to be His holy people: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This includes you i.e. you have believe and obey the gospel and so glorify God to the nations. You who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ are those who have been baptized into Christ and believe. You who are just hearing of Christ and are preparing to be baptized into him will be included in this ‘you.’ It included all in Rome whom God loved and were called to be his holy people. All who believe and are baptized can know and trust that God loves them and has called them to be his holy people.
God does not want to keep us guessing. He wants us to have the surety of our salvation. Just as those who were called to be God’s holy people in ancient days had the sign of circumcision and could put their trust that God called them to be holy and to be his people, not because of their decent from Abraham (for every male who belonged to the house was to be circumcised) but because of their faith in the One who called them to be circumcised, so now he has given us baptism as the sign he has made us his own.
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ puts his name on us and makes us his holy temple when we are baptized into his name. There he has separated us out, both Jews and Gentile, to be his holy people. We believe with our hearts and confess with our mouths what God has done for and that Jesus Christ is Lord, i.e. he is the Living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When in doubt, we may always remember that we are baptized children of God and through his baptism we have been joined to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
To such people Paul can write, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” It isn’t just a trite saying to put on the beginning of letters. It is with sincerity of heart and confident faith that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will answer Paul’s blessing with yes. This blessing is not just for those in Rome or those Paul writes to in other churches in other cities. Whoever reads or hears this, this blessing is for you.
What is this blessing? Grace, God’s underserved, unmerited favor is what you hear and receive on account of Jesus. Jesus is the one who earned and merited God’s grace for you. You can do nothing to gain God’s favor other than trust you have it for Christ’s sake. Here he offers it to you for free. God’s grace delivers to you the Holy Spirit and faith in our Lord Jesus. Grace gives you the understanding and wisdom of God. Grace takes you out of the world of darkness and transfers you into God’s kingdom of light. Grace lets you know you have been accepted by God the Father to be one of his own children in Christ. Peace, shalom, that existence of well being and the feeling that everything is going to work out just fine. It may not work out as we intend it or as we conceived it. But this peace we have from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ tells us no matter what is happening to us and whatever we are going through, the Father no longer counts our trespasses against us. The Father has been reconciled to us for the sake of Jesus’ death on the cross. We can be assured of this by Jesus’ resurrection on the third day.
Merciful and Gracious Father, always give us your grace and peace in Jesus Christ so we may know your good will towards us that we may live in them. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.