Bible Study Romans Part 19-Grace and Peace

“Grace to you and peace” can sound like just a polite greeting until you realize Paul treats it like a loaded prayer. We take Romans 1:7 slowly and ask what Paul is really wishing over ordinary Christians in Rome and what that reveals about God’s heart toward people who cannot earn their way into His favor.

We dig into one of the Bible’s clearest definitions: Grace as unmerited favor. Not “God likes you because you did well,” but God’s kindness given freely, rooted in Jesus Christ. From there, we contrast Grace with the way the world runs on earned approval. If your sense of safety depends on performance, you live on a tightrope, and that pressure bleeds into how many people view Faith.

To make it painfully modern, we connect the idea of earned favor to influencer culture: the constant work to stay liked, the fear of one mistake, and the exhaustion of keeping momentum when popularity is fickle. Then we return to Paul’s second word, peace, including the Jewish background of shalom, and why peace from God is categorically different than peace offered by any human being, leader, celebrity, or institution.

We close with Paul’s phrase “God our Father,” exploring sonship as a privileged relationship given to those who receive Christ, and why that identity steadies us when the world mocks Christianity as limiting. If you want a deeper Bible study on Romans, Christian theology, Salvation, and what it means to live without performance pressure, this is a strong place to start. Subscribe, share this with someone who feels spiritually tired, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

Transcript

Why Scripture Is Life Or Death

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

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Still in the book of Romans, we will be here for several years. I'm convinced of that. I don't know of anyone that's ever done a thorough job of going through Paul's letter to the Romans where it didn't take years. If you really want to know this word, this letter as best as possible, you're going to have to really get into it and it's going to take time. So we don't mind that it's going to take us several years to

Where To Listen And Support

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finish. I do want to remind you that we are dependent on, well, we're not dependent, but we do accept donations to this ministry. If you want to donate to this ministry, please do. Chapelontheweb.com. Eventually we will put on our YouTube channel that buy me a cup of coffee button. We will eventually put that on our YouTube channel as well. I think that's a kind of a neat way for people to contribute to the content creators. That's what we are, a content creator. I know we also post this audio on our website. If you've never been there before, it's studyinthechapel.com. It's the audio from these recordings. We put the same thing that we put on the YouTube channel. We put it on that website. So if you can't get to YouTube, you can always go to our website and listen to it. It's in a podcast format, studyinthechapel.com. Again, if you want to donate chapelontheweb.com and we will accept all donations. You'll have to go through one of those special contributing websites, but please feel free to do that. Again, we don't expect your donations. We don't talk about it very often around here, but it is a scriptural thing to do to share with those that share God's word with you. It's important that you do that for your sake, for your expression of gratitude toward God. God wants to see that this is important to you. And there's probably nothing more important to us than our money. And when you give of your money to your ministries, and listen, it doesn't have to be here. As long as you give where you are taught, then you need to do that in order to show God that you appreciate it. That's how human beings show their appreciation through gifts. So you can do that with this ministry. If you don't, make sure you're giving somewhere. Again, chapelontheweb.com. Just follow all the donate button, guides, menus, whatever it is. So here we are, as I said, in the letter to the Romans. We're just about to finish that first sentence.

Romans 1:7 Sets The Tone

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It's verse 7 tonight. Romans 1.7 is where we will begin. I'll go ahead and set my screen up for you. Here we go. Romans 1.7. By the way, one of the things I love about this letter to the Romans is not only are we learning about God, but we're learning about this great apostle Paul. He's a wonderful guy. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you're a regular in God's word, then you've probably noticed that this is one of Paul's favorite sayings. The benediction, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, is found in every one of his letters. Interestingly, however, in what these scholars call his pastoral letters, the ones he wrote to his proteges, Timothy and Titus, he adds the word mercy. Grace and mercy and peace appear in those letters and only in those letters. I don't know why he added that word, but it sure does seem deliberate. Nonetheless, Paul likes to wish at least grace and peace to those he is writing to. I would imagine not a single conversation he ever had from that day on the road to Damascus to the end of his life went by without the offering of that blessing. Now, why do you suppose that is? Well, I think we can confidently say that it wasn't out of habit. This wasn't some robotic reflex like we normally do. Hey, how you doing? That's an automatic reflex when we see somebody. Hey, how you doing? That's not what this is. Paul loved both of these words too much to let them simply roll off his tongue without the power of intention behind it. He meant

