Grace Comes Full Circle

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (Philippians 4:23).

All great stories finish where they started. The end of the movie or book wraps up with a strong connection to the opening scene. Everything that’s happened to the main character in the beginning has a whole new meaning in light of all that’s occurred. Think about Rosebud in “Citizen Cane”. There’s the box of chocolates in “Forrest Gump”. How about the opening and closing cemetery scenes in “Saving Private Ryan”? 

Our man Paul loves ending his letters in the same place he starts them. Philippians is certainly no exception. Once again, he bookends his note with God’s amazing grace. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (v23). The very last verse mirrors the opening lines. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:3).  Bookends of grace. That only makes sense. God’s glorious Gospel starts with grace and it ends with grace. The apostle wants us to know that Jesus’ grace always comes full circle. What goes around comes around.

Paul kicks off every single letter with greetings of grace. And he ends each one with more of the same. Every. Single. One. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a quick tour just to be sure. 

Romans 1:7 and 16:20. 

1 Corinthians 1:3 and 16:23. 

2 Corinthians 1:2 and 13:14.

Galatians 1:3 and 6:18.

Ephesians 1:2 and 6:24.

Colossians 1:2 and 4:18.

Philippians 1:2 and 4:23.

1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 5:28.

2 Thessalonians 1:2 and 3:18.

1 Timothy 1:2 and 6:21.

2 Timothy 1:2 and 4:22.

Titus 1:4 and 3:15.

Philemon 3 and 25.

Be sure this is no quick cut-and-paste. The apostle isn’t wasting his time with some generic throw-away filler. One reason is that each and every word of Scripture is inspired by God’s Spirit (2Tim 3:16). Second, you didn’t just swing by Office Max for a pack of the papyrus used by authors like Paul in the first century. He’s not just scribbling randomly. There’s no waste when it comes to grace.

So just what is this grace that he talks so much about? The Greek word is charis, which means undeserved kindness, goodwill, and favor. The best way to try and wrap your brain around it is as a totally unexpected gift. It’s God’s blessing from the blindside. Grace is so surprising because we’re so rebellious. It all started when our first parents fell for the lie of a satanic snake (Gen 3:1-7). We continued our terrorist campaign against God’s kingdom throughout the centuries (Rom 5:10; Col 1:21). That’s when the craziest thing happened. Instead of dropping His divine hammer and putting a stop to this ridiculous revolt, He sent His sinless Son to rescue us and bring us into His family (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8). We did nothing to deserve to be saved. As a matter of fact, someone once said the only thing we bring to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary. A great definition of grace is God’s descending one-way love. 

Yeah, so grace is a big deal. A VERY big deal. Paul wants us to never forget where we would be without God’s overwhelming and undeserved goodness headed in our direction. But notice the subtle difference from the apostle’s grace greeting at the beginning of this letter (and others) with what he writes here at the close. The epistle lifts off with “grace TO you” (Phil 1:2) and lands with “grace…WITH your spirit” (v23). Grace comes TO us. Grace stays WITH us. And that’s EXACTLY how it works in every one of Paul’s letters. Grace TO you. Grace WITH you. Feel free to check those verses I listed above. I’ll wait right here.

The apostle opens each letter by personally delivering the grace of Jesus. Then he signs off reminding us of the overwhelming goodness from God to us in Christ that never ends. Grace TO us. Grace WITH us. It’s this mind-bending benevolence that rescues us in the first place. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9). Once God overwhelms us with His grace and uses His kindness to turn us back to Him (Rom 2:4), all we do is place our trust in who Jesus is and what He’s done for us. He lived the perfect life of obedience to God’s Law we failed to live. He died the death for our sin we should have died. He rose to new life we don’t deserve. By placing our faith in Jesus, we embrace His grace. 

Christ’s grace is to “be with your spirit” (v23). The Greek word here (Gr. pneuma) basically means breath or wind. Think pneumatic. More specifically, Paul is talking about our very life spirit and the immaterial part of our human personality (Lk 8:55; Acts 18:25; 1Cor 5:3; 2Cor 7:1). Remember that God created us in His image (Gen 2) and He Himself is spirit (Jn 4:24). In a letter to the church in Rome, the apostle says our own soul/spirit connects with the indwelling Spirit of God in such a way that we know without a shadow of a doubt that we’re God’s very own kids (Rom 8:16). In other words, God’s grace goes deep inside us and touches us in a powerful way. Jesus doesn’t apply it topically. Or as the Message so wonderfully crafts this verse, “Receive and experience the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves” (v23 The Message).

Everything starts with grace. It ends with grace. Just like it does in Paul’s letters, God’s goodness bookends our lives. It goes deep into your very soul and impacts every aspect of your life. Because of His grace, I love because I’ve been loved. Because of His grace, I give because I’ve been given. Because of His grace, I serve because I’ve been served. It starts with grace. It ends with grace. Once the goodness of Jesus pours into my life, it has to flow out. You see, grace always comes full circle. What goes around comes around.