Have you ever dreamt of what it would be like to be rich? I don’t mean just well off, I mean rich? I think everyone has at one time or another in their lives…I think that is why we like to watch “Lifestyles of the rich and famous” and to gawk at the Cleveland Auto Show at cars we would never be able to afford. I think we all kind of envy Bill and Melinda Gates with their uncountable billions and their 40,000 square foot home in Washington State. (Show Photos on Screen)
(Read slowly) In light of all the wealth that this world has to offer, you and I have something that it can never have. You and I have riches so great that they cannot be counted, riches that can not even be estimated and riches that will never be taxed or taken away.
Join me in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 2 through 8:
Eph 1:2-8 “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.’
We have been talking about “Embracing Grace” – which is becoming a more and more fascinating subject the more I dig deeper and ponder its depths.
Over the last two weeks, we have looked at the definition of grace (undeserved blessings and favor from God) as well as the difference between simply being the recipient of grace and actually embracing grace. If you recall, we talked last week about the 10 lepers, all of whom were healed of their leprosy…thereby all possessing faith and receiving God’s grace, but only one embraced the grace he was given and found more than mere physical healing.
Our passage for today is about embracing the riches of God’s grace.
If someone was standing outside our church handing out $1,000 bills, wouldn’t you be quick to get in line? Of course! You would quickly embrace the opportunity to possess your fair share of that wealth! Why?
I believe that the reason we are quick to embrace worldly riches is that they are both tangible and recognizable. We understand their value, that is, we understand what benefits they will translate into for us.
It isn’t so easy to understand and embrace spiritual riches, because they are less tangible, they can rarely be seen, and we don’t understand what benefits they possess for us.
Yet when it comes to grace, God has gone to great lengths to help us understand its value and to help us see it.
In verse 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians with a wish, a prayer if you would for the Christians at Ephesus. In case you think that this is strange, I found something even more remarkable.
In EVERY single one of Paul’s letters, he begins them (in the first several verses) with the same prayer and expression of desire for the recipients of that letter, AND he closes every letter with a similar expression “Grace be with you.”
[depending upon time available, ask folks to read passages]
What could possibly be so important about grace that Paul would open and close every letter with this prayerful expression of his heart?
If these expressions could be viewed as a prayer, then when was the last time you heard someone in church pray for the things Paul prayed for?
When was the last time you heard someone pray for grace and peace to be with the church or upon someone?
The typical prayer request is for somebody’s relative’s sickness, someone’s friend’s bereavement, someone’s safety in traveling...etc. I do not want to minimize the need to pray for all our concerns, but why don’t we pray for what the Spirit of God considered important?
I believe the reason we do not pray for God’s grace to be revealed or showered upon people and upon the church is because we are ignorant of who we are in Christ, and the riches we have in Him. (WHOA!)
v3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
One of the apostle Paul’s priorities in his letters to the churches he founded, is that they understand the blessings that they have in Christ.
But it is not just Paul who emphasizes it, the writer of the Gospel of John says, (Jn 1:16) "of His fullness we have all received and grace upon grace,”
Here the picture is "grace" taking the place of "grace" like the manna fresh each morning, or new grace for the new day.
One commentator says, “grace "piled upon" grace, or grace heaped upon grace.
It is a word picture of waves continually lapping ashore, one after another, one upon another.
Grace upon grace shows the superabundance of grace that has been displayed by God in and through Christ toward mankind, in this context especially referring to believers.
Grace upon grace demonstrates there is no shortage.
“we have all received” (Greek Word: Lambano) = English “received” is far too weak of a word to help us understand the implications of this word.
“Received” to most of us means to passively possess, to catch a ball, to receive a call, or to receive an inheritance.
The Greek word means to “take what is one’s own, to take to one’s self, to make one’s own, to claim, procure for one’s self. It is not a passive action but one of intention. You might be able to say “embrace it as your own.”
If I toss this ball to Dave and he catches it, you might be able to say he just received the ball. But the implication of this word is much stronger, and our English language does not do it justice. If I walk up to Dave and offer him this ball, and he TAKES IT OUT OF MY HAND and believes that I will let him have it…then that is the meaning of this word.
This is another great picture of what it means to “embrace grace!”
It is in the act of embracing the grace of God, our active reception of it, that is the acknowledgement of its value. We embrace grace because we see it is so valuable, we see it as such a treasure that we grab hold of it.
It makes the parable of the widow sweeping her home for a lost coin, or parable of the the man who sells all he has to buy the field because there is a treasure hidden there make sense.
v4: . For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
We were chosen to be holy. Holiness is not something we do. Blamelessness is not something we accomplish. It is a act of God’s sovereignty. When you trusted Jesus Christ for your forgiveness and righteousness, God placed you in Christ. His righteousness became yours. You became right with God because of the undeserved sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf.
