Grace to You

Eddie January 18, 2026

Message By Eddie DSouza on January 18, 2026

Passage: Philippians 1:1–2

We generally end our services with a word of benediction. Benediction comes from Latin. Bene, meaning good or well. Dictio is saying or speaking. Put together, it means “well-wishing.” Usually, the benediction contains the words “May the grace of the Lord be with you!” This is an old practice—to always send people away with a word of blessing. In the Bible, you will notice that most of the epistles end with a benediction.

Apart from the ending, there is the greeting section at the beginning of letters. If you see Paul’s letters, they always contain the words grace to you in the greetings section (Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:3; 2 Cor 1:2; Gal 1:3; Eph 1:2; Phil 1:2; Col 1:2; 1 Thess 1:2; 2 Thess 1:2; 1 Tim 1:2; 2 Tim 1:2; Tit 1:4; Phil 3). Peter follows suit (1 Pet 1:2; 2 Pet 1:2). John is on and off (2 John 1:3; Rev 1:4).

Let me read the beginning of the letter to the Philippians. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see… every culture has a standard format for correspondence. I must say had. I do not know if the young ones today have much of a format. When I went to school, I was taught, as many of you were, how to write a telegram, a formal letter, an informal letter, a letter to the editor, etc. Some of you never had those opportunities because the email took its place. And then… some of you confused email with short messaging service, just as others confused email with telegrams.

In the NT era, the Greeks had a format. They would mention the author of the correspondence, the recipients, offer praise to the gods, and greet their recipients. The common greeting in those days was the word “χαίρειν.” It is simply translated as the word, “greetings!” (See, e.g., James 1:1). Χαίρειν is a derivative of the verb, χαίρω (to rejoice). You may have heard of the name Cara, which is the noun form, meaning joy. So, the greeting basically meant “may it be well with you” or “joy to you.”

However, most of our epistles do follow the Greek format with a slight twist. Instead of the word χαίρειν (greetings), they said, “Grace to you from God.” The word grace is also derived from the same word rejoice or be joyful. It is the word χάρις. I hope you hear that all these words have similar sounds. While Christians did not invent the word, they developed this format of greeting.

In this sermon today, we will study the word grace. Through this sermon, I aim to teach you what grace means so that you will grow in three ways: in your gratitude to God for his grace, in your dependence on God for his grace, and in grace.

Let us pray.

Father, without your grace, my preaching and our attempt to listen and learn are futile. We need your grace that the words I speak may not be mine but yours. We need your grace that the Holy Spirit may carry these words from my mouth to the minds and hearts of your people here. By your grace, these words become food for our souls. By your grace, these words have the power to transform lives—bring repentance, produce holiness, produce godliness. So, Lord, be with us and lavish your grace upon us.

What Is Grace?

We must begin with the very basic question, “What is grace?” Grace is connected with the verb rejoice, be joyful, be happy, and be pleased. But it is not the noun form. The noun form is joy. Then, what is grace? Grace is what one receives because someone else, the giver of grace, is pleased with the receiver. We also call this “favor.” That is why the same Greek word is sometimes translated as “favor” in the ESV (Luke 1:30; 2:40). Perhaps, for now, we can simply call grace favor—the pleasure of God toward you. Can you imagine what we imply when we say “Grace to you?” We are invoking the favor of the supreme being, creator of heaven and earth, judge of the living and the dead, upon you, a mere mortal, a sinner, a creature who has done nothing to deserve this favor. You have not pleased God that he should respond to you with favor.

Earning the favor of the gods is normative in pagan religions. One of the most famous stories is that from the Trojan War. The Greek forces assembled at Aulis but could not set sail because there was a complete lack of wind. A seer named Calchas revealed that the goddess Artemis was angry with Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae and the commander of the Greek forces. Calchas prophesied that the only way to appease Artemis and obtain the necessary winds was for Agamemnon to sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, on an altar. Of course, Agamemnon was torn between his duty as a father and his responsibility as the commander of the Greek forces. His commanders pressured him. To lure Iphigenia from her home in Mycenae to Aulis, he lied that she was to be married to the great hero Achilles. The sacrifice secured the favor, favorable winds.

The God of the Bible is not like the gods of the pagans. He does not show favor to anyone because they please him by their actions. He shows favor to them because he is a gracious God. Listen to his self-revelation on Mount Sinai to Moses in Exod 34:6–7. “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” He is merciful and gracious. It is his nature to be gracious. He is not like the gods of the world, who are emotional messes that need to be appeased by ridiculous sacrifices and feats of devotion.

But then you may say to me, “Eddie, the Bible talks about sacrifice, and appeasing the wrath of God, and the displeasure of God. What do you mean that our God is not like the gods of the world?” These are excellent questions. But they are not questions that cannot be answered.

First, who is God? According to 1 Tim 6:13–16, God is, among other things, the blessed and only sovereign (v. 15). Let us consider the concept of being blessed. The word blessed also means happy. If God changes, then he either changes for the better or for the worse. If he improves, he was less blessed before and is now more blessed. If he worsens, he is no longer blessed or less blessed because he was more blessed. In either case, we cannot call God blessed without any qualification. God is not blessed*. The * does not say sometimes more than at other times. God does not change. He is blessed!

Now, let us return to Exod 34:6–7. God is gracious. He keeps steadfast love. But he does not clear the guilty. How is this not a change in God? It is not. He does each—be gracious, keep steadfast love, not clear the guilty—because it is in his nature. He has not changed.

