Grace: The Great Escape Series

Will playing basketball on Saturday keep you out of heaven? You’d better hope not! As absurd as that sounds, there is also plenty of Christian legalism around us. The clearest example would be those groups who call themselves Christians but demand you must worship on Saturday, and refrain from eating things like pork, shrimp, and catfish. But there are more subtle examples of Christian legalism. Through the years I’ve met well-meaning Christians who believed that going to a movie, playing cards, or dancing would cause you to be spiritually demoted to some lesser status in God’s eyes. I’ve met people who said you must dress in a coat and tie to truly worship God. I’ve heard preachers say if a man has long hair, or if a woman wears pants or shorts, that God isn’t happy. I’ve said before that a legalist is someone whose list of “Thou Shalt Not’s” is longer than Gods. If you think that there is something you can DO today to make God love your more or to make him love you less, then you may be trapped in the prison of legalism.

B. Your only escape from the prison of sin is through God’s grace, activated by faith!

Paul wrote, “Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” (Galatians 3:25) Remember our school crossing guards? When you get to college you don’t need those school crossing guards any more. When you come to faith in Jesus, you no longer need the supervision of the law. Of course, you want to obey God out of love, but you are no longer in subjection to the prison guard called “Old Testament Law.”

I’ve answered three questions about this passage, so now I have a couple of questions for you.

1. Was Abraham saved? In other words, will Abraham be in heaven? Raise your hand if you think, “Yes.” Here’s the second question: 2. HOW was Abraham saved? Remember he lived during the Old Testament days; so how many of you think he was saved by keeping the law? Oh, right, the law wasn’t even given until 430 years later. Oops.

Listen carefully: Abraham, Moses, David, Ruth, and Deborah were saved the same way we’re saved—by God’s grace through faith. God graciously gave them the promise of a coming Messiah, and they believed God. They didn’t know His name would be Jesus, but we do. If just believing God’s promise looking forward to Jesus could save Abraham, how can you refuse to place your faith in Jesus, who has already come?

My definition of God’s grace is: God giving me what I need instead of what I deserve. I deserve death and hell, but instead, God has given me what I need most, forgiveness and acceptance. Faith is not just believing facts about Jesus, it is trusting Jesus with your life and your future.

I read about a college physics professor who was demonstrating the law of a pendulum to his class. He had a small pendulum on a string attached to the marker board in front of the class. He demonstrated that because of gravity and the resistance of air, when a pendulum swings the width of the arc decreases with every swing. It would never swing as far out as the previous swing. As the pendulum was swinging he would mark where it swung each time, so there were a series of marks getting closer and closer until equilibrium had been reached and the pendulum hung straight down.