Odds and Ends About Grace
If you if you go to bibletalk.tv, our teaching website, and if you type in the word grace into the search feature, you will get 76 different entries where the topic of grace is mentioned. I happen to kinda do a little research. There are 20 sermons, of mine on the topic of grace, 20 of them. There are 3 complete series that are just about the topic of grace. There are dozens of mentions in other book series, devotionals, articles, all about the subject of grace.
And the reason for this, the emphasis on God's grace in my teaching is that it is not only my favorite topic, but also because next to Jesus himself, the entire experience of Christianity is wrapped around this profound idea.
I tell people, especially young preachers, if the core of your preaching is not about God's grace, then you're missing the mark. If the core of your preaching is about don't do this or don't do that or, you know, the rules about this, that's all good. That's necessary. But if the core of your preaching is not about the grace that God has shown us, then you're not emphasizing what Christianity emphasizes. In other words, the more you understand God's grace, the richer and more meaningful will your experience of Christianity become.
And so this morning, I'd like to share 4 ideas about grace that are not included in the previous 76 lessons that I've taught on the subject to show you that it's a very hard subject to exhaust. Four ideas.
1. Grace is a personal thing with God
I'll give you an example. In the book of Numbers, there's a story of the time when the Jews were complaining and murmuring against Moses and against God. God sent poisonous snakes into the camp, and many were being bitten, and they were dying because of the snake bites. They cried out for help, and Moses went to God for instructions. What do we do? We don't have an antidote to this stuff.
And so God told Moses to fashion a brass snake and put it on a pole in the middle of the camp, and he said that anyone who looked upon the snake would be healed.
This was an act of grace on God's part. How so? Well, it's an act of grace because the people were undeserving and there was nothing they could do to save themselves. There were no regulations to keep. They simply looked at the serpent and they lived. Not everyone lived, only those who looked at the serpent.
So this was an image, if you wish, a preview, a type for the grace that was to come through Jesus Christ. In that way, we are the sinners that are undeserving, and nothing we can do to save ourselves. There are no regulations or laws to keep. If we look to Christ, so to speak, we're saved. And not everyone is saved, only those who come to Christ are saved. Those are the broad parallels between the two examples.
There was, however, one essential difference between the salvation offered through the snake and the one salvation offered through Christ from God's perspective. You see, for man, there are many. The snake saved human life. Christ saves the spirit through the spirit. The snake doesn't motivate. Christ does motivate through the Holy Spirit.
Impersonal vs. Personal
So from a man's point of view, there are a lot of parallels. But from God's perspective, the one essential difference is that saving the Jews through the snake cost him nothing. It was impersonal. It was simply an exercise of his limitless power. He tells them, look at the snake, and they're saved. But the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ, it cost him something. It cost him everything. It was a very personal thing. The Son of God, a divine being himself, inhabits and suffers as a human, becomes involved in the sin and the suffering to save mankind. That's very, very personal.
In sending Christ by extending his grace, God was becoming personally involved in our salvation. For example, an anonymous gift that enables you to pay for your child's operation is a good and gracious thing. But how about someone who donates their kidney so your child will live? The difference between donating money to help pay medical bills and donating a kidney is personal and really getting involved.
This personal involvement by God in any salvation, especially my salvation, provides the motivation for me. The Jews, for example, who were saved by the brass snake, remained grumbly selves afterwards. They even made an idol out of the brass snake. But God's personal involvement in my salvation works to motivate me to be grateful, obedient, joyful, faithful, gracious myself, involved in the lives of others.
We have witnessed this grace working through many of you this week in the response to the tornado. We want to help. We want to do the thing that's right. We want to go the 2nd mile. What do you think motivates that? Not our flesh. It's not our flesh that our flesh wants to stay home warm and dry. No, it's our spirit that motivates us. And what motivates our spirit? The grace of God that we have received through Jesus Christ, that's what motivates us.
God's personal involvement is what motivates people
And so it's God's personal involvement that makes grace so valuable, that makes it so powerful, to the point that it makes us do things that we don't feel like doing. It makes us want things that we never wanted before. It makes us strive to be ways that cost us something.
2. Grace is for weakness
But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
- Matthew 9:13
This is a short point, but it's an important one. Jesus came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Our western society is based on a personal success credo. The more successful you are, the better person you must be. That's what people think. That's what we strive for. That's what we're told to do. This kind of thinking creeps into the church where we begin to judge the rich and the well-dressed brethren somehow as being spiritually superior, or we relate our financial or social achievements to our spiritual stature with God. The idea that God is pleased when I win. God loves winners.
