Grace – Amazing Yet Real! By Steve Keeler
Scripture Colossians 3:12-17
Philip Yancey wrote: “Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it and I am one of those people. I think back to whom I was – resentful, a man wound tight with anger which was just a single hardened link in a long chain of “un-grace” learned from family, school and church.
Now, I am trying in my own small way to pipe the tune of grace. I do so because I know, more surely than I know anything, that any pang of healing or forgiveness, or goodness, I have ever felt comes solely from the grace of God. I yearn for the church to become a nourishing culture of that grace”.
“A nourishing culture of that grace.” Isn’t it sad that people often find more grace and acceptance in a beer-joint then they do in church? Isn’t it tragic that people regularly enter churches and then leave again never finding God’s amazing grace.
The sad reality is, churches and Christian groups are often known more for their rules and musty religious pretense than for being authentic grace-freed followers of Jesus.
It’s common to believe in God’s grace but to be ungracious. In many churches you’ll hear them preach grace, but not extend it. As humans, we lay claim to grace and forgiveness for ourselves, but we often demand performance from others.
We need to understand Christ’s heart for His Church. When we do, we’ll see that Yancey’s right when He describes the best future of the church as being a “nourishing culture of grace”.
I think we could add to our Core Values, “Grace – Amazing Yet Real”.
Grace – Amazing Yet Real means that "we’re committed to a ‘Grace Gospel’ – we’re also committed to grace-oriented lifestyles and relationships.
I am committed to avoid teaching and practicing legalism although it’s so easy to fall into that trap; we need to allow God the Holy Spirit to work in peoples’ lives not subject them to a list of man made rules.
We need to treat ALL people as God has treated us, with love, kindness, forgiveness and gentleness.
This is another sit up and take note moments; we need to prize our values are principles which God has begun to build into us.
The fact that we identify these things as values doesn’t mean that we’ve “arrived”. They’re what we want God to work into us, individually and as a body.
Me speaking on real grace once is not going to be enough, we need to and will re-visit again and again until it’s part of our very nature.
The problem is that, tucked away inside our human character is an urge to not only try to earn God’s favor, but also to compare ourselves and out-perform others.
C.S. Lewis said, “Man is incurably religious.” You see, pride makes us legalistic by nature. We need regular, repeated doses of the Truth Of Grace to flush that garbage out of our spiritual thinking.
We also love to give other people a good impression. So we tend to don our mask and the result is a sort of Christian mushy niceness, but it’s not real righteousness.
One of the wonderful things about Real Grace is that it reminds us, it’s okay to let others see how much God still needs to work in our lives.
So what does a Christian look like that really pursues amazing yet real grace? The passage we look at today helps us discover, how to put a “face on this grace”. It helps us understand grace so we in turn can give “grace” to each other.
Let’s go back to our Scripture – Colossians 3. Paul helps here see the relationship between God’s grace to His children, and ours toward one other.
Prayer
First, he says Grace driven people remember their heritage.
The pattern here is common in most of the New Testament letters. First, comes the teaching of Truth of what God has done – then comes the urge to live by that Truth.
Let’s begin at verse12. First, Paul describes the people he’s writing to. If you’re a Christian, you can take these words as true about you.
Colossians 3:12 says;
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
The NASB calls us God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.
Would you think it’s odd if I were to call you “Holy one”? God’s Word uses precisely that language here and elsewhere in the New Testament, including in the letters to those carnal Corinthians.
Before Paul calls us to be radically gracious to others, he reminds us of God’s radical grace that transformed us.
Who are we? First, we’re God’s chosen people. We did not choose God, God choose us. He choose you, each and every one of you. The Bible tells us, God has set His love on us. He set His intentions on us as His very own.
Israel was God’s single chosen people in the Old Testament. He established a covenant with them to be His – He made them a peculiar people, to be distinct and unique from every nation on the Earth.
When Jesus died and rose again, He established a new covenant with a new body of people – the Church, His Body.
The Church today is composed of Jews and Gentiles, from people of every tribe, tongue, nation and ethnic group. Every person, brought into a love relationship with Jesus Christ is a member of this body.
