I've been studying Galatians with a group of women from my church. An amazing group of women with our ages ranging from 19 - 60's. This is important because I've learned SO much with this rowdy bunch. They are wise, authentic and loving and I am deeply blessed by every one of them.
I've had a thought lingering that I can't shake from the intro to Galatians. "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen" Galatians 1:3-5
Leave it to Paul to go ahead and present the gospel message in his short introduction of a letter. There is much goodness here, but the words I am stuck on lately are grace and peace. The enduring word commentary says that Paul used this exact phrase five other times in the New Testament. It was a "familiar greeting, drawing from the traditional greetings in both Greek culture (grace) and Jewish culture (peace)."
I'm no Hebrew or Jewish scholar, but I do know the Jews have historically greeted each other with the Hebrew word shalom. According to the University College London shalom means more than just peace, but extends to good health and stems from a root word that means complete or perfect.
Isaiah 26:3 says "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."
The jews understanding of peace with God was/is to fulfill the law. The law that was passed down from Moses, the Torah. They studied and meditated on the law. They strived to keep every law in an effort to have peace with God.
This proved to be impossible. Enter Jesus.
Isaiah 53:6 says "All we, like sheep, have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way, and the Lord laid upon Him, the iniquity of us all."
I find it fascinating that this scripture was thought to have been written somewhere between 740 and 686 BC. That's around 700 years before Christ. Whoa. The Him that Isaiah was referring to was not to come into the world for many years.
Jesus said "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." Matthew 5:17
In summary - man could never do enough or be "good" enough to reach the standard of God's holiness. Jesus Christ came into the world being fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life, was killed by the jews and then God the Father raised Him from the dead. In the death of Jesus, the penalty for yours and my sins was paid for. Jesus traded us - our sin for His righteousness. And that is enough. Now, anyone who believes in Christ and confesses Him is declared enough by God the Father.
So back to Paul's greeting of grace and peace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."
Paul, who wrote Ephesians, points to Jesus in his greeting of grace and peace before he even mentions His name. The old testament pointed to Jesus long before He entered this world. The new testament points to Jesus, the life He lived and the life we have available in Him.
I'm thankful to be living in a time of grace and peace. Those who only lived under the law, before Christ, only knew what was available to them at the time. Our generation lives in a time where grace and peace are made available to us by the loving sacrifice of Jesus, the son of God. It makes me wonder about the times to come and what will be available to those in His full and perfect presence. The time when He returns and restores man and the earth to perfection. Heaven on earth.
All in all, in my ramblings and wonderings, I find Jesus is the center. Jesus is enough. You can follow the ways of Jesus too. It's all there for you. He is there for you, available to those who would seek and find.
