God & His Attributes

The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you– 1 Peter 5:10

God is “the God all grace.”

The first and primary example of grace Peter gives us is that God has “called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.” The fact that salvation is by grace immediately implies that we cannot earn or deserve it. We are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” Paul reminds us (Romans 3:24).

The fact is that none of us deserve salvation. The story of salvation is summarized beautifully by Paul in Romans 5:20, that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” It was not where merit, or good works, or faithfulness abounded that grace abounded. Salvation is abounding grace to abounding sinners.

This grace was given us, we are reminded, before we were even born and before the world even began: God “saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

But calling us to eternal glory is not the only manifestation of God’s grace, Peter informs us. God’s grace is a here-and-now grace that also matures, establishes, strengthens, and settles us through the suffering we experience in this world. God’s grace not only carries us to heaven in the future, but trains and matures and strengthens us in today’s challenges and sorrows and pains.

May the God of all grace mature and settle you now, preparing you for the eternal glory that is by Christ Jesus.