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To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Greet all God\u2019s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. All God\u2019s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar\u2019s household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen (Philippians 4:20-23).

This letter of Philippians ends where it began. All the saints are commended to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the grace that transformed Paul from a persecutor of the church into an apostle of the gospel. In all the challenges the young church is experiencing, the grace of our Lord Jesus is enough! It is the remedy for their every need. This grace reveals all of Jesus\u2019 glories\u2014his power, his helpfulness, his riches\u2014and makes them available to his people. His grace has no limits. Not then, not now

As we close our reflections on this letter, let\u2019s consider this grace. Do we understand its depth and its breadth? The Roman world was as broken along racial, national, social, and religious divisions as ours is. Yet, Paul describes a new humanity which has come to birth, a new people transcending our human fragmentations. This new community, the church, includes members of Caesar\u2019s household along with the Christians in Philippi. He encourages them to reach across the old barriers and greet each other as saints in Christ Jesus.

And that is the key: we are all saints in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Everything hinges on him and his work on our behalf. This Jesus is Lord, echoing the Old Testament self revelation of God as the \u201cI Am\u201d (Exodus 3:14). Being in very nature God, he is the God of Israel, the one and only God. This is \u2018the name which is above every name\u2019 conferred on him because of his obedience to the point of death (2:9).

As saints in Jesus, he is both our Lord and our Saviour. In this letter, Paul sums up the gracious saving work of Christ with one word: \u2018righteousness\u2019. The grace of Jesus brings us into a right relationship with God and it declares that we are righteous in his sight; no longer stained by our sin. This is the gift which God gives (3:9). The gift is inseparable from Christ, given by his grace. We possess it only by faith in him.

This saving faith, a personal leaning upon Christ, is part of grace. It \u2018has been granted\u2019 (1:29) to us by him \u2018who began a good work\u2019 (1:6) in us. Salvation is all of God and all in Christ. Both our status before God and our ongoing relationship with him are, therefore, solely due to Christ. The grace of our Lord brought us to conversion and this same grace will usher us fully sanctified into the new creation. Then, every tongue will confess him, Lord.

In the meantime, the Spirit of Jesus Christ leads us to produce \u2018fruits of righteousness\u2019. This is the biblical doctrine of sanctification: we are to become what we are. In Christ, through his Spirit, we are given a new nature, now we must learn to live it. Again, grace leads the way.

Living the new life is demanding. Paul describes it as standing firm under attack (1:27) and pressing on in a race (3:14). It is not a feat of stoical endurance but a response of love and devotion. Paul\u2019s phrases, \u2018to me to live is Christ\u2019 (1:21); \u2018rejoice in the Lord\u2019 (3:1); boasting in Christ Jesus (3:3); knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (3:8); gaining Christ and being found in him (8-9); are all variations on this one theme. We love and adore him.

Paul\u2019s delight was to know Jesus now, daily to know him better and in the end to know him fully. One of the greatest incentives to holiness in the New Testament is that we might be ready for him when he returns. For us, as for himself, Paul wanted nothing but a daily and deepening experience of Jesus. To dig ever deeper into this grace, that, as it transformed him from persecutor to apostle, it may transform us. And so, he ends where he began: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.