Saving Grace Series

SAVING GRACE

In a small cemetery of a parish churchyard in Olney, England, stands a granite tombstone with this inscription: “John Newton, pastor. Once an infidel and libertine. A servant of slavers in Africa. Now by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.” You may not remember his name, but all of us know the song he wrote as a testimony of his life: “Amazing Grace.”

Today, we're beginning a new series called Amazing Grace. Over the next 4 weeks we are going to be looking at different aspects of what grace means. The grace of God is like a diamond, as you turn it and look at it from different perspectives you see it shine in new ways. Today we want to start off with the most basic, which is saving grace. In Jesus we are offered the gift of eternal life.

Psalms 145:8-9 The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. 9 The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

God is compassionate. He is a God of grace. Complete these common phrases for me:

If it sounds too good to be true... it is.

We make money the old fashion way, we ... earn it.

There's no such thing as a free ... lunch.

There is no gain without ... pain.

God helps those who ... help themselves.

Everything around us teaches us that you get what you earn in life, that there is no free lunch, that you make your bed and then you lay in it. Life means competition, and that means working hard. We value effort and sweat. This is called the American work ethic. The only problem with it is that it makes it difficult many times for us to relate to God because we're in this driven work mentality.

We are saved by the grace of God. I am not going to be saying anything you probably do not already know this morning, but these truths are foundational. Today I want us to look at five aspects of Saving Grace. How is it you know for sure you're going to heaven when you die? I built this around an acrostic - G.R.A.C.E.

1. God’s Gift

If you were to ask fifty random people in the mall across the street "How do you get to heaven?" you would get a lot of different answers. Basically most would say that you must earn your way to heaven. You would hear things like, "The way you get to heaven is you try to be good and do your best" or "Work real hard at being good and just try to be a good, moral person" or "Do more good things in life than you do bad things in life.” If we just do that, God will see our effort and let us in.

Romans 3:23-24 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

You need to understand that God says here that salvation is absolutely free. You don't work for a gift. In fact, the moment you try earning it then it ceases to be a gift. God says salvation is absolutely free. You can't earn it, you can't learn it, you can't buy it, you can't work for it.

This is the fundamental difference between Christianity and every other religion. Every other faith or belief system on earth including Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam teaches that salvation is something that you do or earn. Christianity is different. The religions of the world teach DO, but the central message of Christianity is DONE. It's already been done for you. It was done on the cross by Jesus Christ. He paid for your salvation. He paid for your sins. It's already been done.

A young fellow came forward in a Gospel meeting, earnestly asking, "What must I do to be saved?" The Christian worker responded to the anxious inquirer, "You're too late!" "Oh, don't say that," exclaimed the distressed seeker, "I really want salvation; I'd do anything or go anywhere to obtain it." "I'm sorry," replied the other, "you're too late for that. Your salvation was completed many hundreds of years ago at Calvary. It's a finished work! All you have to do is simply receive Christ."

There isn't anything you can do to save yourself. You just accept God's free gift of grace. I'm not getting to heaven based on what I do. I'm getting to heaven based on what has already been done for me by Jesus Christ. That's the greatest gift you're ever going to be offered. If you really understand grace, you will accept it because it is a priceless gift in your life. Grace is a gift. God's gift to me…