Among the eight writers who participated in the unveiling of the divine revelation in the New Testament concerning the grace of God, three are particular, that is, John, Paul, and Peter.
In the unveiling of God the Father being life in the Son as the Spirit to the believers, John begins his writings with the grace which came with Christ in His incarnation (John 1:14-17) and ends with the grace as the consummation not only of his writings but also of the entire Scriptures. Revelation 22:21 is the last verse of the last chapter of the last book of the entire Bible. This verse says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” Thus, John’s writings begin with grace and end with grace.
This indicates that in the accomplishment of His eternal economy, God commences it in His incarnation by coming to be a man as the grace to the believers. God came in the way of incarnation to us as grace. Hence, grace is the Triune God in His incarnation to be dispensed to the believers by the Father as the source, by the Son as the element, and by the Spirit as the application (2 Cor. 13:14). The source of grace, the element of grace, and the application of grace are of the three Persons of the Divine Trinity to be our everything.
So, in this dispensing of God, the grace is called the grace of God (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:12; 8:1; 9:14), the grace of Christ (2 Cor. 8:9; 12:9; 13:14), and the grace of which the Spirit is (Heb. 10:29). In the New Testament, phrases such as the grace of God, the love of God, or the light of God may be considered as appositional. In other words, the love of God means that the love is God. The light of God means that the light is God. The grace of God indicates that the grace is God and God is grace. Thus, grace is the Triune God by the Father as the source, by the Son as the element, and by the Spirit as the application.
We have to study all these new expressions. We need to consider why the Father is the source, the Son is the element, and the Spirit is the application. The source is the very origin of grace, the element is the grace itself, and the application is the element applied to us. These are terms we have to study and remember. Then when we visit people, we can share this with them. The very Triune God is grace to us by the Father as the source, by the Son as the element, and by the Spirit as the application. Now this grace becomes ours. Eventually, it becomes us. This grace makes us God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
In his first Epistle Peter spoke concerning the grace of God in five aspects.
Peter spoke of the grace that multiplies in the believers’ daily life in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus their Lord (1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Pet. 1:2). In the full knowledge of God and the Lord, the onefold grace multiplies again and again. When a believer becomes mature in the divine life, he will enjoy a multiplication manyfold. Grace is unlimited just as God is unlimited. When we were regenerated, we received God into us, but we had only a small amount of God. Gradually, as God increases within us through the years, we will be weighty with the measure of God. This is because God as grace has been increased in us.
Peter also spoke of the grace of life that is the inheritance of all the believers, whether strong or weak (1 Pet. 3:7). Peter teaches the believing brothers to love and to sympathize with their wives because the wives as the weaker vessels are fellow heirs of the grace of life. The wives are weaker than the husbands, but both of them inherit the grace of life. This life is the Triune God Himself as our life, living in us to be our inheritance.
First Peter 4:10 speaks of the varied grace of God that indicates the riches of the grace of God in its varieties ministered by the saints to one another. You minister to me one variety of grace, and I minister to you another variety.
Peter spoke of the all grace by which God, who has called the believers into His eternal glory, perfects, establishes, strengthens, and grounds them through their sufferings (1 Pet. 5:10). The all grace is the perfecting grace, establishing grace, strengthening grace, and grounding grace. God perfects, establishes, strengthens, and grounds us by grace through the channel of sufferings. Because of my weakness, nearly every day is a suffering day for me. But God has perfected, established, strengthened, and grounded me through sufferings.
Some kinds of so-called grace are untrue; they are false. In 1 Peter 5:12 there is the true grace of God that is the all grace of God in verse 10, into which the believers should enter and in which they should stand.