Philippians 4:23

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

There are a lot of nouns in this verse that end this glorious book.

Grace

The message of the grace of God - the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ - is the gospel. 

• It is the difference that His coming, death, resurrection, and ascension make in our relationship with God. 
• It is the reality that He created as He hung on the cross as He bled to death, racked in pain, pierced in many places, including with thorns on His head and nail holes in His feet and hands. 
• It is what He meant when He said that He would be lifted up just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, "so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15)." 
• It is the call of repentance because the judgment of sin, which is death, was poured on Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). 
• It is God pressing reset in His relationship with humanity after man was chased out of the garden in Genesis. 
• It is the opening of a new chapter. 
• It is the outpouring of grace to us as the blood of Jesus was poured out. 
• It is the beginning of a new day.

Lord

The second noun is the word "Lord." That means master, the one we owe our allegiance to, the one we obey, the one we follow, the one we love and live for. 

But this is a different kind of Lord. This is Lord in the ultimate sense because He has the ultimate authority to command our obedience. And He did, telling the apostles to go into all the world and present His message of the gospel to all (Mark 16:15) and teaching them to obey all He taught (Matthew 28:19-20). Other lords have jurisdiction in limited spheres, but Christ's rule is in all spheres, since He created all things and all things are for Him (Colossians 1:16). 

Jesus

This is the unique name of God incarnate. If you are going to write the story, you may have God come down in a throne, but God reveals who He is by coming as a baby. He does not need any strapping to be God. He does not need to compete with the kings of the earth. 

Jesus said He came not to judge the world, but so that the world would be saved through Him (John 3:17). He came as the representative lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). 

He came to be torn to pieces and become the rag that would clean up the mess of sin in His body (1 Peter 2:24). He rose up on the third day and bequeathed His righteousness on us - on those who believe (1 Corinthians 5:21). 

The religions of this world say, "Try harder to achieve righteousness, climb this ladder, and consistently practice these tenets." But Christianity gives you the prize before the race. 

Now you can run the race with joy knowing that you already won (1 John 5:4), because of Christ who has gone before you and won the prize on your behalf: Connection with God. 

Christ

In the word "Christ" is the hope of the Jews. After centuries of humiliation under different world powers that have repeatedly crushed them, they held on to the hope of a Messiah (Hebrew form of which the Greek is Christ). 

And that hope is reflected in the question Jesus was asked after He rose from the dead: whether it was time for him to restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6-8). 

Jesus said not so fast. 

Later, the author of Hebrews would say that God wants to bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10) (not just one or a few sitting on thrones). 

And those sons would come from many nations. So the Messiah, the Christ, is not just for the Jews alone, and the kingdom is not for Israel alone. 

• Peter would later write that we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).
• And John, in the book of Revelation, wrote that God has made us priests and kings to our God (Revelation 5:10).
• Paul wrote that the nation would bow to Him (Philippians 2:10-11). 

Spirit

Why your spirit? I believe this is the new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17) at this time. 

Without Jesus coming, people had bodies and could think and plan, meaning they had souls. 

But when the Bible talks about a new creature , what changed? What is the new creature?

What is different about us?

We have a new spirit. We are alive to God who is Spirit (John 4:24). It is in our spirit that you are seated in the heavenly places with Jesus right now (Ephesians 2:6), even though we are on earth, and you are reading these words. 

Jesus said, "He that is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6)," right? That is what it means to be born again (John 3:16). A birth refers to something that never existed before. 

We are born from above (John 3:3), born of the will of the Father who is Spirit (John 1:13). 

The Bible is clear that the first Adam, the one we partake of by natural descent (1 Corinthians 15:45), was a living Soul, but the second Adam, Jesus, is a life-giving Spirit. 

And we are joined with Christ spiritually. That makes us members of His body (1 Corinthians 12:27). 

See you in Ephesians.

God Bless You!