We’re God’s chosen people. Paul is saying, like the Jewish nation was to be different from all others, holy and set apart for God’s purposes, we’re God’s unique people today. Holy and set apart for God’s purpose.
You are God’s chosen people, holy… We don’t earn the description of holy and acceptable. If we’re in Christ, God imparts the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us.
We also don’t earn or keep God’s love; we are God’s beloved, literally, the dearly loved ones of God – dear to the heart of God.
You’ll never discover a more powerful and motivating personal truth in life than that you are acceptable in Christ, and you are God’s beloved child. And oh, His love is unconditionally. You can’t lose sight of that. It’s foundational.
You need to know who you are, what heritage is yours in Christ. That identity lays the foundation for how you function with other Christians. My point is this: when you know how God’s grace worked in you, you become free to express grace to others.
If you don’t know, or if you forget that God brought you to faith in His Son, by mercy and grace, and forgave your sin, you won’t be forgiving and grace-filled with others. People who don’t understand grace will never be free to share grace.
And there are no religious traditions or any form of legalism that will ever produce grace-filled relationships.
Legalistic people are always trying to earn or keep God’s favor by constantly “doing”. Grace driven people remember their heritage (where they came from), and celebrate God’s grace by sharing it with others.
Anytime you start to think that someone else is not worthy to be here, or they shouldn’t dress like that, or eat what they’re eating stop and remember where you were when God poured His amazing grace on you.
Second, Grace driven people reflect grace.
Paul says, because you’re God’s chosen and God’s beloved;
Colossians 3:12-14
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Here Paul reminds us of our heritage and our resources. Then, Paul uses a favorite phrase of his: put on. And this isn’t put on like we’d say if we meant “faking it”.
Back in verse 10, Paul used the same phrase to tell us, God’s grace gave us a whole new self. If you’re a Christian, if God’s grace has invaded you life, you’re a brand new creation in Christ. You are a new person with a new character with power and resources to live out this new identity.
He describes it like a new wardrobe to wear.
He’s said in 3:8, put off the old man; that means lay aside, just like you’d put off some grimy old worn out clothing. “Why?”, to replace it with something brand new.
It’s like getting up in the morning and going to the closet to make a choice. We’re free now to make a choice of what to wear: either the old nasty stuff or the new glorious stuff.
How can this be? God has chosen to be gracious and forgiving and because God has touched us we’ll never, never be the same! (Amen)
These characteristics we are to put on will contrast with what used to be. The old ways were already mentioned in chapter 3. Paul said, lay aside, take off, anger, rage, slander and filthy language. He’s told the believers, no longer lie to one another.
We say old habits die hard. God says, by the Power and Truth of grace, put them off! Judgement, sarcasm, cutting remarks, rudeness, sour attitudes don’t match God’s glorious grace work in your. Put them off.
Instead, put on new qualities. Let God’s transforming power inside of you show up on the outside.
Beginning in verse 12: Clothe yourselves with, put on a heart of compassion…
Put on Compassion...
The Greek term is literally "bowels of sympathy." Greeks thought that the emotions originated in the bowels. That’s where the phrase, "I’ve got a gut feeling" came from.
It’s a heart of compassion God wants to be visible in us – to feel for and with others. Instead of assuming the worst, and jumping to conclusions, we need to put on compassion.
This applies to the home. When you deal with your spouse or your kids, approach all situations with compassion. It applies at church, when you come to corporate worship or your morning study, come ready to show compassion.
The Bible says that God’s compassion toward us is like a mother who cares tenderly for her children.
Then we are to Put on Kindness…
This action grows out of compassion.
Every once in a while, I get urges to demonstrate compassion to people. Those don’t come from me, they come from the Holy Spirit. The sad thing is, I so often let them pass.
Paul says, allow actions to flow from the Spirit’s work inside you, out toward someone else’s needs and hurts.
The New Testament calls us to kindness, grace if you will, with the identical term it uses to describes God’s kindness.
The bible says, God’s kindness draws us to repentance. Imagine how demonstrating that grace encourages and motivates people.
You can be kind by just listening, sharing Truth from God’s Word, laying hands on someone and praying with them in their need. Maybe it’s something else like offering to help someone with a task they need done.
