Publisher's Synopsis
Grace and peace are in the salutation of all the letters written by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Grace and peace summarize the Christian life. Grace delivers us from a life of sin and death and trains us to live a new life of peace-shalom. Dark waters on the cover of GRACE & SHALOM represent the deep referred to in Genesis 1:2. "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." It was amid the deep that God created the heaven and earth separating the waters above the heaven from the water under the earth (Genesis 1:6-8). The Bible begins with creation out of darkness upon the face of the deep in Genesis 1:1 and ends with a new heaven and earth and no more sea in Revelation 21:1. From Genesis to Revelation, there is a continual battle of darkness trying to put out the light. And from Genesis through Revelation, we read about the Holy Spirit giving grace and shalom to save people from darkness. GRACE & SHALOM expounds upon grace and shalom available to those who answer God's call to come out of darkness into the marvelous light of Jesus Christ. And it is through grace and shalom that they are trained to walk in the light until they are in the new Jerusalem where the Lamb is the light and there is no more darkness (Revelation 21:23). Romans 5:1-5 is an outline of the Christian life from the time we come out of darkness until we are living on the new earth where there is no more darkness. It is also the outline of GRACE & SHALOM. Justification (vs. 1) begins when we accept God's grace, Jesus Christ, (John 3:16) by faith. Justification is completed when we are delivered by grace out of darkness into the light of the world, Jesus Christ (John 8:12). Peace (shalom) with God (vs. 1) is fellowship with Jesus Christ the light of the world. Rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God (vs.2) is living the first fruits of the light of the coming kingdom of God, righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Not only do those who have peace with God rejoice in the hope of the glory of God but also in tribulation (vs.3). Rejoicing in tribulation is living a life of light in darkness empowered by the love of God poured into the heart of those who are justified by faith in Jesus Christ (vs. 5). Romans 5:1-5 explains the transformation of those who receive God's love in John 3:16 to save them out of the world and being given the same love of God (Romans 5:5) to love the same world they came out of as God loves it. Jesus called the transformation "born again" (John 3:3, 5) and "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14).In the Book of Acts, we read about the many attempts of darkness trying to overcome the Apostle Paul. God's grace and shalom were enough for him (2 Corinthians 12:9), and he wrote. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35, 37-39 NKJV).