God is not changed. When he becomes angry with a creature he loves, or becomes appeased with one with whom he was angry, the change in these cases is in the creature! The change is in accordance with the creature’s alteration. The creature stands in a various relation to God: an innocent creature is the object of his kindness, an offending creature is the object of his anger. There is a change in the dispensations of God, as there is a change in the creature making himself capable of such dispensations. God always acts according to the unchanging nature of his holiness and can no more change in his affection as to good and evil, than he can in his essence.[1] Thus, there is no change in God.

The sacrificial system is a gift of God to help us see the cost of sin. We deserve to die. But God, in his mercy, allows a substitution. He does not need the blood for his survival. He does not feel good or bad after the sacrifice is made. The sinner stands in a new relation before God. God’s wrath is appeased in keeping with his commands.

So, the answer is an emphatic no! Our God is nothing like the gods of this world. Then what does it mean to receive God’s favor? What is the cause of this favor? Why does God show anyone favor? When it comes to identifying the cause of anything, the ancient way is by seeking the answer to four causes: material, efficient, formal, and final. When we see anything that exists, we can ask these four questions. What is it made of? That is what is its material cause? This podium is made of wood. The material cause is wood. How was it made? What effected it? The answer is carpentry. Carpentry is the efficient cause. What does it look like? What is its form? It look like a tall desk suitable for delivering a lecture. Podium is its formal cause. What is it for? It is for a place from which a speaker or someone praying may stand to be seen and heard. That is, preaching and praying are the final cause of this podium. When we apply these questions to grace or favor. We cannot ask what it is made of. It is a disposition, not a thing. We know its final cause is our joy and God’s glory. Our real question here is, can we do anything to effect God’s favor? The answer is no. So, we or anything we do is not the efficient cause of God’s grace. God alone is the efficient cause of grace. God is gracious. The only thing is that we were once alienated from God and hostile to God, doing evil deeds (Col 1:21). But now we are reconciled to God (Col 1:22). Our form has changed. We are a new creation. If you are here and not reconciled to God, this is your invitation to repent and believe for the forgiveness of your sins. The formal cause of grace is our justification and our sanctification. The formal cause of grace is good works. The formal cause of grace is a well-lived life.

This is why many people have defined grace as unmerited favor. It is a pithy way of saying grace is the favor of God that you receive because of his nature that brings transformation in your nature.

Gratitude for Grace

When you realize that you are not the efficient cause of the grace you receive, it must result in gratitude on your part. Knowing how vast and lasting the effects of grace are in your life must lead you to be grateful to God for showing you favor when you did not merit any of it. Especially since there is nothing on your part to deserve grace and more so that you stand to gain so much because of God’s grace, from daily help to eternal life, you must be grateful.

Dependence on Grace

Now that we have looked at what grace is and does. We must ask: Should we pray for God’s grace, or assume it? Since it is in God’s nature to be gracious, should we seek grace? In the OT, the word that is most translated as grace in English is the word “חֵן”. This word is sometimes translated as “mercy” in English translations. Grace and mercy are interrelated in that way. In any case, there is a Psalm that shows us that we ought to seek God’s grace/mercy. Psalm 123 is a psalm of ascents. The pilgrims sang this psalm as they climbed up Mount Jerusalem to worship God. Psalm 123 says:

A SONG OF ASCENTS. To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.

If you have never known what it is like to wait and hope for someone to treat you favorably, then this Psalm may mean very little to you. The closest it may come to waiting for favorable treatment is a child waiting for a gift or a little treat that their parent might bring them. As an adult, it may be the feeling of getting a promotion for work well done. Most items are now automated, so we have forgotten what it is like to be favored.

I have vivid memories of my grandfather’s farm and his many servants. Or my dad’s farm and his few servants. The servants’ eyes would light up when they received a gift or a bonus. The maids who worked in the house would be so excited if my grandmother or mother gave them a little trinket. It was almost the same for me. My eyes would light up if one of those servants brought me a gift from the garden, a fruit, or let me plant something.

The psalmist teaches us that we ought to seek God’s face for his favor, his mercy. Have mercy upon us should be the cry of our souls. In earlier generations, the portion of the service that contained the prayer of confession included a prayer: Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy on our souls.

We need God’s grace so that the form of our walk with God is increasingly shaped just as he desires, that we become more Christlike. When the Bible says walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received, it claims that there is a shape, a form for the Christian walk, holiness, godliness, purity, love, peace, joy. We need God’s grace for us to walk in this manner. You need God’s grace to parent your children, to love your spouse, to honor your parents, to love your neighbor, to do your job, to study… You need grace to fight sin, to resist temptation, to repent from your sins, to apologize to those you have accidentally hurt, to seek forgiveness from those you have sinned against, to forgive those who have sinned against you, to bear with pain and suffering. Friends, we need so much grace.

So, yes. Pray for God’s grace and do not assume it. God is a gracious God. When you pray and ask him for grace, it does not insult him; it honors him.

Growing in Grace

Now that we have seen what grace is and learned that we must be grateful for grace and seek grace, we turn to the last part. We must grow in grace. 2 Pet 3:18 commands you to grow in grace.

How can you grow in getting the favor of God? It seems like Peter is asking you to do the impossible. No friends, he is not commanding that you become the efficient cause of grace, but that you increase in the formal cause of grace. As you grow in obedience and faithfulness to God’s command, you grow in grace. In order for you to obey and be faithful, you need grace. It is impossible without grace for us to do anything. We grow in grace by seeking grace to obey and be faithful. So, let us with all our might seek God’s grace that we may grow in grace. My prayer for Cross Cultured Church is that we become a church that needs grace. I want to see us as a people who make much of our need for God’s grace rather than have a façade that we are all put together.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charnock, Stephen. The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864. Repr., Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2010.

[1] This entire paragraph is a paraphrase of Stephen Charnock. See Prop 5 on The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864; repr., Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2010), 1:404.