We’re in the series, "Be Contagious!"
Those of us who know Christ want others to know Him too! We want to be contagious with the Good News about Jesus!
One of the most contagious truths associated with the Good News about Jesus is the message of God’s grace! Grace is God’s favor. God wants to give His blessings. He wants to give His encouragement and support to us. And one of the most amazing things about God’s grace is how easy it is to relate to!
God’s grace is not only amazing it is also pretty simple to receive.
Let me show you what I mean by the following paragraph of Scripture.
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7 (NLT)
What are the simple truths about God’s grace to which we can all relate?
1. LOVE
Verse 4 – "But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much…"
Love is the starting point for any journey into the realm of God’s amazing grace. In order to receive God’s grace in your life you must begin with hearing and believing the Good News that He loves you.
But why does God love you?
In one of the simplest definitions of the nature of God in the Bible, the Word of God states,
"God is love." 1 John 4:8b
God loves you because that His nature. His personality is to love. God’s love for you is not based on you or your worthiness. It’s based on God’s character - not your character flaws! That’s why you don’t have to doubt God’s love for you. Sure you’ve messed up. We all have.
Turn to someone nearby and say, "I’ve messed up."
But God’s love for us is not based on the fact that we’ve messed up. It’s not based on our poor performance. It’s based on His personality! You need to know that to accept God’s grace.
The word "love" here is not referring to some mushy sentimentality. It denotes an affection and charitableness and commitment toward us.
Coupled with God’s mercy, His love produces a depth of compassion that we cannot even comprehend. We can only stand in awe that the Creator and Sustainer of the universe would consider each one of us individually with such great delight and fondness!
God’s love for us is so great that He gave Jesus, His only Son, to die in our place.
As Jesus Himself said, "No one can have greater love than to give his life for his friends." John 15:13 (NLV)
In 1878, Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria, had a young daughter with Diphtheria. Doctors told the princess to stay away from her daughter’s face and not to breathe her breath, because she then would contract the terminal disease herself and die.
But the day that her daughter lay dying, the girl began to choke. As Princess Alice lifted her up to help from the choking and held her in her arms, the little girl looked up, opened her eyes, and said, "mommy kiss me."
Even though she knew she would die from that act of love, she kissed her daughter as she exhaled her final breath.
Two months later, Princess Alice also died of Diphtheria.
Because of God’s amazing grace Jesus kissed you and me. He died because He loves us. The Father in Heaven sent Him because He loves us.
If you want to experience the wonderful joy of God’s grace it begins by learning about and believing in the love of God!
The second simple term associated with the grace of God is not as warm a word as LOVE. But don’t worry, the Bible has a solution, even to one of life’s toughest topics.
2. DEATH
Verse 5a – "…we are dead because of our sins…"
Be careful, the Bible isn’t saying here that we’re going to die (future tense). The Bible is saying that the person who doesn’t have Christ yet is dead right now (present tense).
That’s because the Bible is referring to spiritual death. Spiritual death is to be apart from God because God is the source of all life.
What is sin and why I am dead in my tracks if I don’t accept God’s grace?
Sin is when we deviate from integrity and truth. We may be good moral people, our overall lifestyle may be that of a good person, but even still, we have all, at various times and in various ways, deviated from integrity and truth, intentionally and unintentionally. We’ve all thought, said and done things that weren’t right. And we’ve all failed to do things that we knew were right – which is also sin.
The Bible says, "Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard." Romans 3:23 (NLT)
And it also says, "The wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23
Since all of us have sinned, without God’s grace applied to our lives, we are all dead without Christ.
But the Bible hastens to communicate the Good News to us to countermand the effects of sin and death with the third simple term about grace.
3. LIFE
Verse 5 – "…even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!")
Historical faith says: "Christ lives!"
Saving faith says: "Christ lives in me!"
Christ indeed lives but He must live in you in order for His life to become yours.
Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life." John 5:24 (NLT)
That has to be one of the most encouraging promises ever given! I will never be condemned for my sins if I believe in Christ! I have eternal life by accepting the free gift of God’s amazing grace!
This is such a vital truth that Bible states it loud and clear!
"Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life." 1 John 5:12 (NLT)
The choice for each one of us as to whether or not we have true spiritual life – eternal life – is in the choice we make concerning Christ. If we place our reliance upon Him and begin a personal relationship with Him by accepting His gift of grace – then we have life!
4. HEAVEN
Verse 6 - "For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus."
Once we decide to believe in Christ – our physical position may still be here on earth – but our spiritual position is in heaven with Christ!
Unfortunately, one of our problems about getting excited about going to heaven is all of the misinformation about the place.
Singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson said, "We usually think of Heaven as the far country, a cloudy, ethereal place, an eternal church service, which sounds about as appealing as traffic school."
The truth is, Heaven is much better than you can imagine!
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9b (NLT)
That’s Good News! Even greater news is, that, when I place my faith in Christ I have a "confirmed reservation" for heaven!
