Philippians 4:23 speaks of the grace which was with the spirit of the Philippian believers in their experiences of Christ when the church was under persecution. When the church was under persecution, the Philippian believers kept on experiencing Christ by the Spirit within them, and that Spirit was the grace. The grace with the spirit of the Philippian believers was the Spirit. We have the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to experience Christ and to magnify Christ, regardless of how much persecution there is toward the church.
Colossians 1:6 speaks of the Colossian believers’ hearing and knowing the grace of God in truth. When the Colossian believers heard the gospel, they knew the grace in truth. This grace is the very God distributed and dispensed to us for our possession and enjoyment.
In Colossians 3:16 Paul exhorted the believers in Colossae to sing with grace in their hearts when the word of Christ dwelt in them richly in all wisdom by their teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We are short in our experience of Christ because we do not sing that much with grace in our hearts. We do not have much experience of teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Mostly we sing only when we come together. We need to sing in our daily life. Perhaps a wife could sing to her husband, “All sufficient grace! / Never powerless! / It is Christ who lives in me, / In His exhaustlessness” (Hymns, #312). Then the husband can sing another chorus. If a husband says to his wife, “Dear, you should not give your long face to me so many times every day” the wife may say, “Then you should not come back home so late every day!” Instead of speaking in this corrupt way, the husbands and wives should sing and minister grace to each other.
Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” This lesson is a big one. You may say the same thing, but your tone and way may be different. If you say something to your wife in the wrong tone and way, you will offend her. If you say the same thing in another kind of tone and way, you will show love to your wife. This is to speak wisdom and grace. The grace here is the salt. Salt makes food agreeable and pleasant to the taste. Speech seasoned with salt keeps us at peace with one another (Mark 9:50).
First Thessalonians 5:23-28 reveals the grace that sanctifies us wholly and preserves us complete in our spirit, soul, and body. Such a sanctification is grace.
When the name of the Lord Jesus is glorified in us according to the grace, we also are glorified (2 Thes. 1:12). This should be done by God coming in to replace us. Many times our words did not glorify Christ, so His name was not glorified in us and we were not glorified. We have to say something to glorify the name of the Lord, and at the same time to glorify ourselves. This can be done only by the grace, which is God coming in to replace us.
Second Thessalonians 2:16 and 17 say, “Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope in grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.” By reading the apostles’ writings, especially Paul’s writings, we can see that a proper God-man lives in everything by God Himself coming in to replace him. We must do everything by grace, and grace is God coming in to replace us. If your wife asks you, “Dear, why did you come home so late?” do not answer right away. You have to look to the Lord by praying, “Lord, You give me the word for my wife.” Paul’s word in 2 Thessalonians 2:16 and 17 means that we have to live, to have our being, all the time by grace, by letting God come in to replace us.