Grace and peace

In 1974 I stumbled, dazed, into Francis Schaeffer's L'Abri in Switzerland. The big eye-opener was the first tape I listened to, Schaeffer on the book of Romans. The man must have talked for an hour on the first three verses.

We tend to speed-read the salutations of Paul's letters: 1 Timothy begins, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus…." (1 Timothy1:1). We say, "Yeah, yeah, let's get to the point!" But Paul doesn't do "Have a nice day" talk. When he calls down "Grace, mercy, and peace" in verse 2, you can set up camp on each word and mine them.

He uses the terms "God our Savior" and "Christ Jesus our hope" because that's exactly what he means to say. Do you ever think of the Father as Savior? Isn't He the wrathful one? And isn't Jesus is the Savior, the nicer one who stays the Father's hand?

Or how often have you stopped to think of "Christ Jesus our hope"? Let's get real: What is my hope today? Is it really Jesus, or is it money, talent, job, or my good looks? If I got hit by a bus and disfigured today, would I find out in short order that my hope disappeared with my symmetrical features?

And we're still just in verse two.