But Jesus invited all those with infirmities and burdens to come to Him. Not the winners, that was never mentioned. Paul said, most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (II Corinthians 12:9).
The church is not a hotel for saints, it's a hospital for sinners.
That's what we are. This is a hospital place for sinners, for the weak, for the infirmed, for the ones that don't get it right every single time. The law demands all of man's strength to accomplish the impossible. The gospel reaches man at his weakness to accept God's strength.
Remember, when you are weak, defeated, and helpless, go to God's grace, not to the law. Grace comforts the weak.
3. Law and Gospel
We need to make sure that we don't preach law instead of good news. We need to understand the difference between these two important things.
A. They contradict each other
The law is perfect. It is not destroyed or replaced by grace. I hear people say that sometimes. Well, in the Old Testament, everything was law. But now in the New Testament, everything is grace. That's not quite accurate. The law is perfect. It's a divine thing, and it must do its work. It condemns men of sin so that grace can flourish, that grace can appeal to mankind.
However, there's no room for grace in law and no room for law in grace. You don't get a second chance in law. You sin, what happens? You die. And there is no room for human works that can replace the grace of God.
B. Grace does not reject law
Grace does not condemn or show that the law system is wrong, and now a better system continues to do its work in the world of sinners. We, who have believed in Christ, are no longer subject to its condemnation and judgment. So many Christians think that they're subject to the law. If that were the case, where's the joy of the gospel? The law continues to exist, but Christ has removed us from its circle of authority and has placed us in a new circle, and that is the circle of grace where the rules are different.
For example, if you sin, you ask, and you receive forgiveness. In the law, it says if you sin, the result is death. Do you see the difference? If you're in the circle of grace, you sin, ask for forgiveness, receive forgiveness, and continue to live in the circle of grace.
You cannot appreciate grace unless you understand the law. The law is what makes the good news in the gospel the good news. The good news of the gospel is that there isn't only law. There's grace for those who fail, for those who can't make it, for those who realize that they can't be perfect no matter how hard they try.
And then another idea in this law gospel dichotomy:
3. Always grace
The law condemned forever. Grace saves forever. However, forever is a one day at a time proposition for now. Some think that you need grace to be saved, and then you go back to the law for living every day.
Once you are out from under the law, you're under grace, and you remain there each day forever. Each day you live by grace, you grow, and you're motivated and matured by grace. You serve and worship by grace. You remain saved despite your daily weakness by a daily presence of God's grace in your life. Some become tired or worried that they're having to go too often to God for forgiveness or help with a certain sin.
I've heard that so many times in my ministry. People say something like, "I'm too far gone." A lot of times they won't receive baptism because they think, "I'm too far gone. God wouldn't forgive me. I've sinned on purpose. Like I knew it was wrong and I knew I shouldn't do it but I went ahead and did it anyways. How could God forgive a thing like that? I'm too far gone." No. That's the devil. That's the devil talking to you.
Some people believe that they have a time deadline for perfection. God is not getting impatient with you because you're not perfect yet. That impatience is coming from within yourself, not from God. Grace motivates us to live righteously, hate sin, and desire to please God. It also provides reassurance that our salvation is secure while we struggle with these issues. Without grace, I wouldn't even try. Until you die, there will never be a day when you do not need God's grace and take comfort in I John 1:7-9.
7but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- I John 1:7-9
All the time, every day, every moment until we die and we are resurrected, never again to be tempted by sin. But until then, minute by minute, God's grace cleanses us.
4. Grace and Peace
Without grace, there is no heaven for us, and without us, heaven has no meaning. Heaven is the place where, among other things, we will experience the most sought after experience, and that is the experience of peace.
Peace has been defined in many ways, an absence of concern or a sense of spiritual balance, joy and satisfaction, an experience beyond understanding, a final resting place for our souls, or an existence without reference to sin.
Peace has been described in various ways. It is mentioned 400 times in the Bible, 88 times in the New Testament. It was a common greeting among the Jews - Shalom, meaning "God be with you," expressing a rich blessing on another person. The relationship between peace and grace is significant.
A. Peace is given and not earned
People go through all kinds of motions to create peace in their lives, but don't realize that you cannot create peace. It is something that God gives you because of his grace. God gives you peace. You don't create it.
