The God of All Grace

If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Peter and chapter 5—1 Peter chapter 5. I’m going to read the entire chapter. It’s not long. I really only have one phrase that I’ll take a long time getting to. But if I warn you about that, then you won’t be upset.

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in [the] faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

“By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I[’ve] written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love.

“Peace to all of you who are in Christ.”

We thank God for his Word.

Just a brief prayer. I know it’s a Baptist church; this is an old Anglican prayer:

Father, what we know not, teach us; what we have not, give us; what we are not, make us. For your Son’s sake we pray. Amen.

Well, as I say, I want, really, to leave us just with one phrase, so that if a youngster didn’t get more than this, they would be able to say afterwards, “Well, the man wanted to remind us that God is, as in verse 10, ‘the God of all grace.’” “The God of all grace.” I want to take a while getting there, and I really want to emphasize the verbs that are found in verse 10. But in order to lead into that, I do so as follows.

God Completes What He Begins

Like every wise and caring pastor, Peter—who’s exercising a pastoral role here in writing to the scattered Christians of his day—Peter realized that above and beyond everything else, it was absolutely necessary for those to whom he wrote to know God; not simply to know about God but to know God as he had made himself known. In the first century, as in the twenty-first century, vagueness and cluelessness will never provide any foundation for a church or for a Christian when the waves beat on us, when the winds blow, when we find ourselves unsettled.

Spurgeon in 1855, when he was only twenty years of age, addressed his congregation as follows:

He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods [the] narrow globe. … Would you lose your [sorrow]? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know [of] nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief …; so speak peace to the winds of trial[s], as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.[1]

Now, I don’t think it would be unkind to suggest that here we find ourselves in the twenty-first century and often, truly, within the framework of those who would profess to be part of Christ’s kingdom, sadly, with big thoughts of ourselves and small thoughts of God. Indeed, we could probably trace much of our condition to that reality. And what Peter is concerned to do here, in what is almost like a discipleship manual here in these five chapters, is to make sure that those to whom he writes are aware of the fact that the God of all grace, who has called them in Christ Jesus and who has kept them thus far along the way, will complete the project that he has begun.

Faith in the Lord Jesus does not remove us from the painful, difficult, sad experiences of life in a fallen world.

In other words, it’s almost Peter’s attempt at Philippians 1:6, if we could put it that way: “Being confident of this,” says Paul to the Philippians, “that he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”[2] Because God is not the author of unfinished business. The work which his grace and goodness begins, he sustains it—that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.[3]

And the people to whom he wrote, a long way away from here and a long time ago, were real people. They were in a battle. Because, as the Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us, the Christian is involved in “a continual and irreconcilable war.”[4] And that war is waged on multiple fronts. And when he writes as he writes here to these individuals, reminding them of their alien status,[5] they were aware of that. When he reminds them that they have been facing grief in all kinds of trials,[6] they were aware of that. And so he wanted them to know that, in the words of the hymn writer, “when through fiery trials your pathway shall lie, his grace all-sufficient shall be your supply.”[7]

I’m greatly heartened by this, and I’m helped by it, and I hope you are too. Because the Bible declares what the Christian life confirms: that faith in the Lord Jesus does not remove us from the painful, difficult, sad experiences of life in a fallen world. When Paul writes in Romans 8, he makes it clear to his readers that not only the creation groans in travail, waiting for the redemption of the sons of God, he says, but we also groan.[8] We also groan, recognizing where we are, recognizing that we are not the finished product yet.

What is, of course, too bad is when we cease to groan à la Romans 8, and we just start to moan. And I’m not so sure that our neighbors and our friends who know where we attend and what we profess would necessarily have concluded that this moaning friend that they have is really full of the joy of the Lord and is confident that the God of all grace is in charge of the political movements of the world and understands that the entire planet is entirely dependent on the God of all grace. It is sustained every day. It is entirely dependent upon the creator of the universe. And it is that same planet that groans in travail.

The pastors understand this, those who are here. We’re keenly aware of the fact that we preach “weekly”—w-e-e and w-e-a—we preach weekly to men and women whose lives are often marked by quiet desperation, irrespective of superficial expressions. There’s not a person with whom you can sit and spend any length of time but will not, if they’re honest, say, “Yes, I understand this. I am in need of this.”

And, of course, there is a danger that is incumbent upon those of us who are pastors. And that is that we might then begin to speak of the God of all grace as if somehow or another, he is so vitally important to all of those who are within earshot of us, but somehow or another, we are able to get by without him. C. S. Lewis, in The Four Loves, writes as follows:

Those like myself whose imagination far exceeds their obedience are subject to a just penalty; we easily imagine conditions far higher than … we have … reached. If we describe [then] what we have imagined we may make others, and make ourselves, believe that we have really been there[9]

—“and so fool both them and ourselves.”[10]

Now, if you think about it, remember who’s writing this letter: Peter. Now, he’s at the end. He’s drawing it to a close. There is no way in which we would imagine that Peter is talking down to his readers. What does he urge them to do in verse 6? “Humble yourselves.” Oh, can you imagine when he wrote that down? He said, “Now, I think I need to say to you, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit: Humble yourselves.” And the Spirit of God said to him, “You mean like you didn’t, Peter? Remember when you said, ‘If everybody falls away, I will never fall away’?”[11] It cost him.

