AMAZING GRACE: ROMANS 5:6-10
If I was to poll this room to the percentage of the 10 commandments each of us have broken, we would find that each of us have broken most of them. This classifies us as sinners, and as sinners, a price must be paid for that sin. That price is the penalty of death. For the wages of sin is death.
Grace: God’s free action-based on Jesus’ death & motivated by love-to redeem all who believe & to make them righteous.
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, have been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
2 REQUIREMENTS OF GRACE:
1. THE REALIZATION OF OUR HELPLESS POSITION:
“Since God is a holy & righteous & sin is a complete offense to Him, His love or His mercy cannot operate in grace until there was provided a sufficient satisfaction for sin. This satisfaction makes possible the exercise of God’s grace. Grace thus rules out all human merit. It requires only faith in the Savior. Any mixture of human merit violates grace. God’s grace thus provides not only salvation but safety & preservation for the saved one, despite his imperfections.” (Merrill F. Unger’ s Bible Dictionary)
When we come to a point of facing our hopeless & helpless position, then the grace of God can work.
“For when we were still without strength…”
GRACE IS HELD IN MUCH HIGHER REGARD WHEN WE REALIZE WHAT A GREAT GIFT IT IS, AND HOW UNDESERVING WE ARE.
Unfortunately, since salvation is free, we take it so lightly.
WE LACK THE FULL COMPREHENSION OF THE IMPLICATION OF THE PENALTY FOR OUR SIN:
Thomas Hooker “Conceive this much, if all the diseases in the world did seize on one man, & if all the torment that all the tyrants of the world could devise, were cast against him; & if all the creatures in heaven & earth did conspire the destruction of this man; & if all the devils in hell did labor to inflict punishment upon him, you would think this man to be in a miserable condition. And yet all this is but a beam of God’s indignation. If the beams of God’s indignation be so hot, what is the full sum of His wrath when it shall seize upon the soul of a sinful creature in full measure.” (The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart; Charles Swindoll)
In 1741, Jonathan Edwards presented a well known sermon, still read in public schools today for its powerful literary presentation. Those sitting in the pews that day, claim that they could actually feel the flames of hell licking at their feet. When we come to the realization of what this grace covers, provides and protects for us, we will truly come to a place of complete surrender and love.
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE THAT ENTER HERE.
In the saga of Dante’s Inferno, a description of what the writer sees hell to be like. At the mouth of the abyss was posted the sign which read “Abandon all hope ye that enter here”.
Grace cannot exist until we abandon all hope in ourselves.
Paul understood this when he said:
Rom. 7:24,25 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
ABANDON ALL HOPE IN YOURSELF! Righteousness is as filthy rags!
ABANDON ALL HOPE IN YOURSELF!
Eph. 2:8,9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
ABANDON ALL HOPE IN YOURSELF!
2 Cor. 12:7,8 “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Gideon: Judges 6-7; 6:15 “So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, & I am the least in my father’s house. And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midiannites as one man.”
7:2 “And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, “My own hand has saved me.”
We read the story of Gideon, God told him to trim his numbers to a few hundred men, so that there was no denying that God was doing a great work and would receive the glory.
As Charles G. Finney states, “The principle of the divine plan is this: Christ would destroy the spirit of self-dependence- the great & most besetting temptation of His children. They are continually prone to trust in themselves rather than in Christ. This must be counteracted & cured. He must give them thorns, & make them feel their weakness & wants; then He shuts them up to rely on Himself alone, leading them to die to all dependence on themselves, & to enter with the fullest committal upon dependence on Christ alone. This is needful to the end that they may avail themselves of His strength & may discard their own.” (Sufficient Grace; May 12, 1858)
2. THE REALIZATION OF THE SUFFICIENT AND BOUNDLESS POWER & LOVE OF OUR GOD:
“MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS!”
Eph. 3:17-20 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
Psa. 145:3 “Great is the Lord, & greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.”
Rom. 5:20 “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“I WILL RATHER BOAST IN MY INFIRMITIES, THAT THE POWER OF CHRIST MAY REST UPON ME…FOR WHEN I AM WEAK THEN I AM STRONG!”
“WHERE SIN DID ABOUND-GRACE ABOUNDED MUCH MORE!”
Application: So how do we apply this to our lives?
Saved: Rejoice in your salvation.
Rest in Him.
Reach the lost.
Unsaved: Repent & Receive.