Grace Defined As Unearned Favor

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it when he wished grace on his fellow Christians. He wanted God's favor to fall on them. Remember, this isn't some blessed reaction to doing a good deed or thinking a good thought or living a holy life. Grace is one of Scripture's most clearly defined, impossible to misinterpret words. In the Bible, grace always means unmerited favor, unearned favor. Now you may get someone's favor when you excel at some task or go above and beyond or otherwise exceed expectations. Yes, that's good favor, but it isn't unearned favor. It isn't grace. You earned it. Good for you. Take a bow. In fact, you may think it's distasteful for you to do so, but go ahead and brag. You did a good job. Someone recognized you for it. If that's the kind of thing you live for, get it whenever you can. The world's always ready to get behind a so-called winner, rain praise down on someone who's at the top of their game. In fact, almost to a fault, I believe. We're so eager, for example, to pour adulation and affections and exaltations on the perennial home run derby winner. We're so eager to do that that we're willing to overlook his drunkenness and his poor relationship skills and his deadbeat dad status, deadbeat dad status. Some Oscar winners can't walk into a room without a standing ovation, despite the fact that off-screen their behavior is so reprehensible that if you found out your daughter was alone with him, you'd call the police. Nonetheless, if you're good at what you do, and if what you do is something the world looks up to, then well, you can expect earned favor. But let me tell you, don't expect such treatment from God, no matter what you're good at. God doesn't hand out earned favor. Well, that's not entirely true, I suppose. He has given out earned favor, but just once. The only person who has ever performed in a sufficient enough way to earn God's favor was his son. And thank God he did, because now we can trade in that earned favor. Without his earned favor, our unearned favor wouldn't take us very far. And if I think about that too long, it terrifies me. So back to my point. God has already given out all the earned favor he'll ever give to the human race. So don't expect him to look down on you and give you what you think you deserve. In fact, do yourself a favor. Never ask for God to give you what you deserve, because, well, if you want to know what you deserve, study the effects of a crucifixion on a human body, because that's what you deserve. Anything God gives you has nothing to do with you. And there is nothing more reassuring than that. You see, if you're honest with yourself, you'll realize that if your blessings depend on your job performance, then you're on mighty shaky ground.

Earned Favor And Influencer Burnout

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One of the newest yet incredibly prevalent social phenomenon we're we've all become aware of in the last ten years or so is the concept of influencer. Not that you don't know what that is, but an influencer is someone, usually a young person, but not always, who has become famous on social media. Lots of love and money on social media. So it makes you wonder why anyone would quit a gig like that. Well, because it's work. Granted, many times the initial spike in popularity is due more or less to intangible factors, you know, personality, uniqueness, looks. But like every other form of popularity, one must figure out a way to keep the momentum going when the infatuation stage matures. And as I said, that takes effort. And that is an especially difficult reality for those who don't have much more to offer than personality, uniqueness, and looks. But the most successful find a way. The problem is, and I've heard this over and over lately, the workload, the workload eventually becomes too much. It takes a lot of effort to stay popular. It is exhausting to continuously earn your popularity. And what's worse, one wrong move and you're finished. Say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, be seen with the wrong person, and all that favor fades quickly. And that's not an unknown truth in those circles. Anyone who earns their living in the public eye feels that pressure every day, and it can be especially excruciating, as I said, if that's all you have, if there's if there's not a whole lot of basic foundation underneath your fame. For young, inexperienced flash in the pan types, the pressure becomes too much. And they quit, leaving the millions of dollars and tens of millions of followers. This is a universal problem with all earned favor. This is a universal problem with all earned favor. And if you live off of it, the burden of keeping your performance attractive always taints the enjoyment of it, the hard work, the precarious nature of the fickle hearts of the fans, the constant need to be aware of what is popular takes away the fun of the success. That's why grace is such a blessing. There's nothing that you did that brought that favor on, and so there's nothing you need to do or can do to maintain it. There is no performance pressure with grace. And I think that's why so many people have a hard time accepting such a thing. I mean, grace is not something we practice. We, by and large, we human beings, by and large, only hand out favor when it's earned and never before. Anyhow, we've taught on this many times, and those details are well known to you and to Paul and to those first century Christians in Rome. When Paul said to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, they considered it a lovely blessing, a rare treasure. But Paul also said, peace unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus

Peace As A Deliberate Blessing

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Christ. Grace and peace. Again, this is Paul's standard greeting, grace and peace. Now, in those days, the typical letter sent from one Jew to another normally started out greetings and peace. Shalom. I think that Paul is once again tipping his hat to his own people. He continues to appeal to the Hebrew mind by wishing peace to the members of the church at Rome, made up largely of converted Jews. There is a method to just about everything this man does. That's what I meant when I opened saying we're learning so much about Paul. Why is that important? This man was chosen to write two-thirds of the New Testament. His legacy endures to this day. Almost more people know about Paul the Apostle than Jesus. Not that that's a good thing, but it's just a point I'm trying to make. Paul has made an impact. And when you trace Paul's impact back, it goes to grace and peace. If you want to be known in this world, make sure you want to be known for grace and peace, offering God's grace to others. That's why it's important to learn the way Paul lived his life. Grace and peace, to open a letter, has the effect of leveling the playing field, if you will. It lets everyone at Rome know that this is their apostle, the apostle assigned to them. And he is well aware of their background and spiritual needs. Grace and shalom or peace, Irene in the Greek. By the way, that's the word, that's where the name Irene comes from. When people are named Irene, they're named for the Greek word peace. I'd share that with you. It's a lovely and disarming greeting when Paul said, Grace and peace to you, grace and shalom, grace and Irene, Haris and Irene. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God called saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, a warm and charming greeting, but oh, so much more. Listen, if I bestowed on you some form of favor you didn't deserve, all right, that might make you smile, but probably not much more than that. If last December you and I had a falling out over whether Die Hard was a Christmas movie, and this week I stopped by and apologized and said to you, listen, all I want to do is offer peace to you. Well, you'd probably shed a tear, you'd agree, you'd shake my hand, and then you would I you and I would make plans to get together later and rent die hard too, just to kind of get back on an even keel. That might be fun, but A, that peace would add very little to the quality of your life, and B, it probably wouldn't last because you'll realize that I never conceded your opinion, and you just knew that by the end of this year we'd back be back at it this time over the sound of music. My point is grace and peace from me isn't worth a whole lot. And I'm not just being humble, I'm being realistic. Even grace and peace from Joe Biden ain't gonna help you much. Neither would grace and peace from Dolly Parton nor Sam the Butcher from Brady Bunch or the CEO of Google or the Pope himself. Paul didn't even offer his own grace and peace to those called saints at Rome. This was no idle, mindless, unconscious, traditional greeting.

Our Father Sonship And Assurance

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Here in verse 7, Paul is offering up a prayer that the only truly valuable grace and the only truly lasting peace be granted straight from the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, so much packed into one verse. Grace and peace from God our Father. Now, this is one of those statements that to me carries a very important tone. First of all, we can gather that Paul loves to refer to God as our Father, but he doesn't bat it around like you and I do. He seems to bring the term out when it fits the mood. You see, the subject is a prayer for the granting of special and specific blessings. And these special and specific blessings aren't meant for everyone. How dare you not be inclusive? Hey, I'm just a messenger. Take your accusation up with the one who's guilty of it. Grace and peace from the Father is not for everyone, because not everyone can claim the required sonship. Whenever Paul uses this term father, the inference is of a very special relationship. Whenever Paul refers to our father, his intention is that we see ourselves not just as any old offspring, but as sons. John 1 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become this, we have the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now we've gone over this before. To the Hebrew mind, Paul, as you well know, has a Hebrew mind. To the Hebrew mind, being a son is an incredibly privileged position. Now, ladies, don't get all bent out of shape. Paul includes you on this. Paul includes ladies when he's thinking of the sons of the father. Yes, because this isn't a male or female thing. This is literally a have or a have not thing. In the typical Jewish family, the sons are the Ones who receive the favor from the Father. Again, let me caution you to put away your sensibilities and see this for what it is. God is our father, not simply because we're his children. God is our father because we are his sons. What any good father has, he passes on to the sons. Grace and peace are the choice blessings flowing from the Father to the Sons. That is Paul's point when he says this. This isn't just some little increase from someone that has a little more than you do. This isn't the king. This is the king bestowing kingly gifts to the princes. This isn't some rich guy reaching into a bag of gold coins and just throwing them in the air and scattering them on the ground just so the peons can scramble, claw, and gouge their way to a little extra enrichment. Grace and peace from the Father is given directly to the Son, intended for the Son, focused on the Son. My friend, the Father's intention is to bless you. You, Mary Smith, you, Bobby Jones, you, John Tomasi, the Father has designated for you his attention. You know, I say this a lot. I said it a lot recently. I sincerely feel sorry for those who turn up their nose to the idea of being a Christian. They see it as something limiting, something burdensome and restricting. You know, the Hollywood elite who do their best to belittle those few of their peers who declare, albeit usually weakly and partially, a higher look. Those that sneer and laugh at and even ridicule a life lived in service to God do so because they claim it's nothing more than slavery and oppression. It's funny to me, this attitude, because the majority of that crowd couldn't go a single day without a drink or a snort or a pill. They giggle at Christians because they say we have to bow down to someone bigger than ourselves and yet take away their flasks, needles, and toot straws, and they'll be a quivering, desperate mess by lunchtime. Well, the world can chuckle all it wants to, but I know that tomorrow I'll have the same father as I do today, and from him I receive grace and peace meant for me. And it has nothing to do with me making it impossible for me to screw up. Short lesson again today. We're just getting started here. Next time we'll dive in even further. See you then.

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We hope this study has blessed you. God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption. It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners. Please join us again soon. New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often. For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com. And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page. Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible. It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.