B. Peace is received through grace
Peace is one of the benefits we receive through the grace of God. I've said before that peace of mind is produced by grace. It is the experience created when one is certain of his safety because of what Jesus has done, when you're absolutely sure. Men write peace treaties or they go to peace conferences. This is the peace as the law gives, as man gives, but not the peace that Jesus gives which is lasting and true. Peace is received only through grace.
C. Peace is maintained through righteousness
Sin destroys our peace with God and our peace with ourselves. Did you ever notice that? Even if you trip into it unintentionally, you know it's wrong. You may feel tempted to give in because it seems like fun, but that's not the kind of sin I'm talking about. You're going along just fine, loving the Lord, and then you stumble into sin. Suddenly, everything feels off. You feel guilty and know you need to confess and make it right if you're a child of God.
Sin destroys peace with God.
The joy we feel when coming out of the water of baptism, for example, is the fact that through forgiveness we can be at peace with God and ourselves. The relief and encouragement we feel when, as Christians, we ask for God's forgiveness in prayer is the renewal of peace that comes with restoration, that I John 1:7-9.
We ask God for forgiveness. Sometimes it's hard to ask for forgiveness because we're proud. Because if we're gonna ask for forgiveness, we have to acknowledge that we've messed up and we hate this. Here I am again, God, with this thing that I thought I had control over. I'm sorry. I hate to even say it. I hate to even bring it up, Lord. You must be fed up of hearing me talk about this with you. But once you've spit it out, once you've got it out of your system, once you've said, despite how much I hate it, I'm asking you to forgive me yet again.
And then the peace comes. As we grow in righteous living, the ability to know sin, recognize when it's coming, and avoid it also grows. Our relationship with God is less disturbed by the ravages of sin. Heaven will be perfect peace, perfect bliss.
Why? Because there's no sin there. No more confession there. We won't be taking the Lord's supper in heaven because there will be no remembrance of sin and no necessity to remember sin in heaven. Grace offers us peace and the strength to maintain it until Jesus comes.
3 Suprises
In a book by Charles Hodge on the topic of grace, he describes 3 surprises that we will have at heaven's gate, speaking of heaven.
1. Those who won't be there
Those that look good to us on the outside, but whom God found unfaithful or hypocritical in their hearts. Remember the Bible says, you know, God doesn't judge the way we judge. We're going to be surprised, Charles Hodge says, at the ones who didn't make it.
2. Those who will be there
Rahab was a prostitute. She will be there not because of that, but because of her faith and the courage that her faith gave her. Matthew was an apostle, but what was he before an apostle? He was an outcast. His own people despised him for being a tax collector. That guy is going to heaven.
Some who didn't look very promising to us, but who accepted God's grace and depended on His grace minute by minute.
3. We will be there!
Despite doubt, our mistakes, and the skeletons in our closets that nobody knows, if we cling to God's kindness and make his grace the basis of our hope, then we will be there as well.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't explain how one guilty and condemned sinner, which we all are here. God tells us all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23.
So simple. A 2 step process.
1. Believe
In other words, decide that the claims and the proofs of Jesus as the divine son of God are true. You believe that Jesus is the divine son of God, Matthew 16:15-17.
It's the only thing we ask people when they're in the water about to be baptized. We don't ask them to tell us your worst sin because we'd like to know the worst sin before we get rid of it. Just keep record. We don't ask that. We don't ask them, can you recite the 10 commandments? Do you know the 12 Minor Prophets in order? We don't ask any of those questions. What's the only question we ask? Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Period.
How does one receive this marvelous grace?
Some people add stuff. Okay. But the only question the Bible says, do you believe that Jesus is the son of God? Yes, I believe. And based on that, we baptize the person.
2. Express your belief
And how do I express my belief? There's all kinds of contention and debate about this, but the Bible is very clear, repetitive even, about how one expresses their belief. They do so by repenting of sin and being baptized, which means being immersed in water in the name of Jesus. Through grace, God will wash away your sins and his spirit will come to live within you and will resurrect you on the last day (Acts 2:3; Romans 8:11).
If you still have not believed or if you still have not expressed your belief, then I encourage you to come not only to be immersed in water, but also to be covered once for all time in God's wonderful grace so that for the rest of your life, minute by minute, he can guarantee your salvation.
