Galatians

The salvation plan in a nutshell.

Paul is sent by God - not given the job by people.
"I was chosen to be an apostle by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, who raised him from death. No mere human chose or appointed me to this work."I too am sent by God, even if he has used humans to appoint me to a position...it is to him that I am responsible and answerable to. HE is my line manager, my boss.

Paul is inclusive: he includes all the believes with him in the letter: the implication is that they agree with him and endorse what he says as he writes to the churches in Galatia.

Before all else, he wishes grace and peace for them. he wants God's kindness and freedom from anxiety, worry and strife.
Grace: derived from pleasing; favour or goodwill: kindness, kindliness, love, benignity; condescension.
a manifestation of favour, especially by a superior: forgiveness, charity, mercifulness.
mercy; clemency; pardon: lenity, leniency, reprieve.

but for the grace of God, under less fortunatecircumstances:

But for the grace of God, the brick that just fell fromthe roof would have hit me on the head!

by the grace of God, thankfully; fortunately:

By the grace of God, I won't have to deal with tax returns for another year.


to lose favor; be discredited:
He fell from grace when the boss found out he had lied.
.
have the grace to, to be so kind as to:
Would you have the grace to help, please?
.
in someone's good /bad graces, regarded withfavor (or disfavor) by someone:
It is a wonder that I have managed to stay in her goodgraces this long.

with bad grace, reluctantly; grudgingly:
He apologized, but did so with bad grace.
Also, with a bad grace.

with good grace, willingly; ungrudgingly:
She took on the extra work with good grace.

The opposite is to fall from grace,  Theology. to relapse into sin or disfavor. Paul does NOT want this for the Galatians.

And so Paul reminds us "Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 All glory to God forever and ever!" (The Message)

To God be the glory. For ever. And ever. This day. This hour. This minute.