“Don’t be anxious. Cast all your cares upon him.”

“Oh, you mean like the time when you said, ‘Jesus, call me, and I’ll come to you’?[12] And then you fell face first! You ditched, ’cause you were anxious.”

Just a word again to the pastors: I’m not a fan of naked preaching. By that I mean I’m not a fan of the “You need to know what a wretch and horrible person I am.” I don’t need to tell people that. They know that. I’ve been there for thirty-five years! So I’m not suggesting that in any way at all. But there has to be some sense in which those who listen to us understand that we preach this first to ourselves. “Humble yourself. Quit being so anxious about everything, Pastor. And when we see you making progress here, it will be easier for us to join you in the progress that you’re making.”

Adversity: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil…” “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.”[13]

And then he knew that in the face of all of that, it was on account of God’s amazing grace that he was actually in the position to offer his readers this assurance, the reminder of their security as a result of the work which God by his grace has begun in them. “The God of all grace,” he says, “even after you’ve suffered for a little while, the one who has called you to his eternal glory—he’s the one to whom you look.” Because remember the words of Jesus to him: “But I’ve prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you turn back, you strengthen those brothers and sisters.”[14] And that’s exactly what he’s doing. What grace! Covers every need, covers every circumstance, transcends status, background, influence, intellect—sufficient for all.

We never sing that old Annie Johnson Flint—at least not up in Yankee land, where I live:

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving [has] only begun. …

For out of his infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.[15]

It can’t be exhausted. He is the God of all grace.

So, in other words, in Christ, we are the recipients of the undeserved love of God. And that unmerited favor which is ours in Christ is not and never will be conditional on our performance. It is always on the basis of the unchanging merit of Christ himself. And it is on account of that that we come consistently to the throne of grace, that we feed daily on the Word of grace, in order that we might increasingly know the God of all grace.

So wherever you are tonight along this pilgrimage, let’s remind ourselves that we who by nature have “exchanged the glory of … God,”[16] who—Romans 3—have “fall[en] short of the glory of God,”[17] have now been called to his eternal glory in Christ. Christ has been covered in shame in order that we might be covered in glory. He who knew no sin became sin for us that in him we might become the righteousness of God.[18] And if we might say so, God has not gone to such lengths in Christ to then abandon the project. And so Peter assures his readers that God can be counted on to complete the work that he’s begun.

God Restores, Confirms, Strengthens, and Establishes

And that brings us to these verbs (which will be an encouragement to everybody under the age of twelve): “And after you[’ve] suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will” do this. For those of you who are English scholars, the verbs are future; they’re not optative. They express not a wish; they express a promise. It’s a promise; it’s an assurance. We are the recipients of God’s undeserved favor.

“And this is what the God of all grace will do,” he says to these folks—many of whom would have said to themselves along the way and from various times, “I don’t know if I’m ever going to make it right to the end of this race. I don’t know. I was going along nicely till my son turned his back on Jesus. I was going along well until my marriage began to flounder. I was running fairly well until I just seemed somehow or another to lose confidence and trust.”

In Christ, we are the recipients of the undeserved love of God. And that unmerited favor which is ours in Christ is not and never will be conditional on our performance.

Well, it would be a dreadful thing, wouldn’t it, if we were left to our own devices, if we were then to listen to the “how-to” generation to fix ourselves by looking inside of ourselves? Isn’t it amazing how many how-to books there are? How to do everything! And everybody buys them. Let me ask you: How well are you doing? Right?

You see, what we really need is to know God, not to know how to this or how to that. I’m not saying they’re bad books. “How to Pray Big.” What’s that about? It’s a bad title with a bad cover. My son said to me, “Dad, why don’t you write a book that somebody wants to read?” So I thought, “I’ll try that next time.” But for the time being, we leave it at that.

Well, here are these verbs: “The God of all grace, who … called you to his … glory in Christ, will himself restore…” “Restore.” Now, this is a wonderful word. If you study your Bible at all, you’ll say, “Yes, I know this one.” That’s good. So you can nudge the person next to you and feel smug and say, “I know this one.” It’s the same verb that would be used in the Gospels for the disciples mending their nets.[19] So they come back out of a voyage, and the nets are tangled, and they’re torn, and so they spend time untangling them and repairing the tears. God himself is in the business of untangling the netted nature of our existence and dealing with the tears and the inevitable holes.

