(Jottings.)
Grace is favor extended, and where it was never deserved, nor by any act merited; and even where there may have been great hostility and bitter enmity. The grace of a Saviour God thus flows out to the whole world.
God's people also have grace, present grace extended to them through life. "Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you." Grace-undeserved favor- because their greatest acts done for Him, they judge in His light, are but the workings of the Holy Spirit in them-nothing of themselves:-"when ye shall have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants" (Luke 17:10).
" Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory" (Psa. 115:i).
Mercy suggests another thought, and that is God's pity. He saw the condition and the need of man, and also his helplessness, and this touched His heart, and moved His compassions, and here He extends mercy. He is the "Father of mercies" (2 Cor. 1:3). and "God, who is rich in mercy "(Eph. ii, 4). First, He shows His mercy to sinners; second, God extends His mercy also to His people, for, in a world that affords no help, He sees their infirmities and extends help and aid.
" Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy " (Heb. 4:16).
Peace is the issue-the result of the two former, and is also for those to whom the two former are
extended. It is made good to the soul by the Holy Spirit, and when God's testimony in the gospel is received by faith. And the greater the need, the more it brings out the greatness of God's resources to meet it. Peace also is twofold. First, for believers when justified. This is for the conscience in regard to our sins and guilt-peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Second, "Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you," this is peace to God's people, individually and collectively – the Spirit's desire for a redeemed people, that day by day, and hour by hour, we should enjoy peace of heart. Peace about all circumstances, amid all difficulties. It is for the heart of God's people (Phil 4:6, 7; 2 Thess. 3:16).
Righteousness is God's consistency maintained,- God acting in perfect consonance with all His attributes-He who is love as well as light, who is holy as well as gracious. There is perfect consistency in every thought, plan, word and act on the part of God.
Atonement is the great thought of both the Old Testament and the New. Atonement by blood is the foundation of all God's actions toward men. God who is holy, who is righteous, can stretch out the hand in sovereign mercy and grace to men, what-ever their sins may be, if men do but from the heart say, " I have sinned, and perverted that which was right"-confess their wrong. "Then He is gracious to him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom "-an atonement (Job 33:24-28).
Atonement is also the basis upon which God continues His blessings and favors to His own people, amid all their shortcomings and failures day by day. Thus their eternal blessings and relationships with God are both established and maintained by the blood of atonement (i John 2:i, 2; 4:4, 10). God is a just God and yet a Saviour. The cross of Christ-the blood of Atonement,-furnishes a key that unlocks all these treasures of divine truth, solves these great mysteries, and unravels every difficulty; and God righteously extends grace, mercy and peace to all. A. E B.