Grace (to you-all) KAI Peace

To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 

τοῖς ἐν Κολοσσαῖς ἁγίοις καὶ πιστοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ, 
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν.

Col 1:2 (ESV and NA27, where such “you” is in the plural)

As highlighted above, χάρις is the Koine word Charis from which we also get “Charity” in the sense of expressed love, commonly translated as Grace. And Peace is the translation of the Koine εἰρήνη (Iray-nayn, from which we get the female name “Irene”). Then in this phrase in addition to our familiar “kai” there is the pronoun ὑμῖν (hue-min) which references the plural form of “you” (as you’al).

KAI Exemplar Used to Hinge Two Key Words

The above shown phrase from Col 1:2–“Grace to you kai Peace“–is the predominant greeting to Believer-Saints in the NT. The exact same phrase in the Koine occurs in 12 additional verses, thus it is given to us in 13 Books of the NT:

• Rom 1:7
• 1 Cor 1:3
• 2 Cor 1:2
• Gal 1:3
• Eph 1:2
• Phil 1:2
• 1 Thes 1:1
• 2 Thes 1:2
• Phile 3
• 1 Pet 1:2
• 2 Pet 1:2
• Rev 1:4

These many occurrences are significant because of their repeated usage but also because they express two of the most-important realities of the NT and the Christian life, Grace and Peace. Such references are distinctive of the NT, and is the default address toward a Christian. (And, so, it would in our day a most-appropriate greeting to a Christian brother / sister).

For these (and other) reasons it is well worth the effort to dig into such simple four-word phrase. Let us not just pass them by without stopping to think, absorb, and experience the wonder of it.

Is “kai” Merely ‘Hingeing’ Two Words?

As discussed elsewhere, the default translation of “kai” is “and” as above in the ESV and likely in every other English translation. And the default experience of reading / hearing “and” is that it conveys a simple “plus,” as with ham and eggs, peanut butter and jelly.

The unfolding premise of this website is that every “kai” deserves a pause to consider whether it indeed is weighted with a deeper meaning. So, in these 13 occurrences, is “kai” only conveying that there are two things (ideas, the nouns of grace and peace) expressed as a both, a simple independent pairing?

Here in this site, our first leaning is to consider “kai” as designating “unto,” “herein,” namely a flowing toward from the first word (or word string), A, toward the next (final) word, B. Such flowing toward is not of cause / effect, for which there is a clear, exact Koine alternative expression. Rather it gives us the idea that B emerges (flows) from A.

So, let us ask, what is the standing of our B (Peace) with respect to A (Grace)?

As is often the case, it is helpful to think back to Gen Ch 3. How serious was the Fall? Was it not the judgement of death, literally dying unto death? And was it not immediately demarcated by expulsion from the Garden out from the immediate presence of God, and further guarded against any attempt to re-enter it by God’s appointed and armed defenders?

What then? Was there any possible resolution, restoration to Gen Ch 2? If so, by what means?

Adam, The First Adam, as Redeemer?

Upon Eve’s deception and Fall, Adam was presented with the very forbidden fruit of her ruin by Eve and then: “she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Gen 3:6, ESV, where in the LXX the Koine has it that after Eve had eaten both Adam and Eve then ate of the fruit together, as the final “ate” of Gen 3:6 is in the plural).

We know that Eve was deceived but Adam was not: ” ¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve; ¹⁴ and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” (1 Tim 2:13-14, ESV). As will considered more deeply in a separate writing Adam had before him the ultimate choice of opposites: not eat what God had forbade and remain in his state of sinlessness, or partake with Eve and join her in the fallen state of death.

What could be more dramatic than this? Further as we know from the full unfolding of the Scriptures, Adam (with Eve) was the father of us all, spreading the judgment of death to each one of us. He was our father, and from his being we have been given our individual being, and we bear the dying unto death consequences, every one of us.

What could have spawned Adam to make such a consequentially horrific choice? Was it his overwhelming passion toward Eve? His fear of being alone, as he had been before God’s provision of Eve? Was it the loss of a part of himself (which part God used in some transformative way to create Eve)? “²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” (Gen 2:21-22, ESV; “rib” is the common translation, and an unfortunate choice, but it requires an explanation beyond our present context)

If we focus on the moment preceding Adam’s choice to eat, prior to his departure from his moral standing to be in the presence of God, what would his motivating impulse have been–would it not?–have been seeking to make something good our what had become something deadly bad right before him, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh? Does it then seem most-reasonable that Adam would have submitted himself to join in Eve’s judgment to be with her as her with the intended aspiration to be–if at all possible–to become both her and his own, rescuer / restorer.