It’s the same word that is used in orthopedics for the setting of a dislocated bone. It’s the same word that is used for the refitting of a boat or a ship that has been damaged, that has been brought into dry dock and then put back together again so that it can go back out to sea. Isn’t it so good that God doesn’t scuttle us when we founder in the waves, but he brings us back into port, as it were? And he refits us in order that he might send us out again. That’s what the God of all grace does: restores.

Secondly, he will, again, “confirm”—or, if you like, “make you strong,” I think it is, if I remember, in the NIV. He will “restore you”; he will “make you strong,” or “confirm” you. And the word that is used here is the kind of support so as to prevent you from toppling.

If you have grandchildren, or you remember being a grandchild, or any of the above, remember that when you went to your grandmother’s house—in my circumstances, at least—then, when they wanted you, when you were very tiny, to be out of the way but to be cared for so that the adults could get on with whatever they were doing, they would put you in a spare room with a single bed that was wedged into the right angles of the wall, they shove you over in the corner there, and then they take enough pillows so you can die of suffocation, and they put them all around you. You may die of suffocation, but you will not topple, okay? There will be no toppling. We’ve taken care of toppling.

You go through your Christian life; you say, “Goodness, I think I’m going to topple here. How am I going to do this? I feel anything but strong. How can I keep going?” Some of you are teenagers. There’s a verse in a hymn that I can’t quote to you, but it’s in my mind as I speak to you. It’s the hymn that begins,

When all thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I’m lost
In wonder, love, and praise. …

Unnumbered comforts to my soul
[Your] tender care bestowed
Before my infant heart conceived
From whom those comforts flowed.

And here’s a verse that I can’t get to: “When in the slippery paths of youth…”[20] It’s a great verse. I read that verse, and I say, “Isn’t that just the truth?” How do I explain making it through those strange days when you get your driver’s license, when you’ve got a measure of freedom, when you’re starting to think for yourself, when you’re wondering if your father is really as bright as you thought he was or if he’s just a royal nuisance and full of all kinds of strange ideas, and you’re saying to yourself, “Now, maybe I could just slip out now; I could just slip off”? Why did I never slip off? Because the God of all grace is the God who not only puts things back together, but he is the God who prevents us from toppling.

John Owen: “We cannot perform our duty without the grace of God, nor does God give his grace for any other purpose than that we may perform our duty.”[21] It’s good. Wouldn’t it be nice to write a sentence like that once in your life? Dream on! Yeah.

Verb number three: He will “restore, confirm, strengthen.” I think in the NIV it’s “make you … firm.” So you say, “Well, it’s almost the same, isn’t it?” Well, it is almost a synonym, but not quite, because the picture here is not of toppling; it is of collapsing. And so not only, then, are we stabilized, if you like, by the external mercies of God, but we are strengthened in the inner man.[22]

I just was recalling to somebody in the last couple of days: One of the early funerals that I did in the church that I’ve served now in Cleveland for a while was of a lady called Gert Oliver. And when I asked for her Bible that I might look at it before I conducted the service, I found little scribbles throughout the Bible. But the one that struck me most forcibly was alongside the verse that reads, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, … inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”[23] And Gert had written in the margin, “So much for facelifts.” And I thought it was so good. He’s the God who strengthens the weak knees and the feeble hands.[24] You see why he resists the proud? Rutherford says, “Stoop, stoop [down low]; it is a low entry to go in at heaven’s [gate].”[25]

And the final verb: “establish you,” or “make you … steadfast”[26]—in other words, putting the foundations in.

I remember years ago, I spoke at an event in Kowloon in Hong Kong. And it was in an Anglican church on the main drag there. And the thing I remember most about it was that they were constructing a new building next door. You say, “It must have been a memorable conference,” but… And what they were doing is they were pile driving. And so they were going way, way down. And that thing—some of you are perhaps in construction; I shouldn’t even mention it, because I just betray my ignorance. But all I know is it’s big, it goes deep, and it makes quite a racket.

And so, for example, I would say, “Please take your Bibles”—boom!—“and turn to 1 Peter 5”— boom! And it went like that. So you’ve got to time it so you got the thing. So I was like, “And then”—and boom! “And there’s”—and boom! Why would you go to such lengths and do such stuff? Well, we don’t want the building to fall down. That’s why! We don’t want it to go down!

How do you get a boy like Daniel? What do you think the mother of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said when he got wheeched away into Babylon? They probably met with their friends at the prayer group and said, “I don’t know what’ll happen to them now. I hear—the word has come back—they’ve changed their names; they’ve changed his education. I think it’s finished.” Little did they know! What had happened? The God of all grace! ’Cause Daniel had got up in the morning and started and gone to bed at night in the same way:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one. And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, your mind, your strength. And these things are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them to your children when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up.[27]

And that’s what his mom and dad did. And he said, “You know what? Other people can bow down to this, but I won’t bow down to it.” Why? Because the God of all grace made him steadfast. It wasn’t because Daniel was a superhero.

