Galatians 1:3 :

Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,

Grace simply means “favor.” Here, it is a word used to describe how God favors us, and that because he favored us we have peace with God. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, our punishment was paid for. Before this was done, we were not at peace with God. There was a division between us.

God is a just God, and because of this, He does not allow any sin to go unpunished. In the Bible, forgiveness doesn’t mean to “allow to go unpunished.” With God, no sin goes unpunished. Actually, the punishment for sin is death and Jesus took that punishment for the sins of the world (past, present and future; and yes it includes horrible sins like murder, sexual sins, etc.)

God’s kind of favor is the kind that we definitely don’t deserve. We are sinners and He chose to pay for our sins at a significant cost to Himself rather than destroy us. Our peace, on the other hand, comes from an act of justice. The death of Jesus was the legal payment for our sin. We are rightfully free of our sin when we believe in the fact that Jesus paid for it. That is how we are “Saved.” Now God has made Jesus “Lord” over everything. God was very pleased with Jesus. He did exactly what He was supposed to do. As believers, we also recognize that Jesus is “Lord,” because by Him we are saved.

Because of what Jesus has done, God is now our Father. This is mentioned many times in the book of John too. It is sometimes hard to believe that we are that important, but the Bible makes it very clear that we are, and that God really is our Father. We are forgiven, and at peace with God now. We are greatly loved, and we have His favor.