One summer years ago my wife, our three children and I had a confirmed reservation for two rooms at a nice hotel in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. We arrived from Indiana for a convention only to find that our rooms had been given to someone else. The clerk was apologetic but said we would have to find accommodations elsewhere.
As she started to write down the names and phone numbers of other lodging places (and I knew, because of the convention, the only rooms were miles away) I interrupted her actions by inquiring, "Just exactly what does the term ‘confirmed reservation’ mean to you people?"
She replied that it meant our reserved room could not be given away since it was guaranteed as ours by virtue of the fact that my credit card was going to be billed for the room whether or not I and my family showed up on time.
Scratching my head and trying to be patient after a long trip with my family, I saw my great logical prowess hadn’t registered with her so I asked to speak to a manager.
Reluctantly, the clerk brought the manager forward and proceeded to explain the dilemma. The manager smiled a fake smile and said, "I’m sorry this has happened Mr. Atwood but I can guarantee you that what the clerk has told you is true, we don’t have any rooms available."
I proceeded to go through the whole definition of "confirmed reservation" with him but his "deer caught in the headlight" act was just as sincere as the clerk’s had been. So finally in desperation I asked, "You mean to tell me that you have no rooms empty at all in this enormous hotel?"
"Well," he let it slip, "Of course the Presidential Suite is vacant."
I said, "Well, since we have a confirmed reservation – we’ll take it!"
Our family stayed in the finest suite of rooms in all of Tulsa that week! And for the same price that we normally would have paid for two normal rooms!
When you make a faith commitment to Jesus you can act with confidence that you have a "confirmed reservation" in heaven! And it’s going to be better than you can even imagine!
5. ETERNITY
Verse 7 - "So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus."
As trophies of God’s grace, all those who believe in Jesus will spend "all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us."
The human mind finds it impossible to totally grasp the expanse of eternity so I won’t try to explain it to you. I can’t.
But I can tell you what the Bible says.
"God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11
When wise old Solomon wrote these words he was contemplating how life here on earth never seems to completely satisfy us. There are bits and pieces of fulfillment, but there always seems to be something more – something not yet attainable.
Ecclesiastes chronicles man’s search for complete fulfillment in things like work, wine, the opposite sex, the accumulation of possessions, the pursuit of pleasure – you name it.
But Solomon said looking for complete satisfaction and fulfillment in any of these areas is "like trying to catch the wind." Ecclesiastes 1:14c (NLV)
The conclusion to our human tendency toward dissatisfaction with this life is this: WE WERE NEVER REALLY CREATED TO BE COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH THIS LIFE! We were made by and for an eternal God!
We have eternity in our hearts! Our spiritual DNA is structured to be completely satisfied only when we get to heaven to spend eternity with the One who created us, loves us and lavished His grace upon us!
It is very liberating when you come to the place in your earthly existence that you stop reaching for the brass ring. Instead of looking for satisfaction in things that do not have the potential to totally satisfy, you set your hopes on eternity in heaven! Then, your contentment, your satisfaction in life, is not based on things that are temporary – but on the only things that will last forever!
Love, death, life, heaven, eternity.
All of these simple yet crucial terms work together to paint a relevant picture of God’s amazing grace.
If you have already received the gift of God’s love you have passed from death to life! You are ready for eternity in heaven! You have a "confirmed reservation!"
If you haven’t yet accepted God’s amazing grace let me ask you to consider this story.
His name was John. He had deserted the Royal British Navy and was caught, flogged and demoted. After that he made up disrespectful songs about his ship’s captain and was demoted again. Furthermore, he prided himself in creative profanity and sharp-witted attacks on Christianity.
He was a truly degenerate man.
Then one day in the middle of a considerable storm at sea he thought it might be best to act as if the Good News about Jesus were true and he made a monumental decision to live for Christ.
After his conversion and naval career he became a pastor and was as deeply devoted to promoting the Good News as he had been in attacking it. To accompany his sermons he would often compose hymns to accentuate the truth of God’s Word he was going to preach.
On Sunday, January 1, 1773, John Newton first shared these words with his congregation:
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."
"I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see."
What Newton saw was God’s amazing grace. It didn’t matter that his had been a life of profane depravity. God’s grace was greater than his sin!
His hymn has crossed the oceans and lived through time to express what billions have experienced for them selves: God’s grace is so amazing that it can reach us every one of us, no matter what we’ve done. No matter how broken our lives or shattered our dreams. God’s grace is greater!
We are lost but God has searched for us just as He did for Newton. He has made the truth of His amazing grace toward us wonderfully easy to understand.
Have you experienced God’s amazing grace? Do you sense "eternity in your heart" right now? Would you like to receive God’s grace just as John Newton did?
Pray something like this in your heart right now.
"Dear God, I realize that I’m a sinner. I’ve messed up. But I believe that you loved me so much that you sent Jesus to die for my sins since death is sin’s penatly. Thank you that I can live eternally by choosing to accept your love and grace. I know I don’t deserve your grace. The Bible says it’s free to me. Thank you for giving it to me because of my decision to turn to Christ with my life."
