“Ten times the great apostle wrote it—the finest greeting in his tongue, and all the languages there are: ‘Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Much more than kindly wishes for believers, these gifts of heaven are indissolubly connected. We have no peace—no sweet shalom—without the grace of Christ that freely, gently, washes out our stains. And we can only be restored by One whose great unbroken wholeness had no start and knows no end: ‘He Himself is before all things, and in Him all things hold together’ (Col 1:17). Grace has a goal—to so completely mend our lives that we ‘have life, and have it to the full’ (John 10:10). So stay in grace.”