Neither was Gideon. Gideon was least, last of the whole shooting match. So let’s be done with that idea: that God is in the business of looking for, you know, high school quarterbacks and cheerleaders so that these people who are excelling can then establish the kingdom. They’re welcome to. I’m happy—a little jealous. But they’re good. That’s fine. But for most of us—for most of us—we’re aware of the fact.

I mean, goodness gracious! I wonder: Do you sing this song here? “I’m glad that you’re part of the family of God.”[28] Do you ever sing that thing? It’s about the 1960s. I don’t sing it anymore. ’Cause if we sang it, we would sing, “I’m surprised that you’re part of the family of God,” not “I’m glad.” ’Cause I might not be glad! But I’ll tell you, I could sing that in front of my shaving mirror every morning. And so should you if you’re in Christ.

What is promised is God’s own actual intervention and personal presence.

Do you ever say to yourself, “Why am I still on the horse?” Do you ever say to yourself, “Why am I still in this race?” Do you ever say to yourself, “Why do I still believe the gospel?” Do you ever? Or do you just assume it? And when you think for a moment, what do you say? Surely it is the God of all grace, supplying support so that we don’t topple, strength so that we won’t collapse, a foundation so that we won’t be blown away.

And notice: “The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself…” “Himself”! God does this? God himself! It’s not merely fortuitous or external matters, as it were—instrumental things—that are promised, but what is promised is God’s own actual intervention and personal presence. That’s what it says. God himself will do this.

Because, you see, this is the ultimate, when it finally ends, isn’t it? Because in Revelation 21, where do we finally end up? “Now the dwelling of God is with man. And he will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”[29] How that all works I don’t know. “My knowledge”—to quote [Baxter]—

My knowledge of that life is small;
The eye of faith is dim;
It is enough that Christ knows all
And I shall be with him.[30]

Why? Because of the God of all grace.

From the sublime to the ridiculous: Johnny Cash in the Man in Black album. You say, “What do you know about Johnny Cash?” A lot, as it turns out. And in one of those tracks on that album, which goes way, way back, he sings a song. And the refrain is

I talk to Jesus every day,
And he’s interested in every word I say;
[And] no secretary ever tells me he’s been called away;
[And] I talk to Jesus every day.[31]

So, says Peter to these fellows and girls facing grief and all kinds of trials… As the storms raged about them, he knew it was imperative that the vessels of their lives would be anchored to that which doesn’t shift or turn—that, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, “we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”[32] For “in Christ alone my hope is found.”[33]

[1] C. H. Spurgeon, “The Immutability of God,” The New Part Street Pulpit 1, no. 1, 1.

[2] Philippians 1:6 (paraphrased).

[3] See Philippians 2:12–13.

[4] The Westminster Confession of Faith 13.2.

[5] See 1 Peter 2:11.

[6] See 1 Peter 1:6.

[7] “How Firm a Foundation” (1787). Lyrics lightly altered.

[8] See Romans 8:23.

[9] C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (1960), chap. 6.

[10] J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1973), 7.

[11] Matthew 26:33; Mark 14:29 (paraphrased).

[12] Matthew 14:28 (paraphrased).

[13] Luke 22:31 (paraphrased).

[14] Luke 22:32 (paraphrased).

[15] Annie Johnson Flint, “He Giveth More Grace.”

[16] Romans 1:23 (ESV).

[17] Romans 3:23 (ESV).

[18] See 2 Corinthians 5:21.

[19] See Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19.

[20] Joseph Addison, “When All Thy Mercies, O My God” (1712).

[21] Πνευματολογια; or, A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit, in The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold (London: Johnstone and Hunter, 1852), 3:384, paraphrased in Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006), 136.

[22] See Ephesians 3:16.

[23] 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV).

[24] See Hebrews 12:12.

[25] Rutherford to Cardoness, Elder, Aberdeen, 1637, in Joshua Redivivus; or Three Hundred and Fifty-Two Religious Letters, by the Late Eminently Pious Mr. Samuel Rutherfoord, 11th ed. (Glasgow: William Bell, 1796), 214.

[26] 1 Peter 5:10 (NIV).

[27] Deuteronomy 6:4–7 (paraphrased).

[28] Gloria Gaither and William J. Gaither, “The Family of God” (1970). Lyrics lightly altered.

[29] Revelation 21:3–4 (paraphrased).

[30] Richard Baxter, “Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care” (1681).

[31] Douglas Glenn Tubb, “I Talk to Jesus Every Day” (1971).

[32] Hebrews 6:19 (NIV).

[33] Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, “In Christ Alone” (2001).