May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. NIVUK

We are Christians only ”by grace” (Eph.2:8). This is the reason we find ourselves in the church fellowship. God has taken the initiative. He has moved towards us, in Christ, in sovereign grace.

But it is not only the case that by grace we are saved; it is also by grace that we serve. Think back to chapters 8 & 9, where Christian giving is also described in terms of grace. I seem to remember John Stott saying, with regard to Ephesians 4:7, that not only is there saving grace; there is also such a thing as serving grace. We are graciously gifted by Jesus to serve Him in varied ways. This includes our financial giving (as 2 Corinthians shows). So grace is not just about what God does for us, but it also concerns what He does through us.

‘We could put it like this: Jesus is the person the generous and self-giving God became. Jesus embodied the grace of God. In Jesus grace became human…and we can pray, as Paul does here, that this grace will be powerfully active in the life of the church.’ Tom Wright