How is God the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10)?

The "But" that opens verse 10 lifts us in the most glorious way out of the murky atmosphere of the world with its persecutions and trials and the power of Satan. We are suddenly transported in thought into the presence of "the God of all grace." Are we conscious of needing grace in an infinite variety of ways? Well, He is the God of all grace. The powers of the world and the devil may be against us, but He has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, and nothing shall frustrate His purpose. He will permit us to suffer for a little while, but even that He will overrule. He will, as it were, take up the suffering and use it as material which He weaves into the pattern and design of His own choice as regards our characters and lives; and thus make it contributory to the perfecting, the establishing, the strengthening, the settlement of our souls.

Thus, while there are the clearest tokens of identity between what Peter writes and his preachings in the Acts of the Apostles, he too teaches here, as we have already seen, much beyond what was then required or seasonable. This wondrously beautiful summary before us reflects that advance with all due meetness and forcible compression. Not the God of our fathers which glorified His servant Jesus, but "the God of all grace that called you unto his everlasting glory in Christ Jesus." It is not merely the God of the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the God of all overcoming love as manifested in Christ Jesus, superior to, not weakness and failure alone, but the hatred of the enemy seemingly successful to the uttermost in the cross, which His grace turned to be the ground of deep and righteous judgment of sin, yea, making them, the believers, now as spotless in His eyes as the Lamb, through His precious blood. Nor this only; for He called us, not to salvation of souls alone, great as this grace is, but to His everlasting glory in Christ. For it is a glory which far exceeds the earthly kingdom, with its thousand years of righteousness reigning, and Satan shut up, and creation rejoicing after its long thraldom of vanity and groan.

The God of all grace, who called saints to His everlasting glory in Christ Jesus, is the best security against all that creature can or cannot do meanwhile; and the more, because as Father He carries on a constant, watchful, and righteous government of His children all through the wilderness (1 Peter 1:13-17). But there is another needed and weighty consideration. As Jews, they might associate with the Christ immunity from suffering and promotion to high honour; but as Christians, their portion is to share His sufferings for righteousness and love and truth. No mistake more common in Christendom than looking for present reward and distinction and ease through the gospel and the church. But it is a hateful lie of Satan. The Corinthian saints slipped easily into this snare, to the apostle Paul's pain and horror (1 Cor. 4:8-14); it was still more natural for such as had been Jews. So the apostle Peter seeks throughout to impress suffering as the necessary path of the Christian, and "after having suffered a little while," as his beloved brother to the Hebrews (Heb. 10:32-39), fortified by not a few even of old (Heb. 11:35-38) but above all by His case who sums up all as our perfect exemplar (Heb. 12:2-3). It is through suffering in faith and patience that we are disciplined and bear fruit to Him who deigns thus to prune the branches of the vine.

And what more emphatic than the cheering declaration to which he that wrote put his seal, as one who had proved it so truly in his own experience that the God of all grace "Himself shall perfect, stablish, strengthen, ground." Could those addressed, could we, lose one of these mighty encouragements? Could we allow them to lack the most definite meaning, or to be heaped together as a faggot deriving its virtue from the binding together of the weak? Are they not each strong and expressive, to give without bands the utmost possible confidence in His all-sufficient love to us? It is much that He will "perfect" those who in themselves lack all, in the sense of a complete furnishing and adjustment. It is more that He will "stablish" those who need to be turned inside out, as Peter once in his self-confidence, to lean on Himself and His word by faith. It is precious that He will "strengthen" those that know themselves as weak as water spilt on the ground, and changeable as the wind. It is if possible more, that on the Rock that never moves He will "ground" those who learn deeply their nothingness, and worse still.

Great Grace, Acts 4:33. The day in which we live is rightly called the day of grace. The grace is commensurate with the power. Power without grace would be misused. The yachts that have the biggest masts and carry the heaviest weight of canvas have the deepest keels, to keep them from heeling over. The more the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested in connection with our testimony, our walk, and our service, the more we shall need a supply of that great grace from God's inexhaustible storehouse. It is "manifold" grace (1 Peter 4:10), many-sided and applicable in a multitude of ways. And the One from whom it comes is the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10). There is assuredly no lack with Him.

