GRACE TO YOU AND PEACE
These are the words with which many of the New Testament epistles begin. The phrase is an adaptation of a typical Greek greeting of the first century, combined with a typical Oriental greeting. But together, and coming from the apostles Paul and Peter, they connote something much more than did the typical greetings. Grace is God's favor, manifested in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and peace is the antithesis of the enmity that exists between us and God because of our sin. So when we say "Grace and Peace to you," it is a prayer that you might be made at peace with God by the blood of Jesus, having your sins washed away, and thus you might stand in God's grace, or favor.
