Grace And Gratitude

Grace and Gratitude

Romans 8:1-4, 7:21-24; Isaiah 6:1-5

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.

Isaiah 6:1-5

If you were to receive a vision of God upon His thrown what would your reaction be? The prophet Isaiah in seeing the Lord seated high and exalted upon His thrown and hearing the Seraphim call out to one another “Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty” knew beyond a doubt that he was unworthy to even be in the presence of His Creator! While our finite minds are incapable of fully understanding God who is wholly other, when we consider what has been revealed to us by His Spirit concerning God such as His sovereignty, omniscience, power, holiness, righteousness, love, mercy, and justice; like Isaiah we can’t help but see our own depravity! While we would like to say that we “have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans chose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry;” the truth is our attempts to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 4:3, 1:16) falls infinitely short of the Holiness of the One who has absolutely no darkness in Him at all (1 John 1:5-7)! Like Apostle Paul we know that “good itself does not dwell in us, that is in our sinful nature. For we have the desire to do what is good, but we cannot carry it out.” “In our inner being we delight in God’s law, but we see another law at work in us, waging war against the law of the mind and making us a prisoner of sin” (Romans 7:14-23). Since no one is righteous and all have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:9-18, 23) it can be quite frightening to approach a holy God with what Isaiah describes as “hearts that are unclean and righteous acts that are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6)! Since our meagre attempts at holiness often amount to nothing more than offering “unauthorized fire” unto God like Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-3), or a lying in His presence like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10), how could a God who is infinitely just respond to our sinful ways in any other manner than with the flames of His wrath that rightly extinguishes our very lives? Like Apostle Paul we too cry out, “what a wretched man (person) I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death (7:24)?”

Reflection: Are you afraid to come before a holy God? Have you taken the time to truly see the infinite gap between your filthy rags and His holiness? Has your desire to not stand upon cheap grace in front of an all-powerful, all-seeing holy God resulted in you going days, weeks, or even months not praying to Him? Are you frustrated because you know what is right based on God’s holy word and yet you are not able to obey His laws, especially the ones that relate to the sins you covet the most? Should one fear He who can cast both soul and body in hell so much that one cannot approach His throne that is one of grace?

No Condemnation for Those in Christ

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1)

Here Paul makes a statement in verse one that is not only the theme of Romans 8 but the entire Word of God! Having inherited a sinful nature from Adam which made it impossible to stop sinning, the best the law could do was to point out sin (3:20), aggravate sin (7:8-9), and condemn both sin and the sinner (7:11). As those who repeatedly turn their backs towards God in our unregenerate state we deserve the wages of our sin which is death (Romans 6:23). In response to his desperate cry, “who will save me from this body of death” (7:14), Paul boldly states we have entered a new era marked by the glorious truth that through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus God has made a path of “righteousness apart from the law” (3:21-22)! For those who have faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ there is no condemnation past, present, or in the future! “To be ‘in Christ’ means to live as someone freed from sin, death, self, and the law, and consequently from wrath.” Paul is not suggesting a saved person no longer sins which would contradict 1 John 1:8-10, nor is he suggesting that God does not discipline His own, which would contradict Hebrews 12:4-11, but merely that by belief in Jesus the eternal punishment earned by sinful people has been paid by Jesus on the cross (Colossians 2:14). “Isn’t it true that the reason grace means little to most of us is that we do not consider ourselves to be great sinners, desperately in need of forgiveness?” The truth is though we could never measure up to God’s holiness, we can approach His throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), peace, and joy because of the crucifixion of Christ who atoned for and paid the wages of our sin which is death!