Did he think it was possible? Was it just a bare hope? Did he not fully grasp the consequences of what had occurred? Did he reason that if he could not be their restorer of this great evil, he would as a self-choosing judgment-of-justice to perish with Eve given that he had not protected her from the Serpent’s power of deception?

Adam, nor any descendent of Adam (or Eve), the Scriptures and reason show could not rescue / restore / save another fallen being, nor even save himself. Adam as mortal, and fallen, would not, could not, reverse the irreversible. Time, and the choosing that had been made, could not be reversed, not be undone. No restoration to what was could ever be would ever be humanly possible. There was no route, no work, no repentance, that could open that gate to Eden. Adam and Eve never received another word from God upon the closing of the gate based on the only record we have of the post-Exile period in Gen Ch 4 and following.

Can Time, and Its Consequences, Ever Be Reversed?

Our interest here is not of the wisdom of secular philosophers, even those ancient and wise. But there are postulates sometimes expressed that capture the essence of our deepest Spiritual mysteries. And such is the below claim of an ancient playwright:

This alone is denied to god: the power to undo the past.

Agathon (445 – 400 B.C.), Greek playwright

Agathon was immersed in a polytheistic Greek culture of mythically powerful ‘gods’ and ‘goddesses’ who intervened in human affairs. His pithy claim was to express the boundary on even the pantheon of such all powerful ‘gods,’ namely that what came into existence was irreversible.

A really deep question is whether Agathon was correct if one applies it to The One True God? What the Scriptures reveal in an astonishing revelation that God Himself–The Logos of John Ch 1–became truly human, but born without sin directly by the Spirit of God joined / acting upon an NT woman (Mary). This One, and only this One, was able to “undo the past” as to its otherwise eternal consequence by becoming the Substitute, the Second Adam:

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death [!] through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— ¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace [Charis] of God and the free gift by the grace [Charis] of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift [Charis] following many trespasses brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life [LIFE! Koine: zoe] through the one man Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life [LIFE! Koine: zoe] for all men. ¹⁹ For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death, grace [Charis] also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life [LIFE! Koine: zoe] through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 5:12-21 (ESV; highlights mine)

We cannot delay here though the above passage from Romans deserves a book of exposition itself. Our essential point is that neither Adam nor any human successor was capable of the restoration of life. It required the Unique One as our Substitute. And such occurred not because of the dealmaking or merit of the recipients but of Grace and Grace Alone. Such Great Gift was, is, and will always be “free” to us, but at unimaginable cost to God Himself. Agathon’s claim has been overturned in the most material and marvelous way, that of God’s Work of Grace.

Grace Hence Peace

The keyword Peace designates our great longing even in family, community, and social contexts, but especially, predominantly, with respect to our Creator God. Peace is the undoing of the sentence of death under which we have each been humanly conceived and individually affirmed by our self-will. Peace is again being in the Garden of God’s favor and presence, though not yet fully so. There is the old man and its nature that must yet experience the death we earned from Adam and ourselves. The Peace is the unearned by great reality of our present state, and it flowed from Grace.

Grace was initiated by God Himself. It was acted out by Him in Christ. And it was transacted between The Son and the Father on the Great Exchange of Judgment at the Crucifixion. Thus Grace was fully realized as had been long hoped for and promised in the OT. Among the boundless consequences flowing from such Grace is the present Peace we have with God, which reminder God used multiple authors to repeat over and over again for us to fully embrace the simple five-word phrase: Grace to you kai Peace.

So, “grace plus peace” is not wrong, as both are true and a present reality. But the “plus” obscures a deeper reality, namely and finally, that Grace flowed to the establishment of Peace, final, permanent, and irreversible.

When Jesus risen from Death appeared to the Apostles gathered in terror and hiding, He appeared before them, the very embodiment of Grace, and spoke directly: “And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace [Koine be unto you.” (John 20:26, KJV). Hence we have the very foundational moment of our keyword phrase: “Grace to you kai Peace.“