But For The Grace Of God Part 2 Series

But For The Grace of God Part 2

Scripture: Romans 3:21-24; Ephesians 2:8-9; Hebrews 4:16

Last week I introduced the notion that there was some confusion pertaining to how the Church understands and speaks about the grace of God. I believe, unintentionally, in our expressions of being grateful, we sometimes display a belief that God is bias in that He sometimes gives more grace to some than He does to others. I am basing this limited assessment on how we say things like, “I was spared by the grace of God….” when someone else experiences the same situation with a different outcome. There is a song that I have heard where the writer talks about booking an airplane for a business trip and the plane was given to another person and he was upset. The plane crashed killing all aboard and he wrote a song talking about how it was God’s grace that he wasn’t able to rent that plane and be on that flight. The message received is that those who died on the flight did not receive God’s grace and this is why I am focusing on grace in this manner. Last week I focused on grace as it relates to justification, salvation and sin. This morning, in part two of this series “But For The Grace of God” I will be focusing on how grace impacts righteousness and more importantly, our faith. Let’s begin with righteousness.

Grace and Righteousness: Righteousness is defined scripturally as, “holy and upright living in accordance with God’s standard.” It comes from the root word that means “straightness.” It refers to a state that conforms to a morally upright and authoritative standard. While righteousness is a moral concept, God’s character, who He is, is the definition and source of all righteousness. Therefore, the righteousness of man is defined in the terms of God’s righteousness because without God, righteousness would not exist. We cannot be righteous in the sight of God on our own merits and therefore we must have God’s righteousness imputed, or transferred, to us. The cross of Jesus is a public demonstration of God’s righteousness. God transfers, if you will, the righteousness of Christ to those who trust in Him. This is demonstrated in Roman 4:5 where Paul wrote, “But to him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” We do not become righteous because of our inherent goodness; God sees us as righteous because of our identification by faith with His Son. Each person who has accepted Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior – God has made righteous. We don’t have to earn it. When we are born again, it is who we become! New Light, this was an issue for the Jews who practiced Judaism and adamantly refused to believe in Christ!

The proclamation and whole idea that people are justified by grace aroused the religious wrath of Judaism. To actually declare that God justified sinners seemed to make God a party to unrighteousness because the sinful, unrighteousness people did nothing to deserve or merit God’s grace. What the religious leaders failed to understand was that they were also sinners. But because they had the Law, they believed that “only” someone who was not a Jew was a sinner. The Jewish leaders rejected the teachings of Jesus and the fact that the He would fulfill all the requirements of the law. In Romans 3:21-24, Paul writes, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” The religious leaders believed that righteousness under the Law was no different than righteousness under grace. But Paul says that everything in the law and prophets pointed to a time when the true righteousness of God would be seen and manifested in only one way – when a person receives, by grace, salvation through the redeeming work of Jesus, the one and only Messiah.

The Jews refused to accept the fact that people could be justified and made righteous without the Law. And this belief still holds true today. Even though the prophets of old all testified of the great redemption in Christ that would justify men apart from the Law and the prophets, they could not accept this as being fulfilled in Christ. Now here is something to consider: a person must know and confess that they are a sinner before they can be saved. If a person does not know or are willing to accept that their sinful nature separates them from God, then they have no reason or motivation to accept Christ and be saved. The Jews believed that they were not sinners because of the Law and some would not budge from this belief. The same can be said about some Christians today. There are many who do not believe that their lifestyle, while sinful, really matters because there is nothing after this life. It makes me think about what Paul said to the believers in Corinth, who had been taught there is no resurrection of the dead and that Christ had not been raised. “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins. Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:16-19) Then there are those who are on the other end of the spectrum who believe grace makes them righteous so they can live however they choose. Both ends of these spectrums are terribly wrong. We are made righteous through the grace of God but after that happens we are supposed to start living that righteous life! I want to close this part of the message with what Paul said regarding this. Let’s look at the first two verses of Romans 6. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer in it?” What Paul is saying New Light is that we have a choice when it comes to whether or not we sin. Now, let’s look now at how grace impacts our faith.