Then, Put on humility…
Humility flows out of remembering the grace God gave you.
In Romans 12:3, Paul says; For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
Be very careful not to come at others in the body, especially new brothers and sisters, with a holier then thou attitude, come ready to serve.
Now we Wear Gentleness…
This word is the same word as meekness – it’s the opposite of rudeness and abrasiveness. It’s strength under control, it’s real strength, it doesn’t need to show off.
Gentleness is willingness to waive your rights and your preferences, for the cause of Christ.
Put on patience…
Literally, that means putting up with people’s exasperating conduct without responding in kind. It’s a negative term. It means holding back and restraining yourself from being upset or speaking harshly to people who, from a human point of view, deserve it!
There will always be other Christians whose conduct you find exasperating. Put on patience as you remember how patient God has been with you.
This grace we are to show to others leads to two concrete actions – in verse Colossians 3:13; forbear and forgive. Forbear is an old word that we’d translate today with, put up with.
As we get to know other Christians, things happen. We rub each other the wrong way sometimes. Rough edges show up. What does the bible say about this? Proverbs 27:17
Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
We can battle it out or we can sharpen each other like steel on steel.
We don’t always behave out of grace as we should. God’s Word has an answer for this reality. Forbear. Put up with them! And forgive.
Whoever has a complaint against anyone. Someone offended you, spoke out against you, hurt or disappointed you? Forgive them. This is Christianity 101. And, forgiveness is not confrontation.
Confrontation may become necessary; and sometimes it works, but sometimes it won’t. However, forgiveness is always fundamental. And forgiveness isn’t the same as reconciliation. Reconciliation may or may not happen.
But forgiveness demonstrates that you’ve been freed by God’s grace. That’s the second reason Paul gives us to forgive: If you’ve experienced God’s forgiveness, you need to do the same, fully, freely, graciously!
Finally, Put on Love...
Colossians 3:14 says;
Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
It’s believers who become perfectly bound together by love. The commitment to love means we will go the distance in relationships; not write people off or avoid them because they think different then we do.
This is where we have to get real and stop making excuses. This is where we determine that the way others act and relate doesn’t determine how we act and relate.
Don’t think I’m suggesting that grace should make us doormats, or the recipients of abuse by other Christians. Of course, there is the time to speak the Truth with love.
There is a time to challenge believers who are hurtful to also walk with God and reflect His grace. To tell them to start letting Christ’s grace and character show in their lives. Time to teach them to become authentic.
I can guarantee that authentic grace driven people will mirror God’s grace.
Third. Grace driven people demonstrate Whose they are.
There’s a lot in verses 15&16, but the context is still relating to the body. Look at the heart of three commands, each one of which relates to Who we belong to: Christ.
First, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
Paul first talks about unity in the fellowship. In this case, to rule means to govern. Peace isn’t just an individual experience here, it’s corporate.
Everything we do as a body must embrace Christ’s peace. This describes then how we approach each other, talk to and about one another.
You see, Grace driven people choose to let Christ’s peace rule them.
Verse 16 recaps my last message, we must allow Scripture to permeate our lives and our church community. We need to know God’s Word well and it needs to be our foundation.
There’s no substitute for the Truth of Scripture, and the well being of our church body depends on how well we know it.
As we build on that foundation we need to remember to let Christ have Lordship over us.
If we allow Christ to have total Lordship, the way we treat each other will reflect His amazing yet real grace.
Where do we go from here?
We take the time to realize or re-realize God’s unconditional love for you.
If you are one to try to play the “game of religion”, if you are trying to “DO” what’s needed to earn your way to heaven, stop! You are headed for a Spiritual breakdown.
Christ has an abundance of grace waiting for you. Scripture tells us, He can set you free and who the Son sets free is free indeed.
Don’t let your freedom in Him be taken from you by someone wearing a mask and giving you a list of what you need to do to get to heaven.
I have a few questions and I want you to pray about your answers.
Are you becoming a person of grace?
Do you celebrate your heritage?
Do you remember where you were when God found you?
Does His amazing grace draw you to Him again and again?
Would you mirror His grace with other believers?
Grace Amazing Yet Real, and it available to you!