Amidst all the trials and sorrows of the Christian path how good it is that we have God Himself to sustain and deliver us. He is “the God of all grace” (1 Peter 5:10), and He has called us to His eternal glory. The suffering is but for a little while, but the glory is for eternity, and during the time of suffering we have the assurance of the supply of grace from the God of all grace. There is not a circumstance of life but what there is suitable grace for, and ministered by a God who knows exactly what is needed by us, and when to supply it.

Through the manifold grace supplied by the God of all grace, we are being prepared for our place in the coming glory, and He has in mind to “perfect, stablish, strengthen” and settle His own with His glory in view. We can glorify God in the present trials, and what is produced in us through grace now will be displayed in glory in the coming day.

It becomes us to be grave, and to be on our guard. There are some that go about who are arch-deceivers. But we are not alone. "The God of all grace" He knows how to make grace abound toward us. He "has called us to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus" You and I are bound to get there where His glory is. As sinners we came short of it: now we exult in hope of it. Here (ver. 10) we ought to have the word "shall," — "shall Himself make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." No wonder the apostle breaks out in a note of praise for it! There are similar words in 1 Peter 4:11.

(Vv. 10, 11). Whatever the opposition of the devil, we have “the God of all grace” to sustain us, and “eternal glory” lies before us. The devil may oppose, but grace has called us to glory by Christ Jesus, and no power of Satan can thwart the call of God. Grace will surely end in glory, though in the meantime we may have to suffer for “a while”.

And God is "the God of all grace," calling us "unto His eternal glory." The sufferings then are only brief, and not unwelcome, for the Object of that glory is "Christ Jesus." And meanwhile the sufferings accomplish the precious ends of perfecting establishing, strengthening, and settling the saints, that is, bringing permanent, valuable results. Well does He deserve "glory and dominion."

There are yet some further words with regard to the trial in which they found themselves. There was an active enemy walking about as a roaring lion, with the open mouth of persecution, as we see by the connection here, seeking to daunt the suffering soul, and thus to cast down from the steadfastness of a faith which must needs persevere through the sufferings; sufferings that are accomplished in all the Lord's people who are in the world. They had only to wait for God to fulfil all His own meaning in this trial — a God of grace who has destined His people for His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, and who may be safely trusted for all the way that leads there. With Him the suffering had its ends, while of necessity it was merely temporary. The effect would be, not what the enemy sought, but the perfecting, stablishing, strengthening, grounding of the soul. If they might seem to sink, they would soon touch the bottom, and find how firmly the Rock was underneath them. A real suffering for Christ could not fail to have this as its answer. The trial tries not the sufferer alone, but Him who has assured us that He will be "a very present help in trouble," and that all things, moreover, shall "work together for good to them that love God." The trial itself, therefore, must work this. We must not look at things as against us, lest we put into them a sting which God would not have there. "To Him," adds the apostle, belong the glory and the might, "unto the ages of ages."

Is this to put a premium upon a small and defective faith? By no means: it is rather the knowledge of the full and unalterable grace of God which will increase our faith. It is to put a premium upon the fulness of the grace of God. The God of all grace has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, and we stand in that true grace of God while we await the appearing of the glory. It is just the firm maintenance of this which will perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle us in our souls to the glory of God.

In testifying to us of the benefits that flow from the testings of our faith James is not alone. Paul tells us the same thing in even greater detail in Romans 5. No sooner has he spoken of the justification which is ours by faith, than he goes on to tell us of the excellent fruits of tribulation. He mentions not only patience, or endurance, but experience, hope, and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us. So also Peter in the last chapter of his first Epistle; telling us that the God of all grace has called us to His eternal glory after we have suffered a while, and indicating that He can use that very suffering to make us perfect, stablish, strengthen and settle us. We may feel inclined to say, "All these difficulties and this suffering has an unsettling effect on my mind." Turning to the God of all grace however, things would work in just the opposite way, and we should be settled thereby.