In his letter to Timothy, Paul opens with three words rich in meaning and with divine intent: grace, mercy, and peace. These are spiritual realities that reveal God’s heart for mankind and the framework by which He restores us. Grace meets the sinner; mercy meets the sufferer; peace is the result of a life brought into divine order. In this study, we will look closely at this divine order through Scripture, tracing how God’s gift of grace awakens us to truth, how His mercy moves with compassion, and how His peace establishes harmony between God, ourselves, and others.
Scripture Focus — 2 Timothy 1:2–8
“To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” — 2 Timothy 1:2 (KJV)
The Divine Order: Grace → Mercy → Peace
Grace describes God’s attitude toward the lawbreaker and the rebel, while mercy expresses His heart toward those in distress. In God’s plan of salvation, grace must come first—because only the forgiven can be truly blessed. Wherever mercy and peace appear together in Scripture, mercy always precedes peace. Mercy is God’s work in action; peace is the condition produced in the human heart once mercy has done its work.
This order reflects not only how God deals with us, but also what He intends to reproduce in us. Through the Holy Spirit, we do not simply receive grace, mercy, and peace—we become channels of them. The gifts God pours into us are meant to flow from us into the world around us.
Jesus confirmed this purpose when He said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The grace we receive becomes grace we extend. The mercy God shows us becomes compassion toward others. And the peace established in our hearts becomes a witness that reconciliation with God leads to reconciliation with people.
Grace: God’s Gift to the Guilty
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:11, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness.” These virtues formed the backbone of Christ’s life as He faced every kind of opposition. His strength and confidence came from His complete attachment to the Father—and the same must be true for us. Our connection to the Father is only possible through the Son, for Jesus said, “No man comes to the Father but by Me.”
The very qualities Christ demonstrated in the world are now given to believers as gifts through the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit, we receive not only the call to imitate Christ but the power to do so. The Holy Spirit is our only avenue to the Father, for He is the One who forms Christ’s life and character within us. To reject the Holy Spirit is to cut off the very means by which we experience God’s presence and communicate with Him.
Grace pardons and it transforms. What Christ was in the world, He now desires to be in us.
Grace Before and After Christ
Before Christ came, all people stood guilty under the law. The soul that sinned was condemned to die, and anyone who shed blood was required to give his own in return. Justice operated on the principle of “a life for a life, an eye for an eye.” But when Christ came, He came not to reinforce condemnation, but to awaken the spirit, soul, and mind of mankind to God’s perfect will: that we would love God, love our neighbor, and even love ourselves rightly.
As a society, we are responsible to watch over one another, but as God’s children, we are called to teach righteousness and truth, guiding every soul into the way that leads to life and peace. This is grace at work.
Grace Received Through Christ
Once we embrace this life in Christ, we inherit grace. Paul declares in 1 Timothy 2:3–6 that it is God’s desire that “all men be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth,” for there is only one God and one mediator, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.
Romans 8:34 reminds us that Christ not only died but rose again and now intercedes for us at the right hand of God. Because of Him, we are no longer slaves but sons—offspring of God—and with that identity comes the assurance of forgiveness.
This is grace.
Mercy: God’s Compassion in Action
Mercy is God’s compassionate response to human need. Jesus declared His mission in Luke 4:18–19:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Where grace pardons the guilty, mercy moves toward the hurting. The attributes of mercy are reflected in the fruit of the Spirit:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22-23
David also testified,
“The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy… His tender mercies are over all his works.” — Psalm 145:8–9
Mercy kindles compassion. It does not simply feel — it acts. When God sees a need, He moves to meet it, and He calls us to do the same. As John reminds us:
“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” — 1 John 3:18–19
Mercy is love in motion.
Compassion is mercy expressed.
Generous mercy is the heart of God revealed through the hands of His people.
Peace: The Results of Reconciliation
When grace is received and mercy is expressed, the result is peace. Peace is the absence of conflict and the presence of divine order. It is the harmonious relationship between our soul and God, and between ourselves and others. Peace brings rest, contentment, and stability to the heart because everything has been brought back into proper alignment.
Order requires respect for God’s authority, and peace cannot exist without it. When reconciliation takes place, peace follows. Paul writes:
“And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:18–19
Reconciliation is something God does for us. It is also something He entrusts to us. We are called to be ambassadors of peace, living proof that healing, forgiveness, and restored relationships are possible through Christ.
There is no grace, mercy, or peace in our spirit, soul, or mind until our lives are brought into order and we are reconciled to God and to our neighbors. Peace is the final evidence that the work of grace and mercy has taken hold.
There is no Grace, Mercy, or Peace in our Spirit, Soul, or Mind until there is order in our life and we have reconciled all things with God and our neighbors. God Bless. Where grace begins and mercy moves, peace remains. God bless.
Your friend in Christ,
Rodney Roberts
One Small Seed Newsletter – Edition #289, May 2025