⁷ … Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not just a superficial or perfunctory salutation, this extension of grace and peace to his readers begins every one of Paul’s letters. This was his signature greeting. We err by reading over it too quickly. The wording of this entire phrase is identical in nine of Paul’s letters and contains only minor variations in the other four. This fact is so striking that many modern scholars believe the book of Hebrews—thought by the early church to be authored by Paul and which was in fact circulated with Paul’s thirteen self-identified letters—cannot have been written by Paul because of the absence of this statement or anything even close to it.

Grace along with peace saturate this letter to the Romans, as is true of all Paul’s writings. The underlying Greek word for “grace” is “charis,” which can be defined as “goodwill freely disseminated (by God); especially to the benefit of the recipient regardless of the benefit accrued to the disseminator” (Logos). This letter outlining God’s righteousness in the gospel is all about His grace, His freely providing His righteousness, not out of any obligation on God’s part that He owes it to us, but from His own goodwill. In the words of our verse, it is “from God.” What a succinct proclamation of the central truth of the gospel, the Good News. Everything in Paul’s ministry was about the message that God is favorable toward us, not because of anything we have done or will do that compels Him to give us what is due, as though it is rightfully ours.

Notice that this grace is from “our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” It may be tempting to use this salutation as a proof text for the deity of Christ, but that would be stretching the limits of sound interpretation. However, we would agree with commentator Moises Silva that “it would be unwise to ignore the ease and naturalness with which Paul appears to regard his Lord as on the same level with the Father.” Indeed, other passages do show clearly that Jesus Christ is God (e.g. Col 1:19, 2:9, Heb 1:3, etc.). And to put Jesus on the same level as God, if He were not God, would amount to rank blasphemy.

Peace also is a large theme in Paul’s writings. From the beginning, peace has been part of the gospel, from the first announcement of the angels at our Savior’s birth: “… on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). In Jesus Christ, we find peace with God, from whom all have been alienated by their sin. God’s desire for all Christians is to fully experience the God of grace and peace, to be saturated with Him from beginning to end.

Lord God Almighty, help me to fully experience Your grace and peace, without which my Christian life is reduced to human efforts and selfish motivations.