The devil can & WILL accuse you if your righteousness comes from you.
But the devil cannot accuse Jesus Christ can he? Jesus is perfectly righteous and if we are “in Him” then we cannot be accused either, because His righteousness is ours!
Here is the key…if just the slightest bit of righteousness you claim is because of something you did, you leave yourself open so that the devil can condemn you, fill you with guilt, knock you down with shame, tear down your value and self-esteem.
Grace is grace only when it is undiluted. Grace has power to save you only when it is not mixed with anything else.
Romans 11:6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace”
It is impossible to mix grace and works of the Law, for the one cancels the other.
Law means I must do something to please God, while grace means that God has finished the work for me and all I need do is believe on Christ.
Salvation is not by faith in Christ plus something: it is by faith in Christ alone.
To live by grace means to depend on God’s abundant supply of every need.
To live by Law means to depend on my own strength—the flesh—and be left to get by without God’s supply.
And so, your right standing before God is by grace alone, through Jesus Christ.
Jesus cannot be accused being unrighteous, and it is IN Him that our righteousness comes. There is no accusation that can stand against Him. And if you are “in Christ” then no accusation can stand against you either.
You are holy and blameless in God’s sight!
So if shame and guilt and the devil’s accusations plague you, take a moment and examine where the basis of your righteousness comes from.
Somewhere, you are standing upon your own performance.
Something other than Jesus is accounting for your supposed goodness and holiness.
Acknowledge that in Christ alone your righteousness comes and then confess, positively confess that you are “holy and blameless in God’s sight.”
Let’s do that together. “In Christ alone I can stand before God. And in Christ, I am perfectly holy and blameless in God’s sight.”
v5-6 In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Predestined us to adoption as sons…according to the KIND INTENTION of His will.
I am not going to attempt to untangle the tight web of theology that the term “predestined” carries with it here today. Instead of getting hung upon on the theology of this term, I urge you to instead, look at God’s motive and result.
Adoption as sons.
The kind intention of His will
To the praise of the glory of his grace!
These are all phrases that speak of the riches of God’s grace that is given freely and kindly and totally undeserved.
If there is anything in the word “predestined” that should give you comfort, it is the fact that God saw you and saved you before you had done anything that deserved it!
I would say that that fact would cause me to praise and give glory to His Grace!
The contrast is between divine activity (grace) and human activity (works).
The point is that if election and right standing is based on anything we do, it is not longer grace.
If we provide the decisive act in causing our election, it is no longer an "election of grace."
The concept of election supports the following statement:
Grace, once bestowed, is not withdrawn: for God knew all human contingencies beforehand: His action was independent of them, not dependent upon them
The failure of devotion does not cause the withdrawal of grace (as it would under law).
v7-8 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”
We were made captives by sin. The only way we can be set free from our captivity is to have the price paid that our captivity requires. The biblical word for that price is “redemption.” The price is the blood or the life of another, who does not own a debt.
All of our spiritual blessings flow from that redemption, from the blood of Christ.
God accepted the price of Jesus’ life as a payment for my redemption from sin.
It is in accordance with the RICHES of God’s grace that he LAVISHED on us.
Lavished again is another word that means to super-abundantly pour out upon.
Now here is what I want you to think about. God’s riches…God’s grace, incredibly expensive, valuable, costly to the point of His own Son’s life have been poured out without measure upon you and
The treasury of Grace is found in a person.
Neither grace or salvation are commodities to be obtained, earned, bought or captured.
They are directly received in the person of Christ.
Eph 2:6-7 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
I covered this passage 2 weeks ago.
Yet in all of this, there is one more principle to cover.
I was raised with a unhealthy dose of Roman Catholic religion, and after meeting Jesus Christ at the age of 25, I was ecstatic that I was now forgiven and a born again believer with the promise of eternal life. But everyone wanted to remind me that though I had been saved by grace, that grace was incredibly expensive. It was my job to maintain it and preserve it and protect it. My salvation, the forgiveness of my past sins was by grace, but I had to work hard to stay saved! Instead of producing joy this theology produced fear and anxiety and performance based living. Why?
Let’s go back to Bill Gate’s house. Let us say that I just received it as a free gift from my buddy Bill. The catch is I have to pay the taxes on it, maintain it and preserve it. If I fail to do so, then he will take it back. But I have neither the ability or the resources to do what is required! What was meant to be a blessing becomes an albatross around my neck, a weight I cannot carry and a burden I cannot bear.
Fortunately, some brothers in Christ showed me what the scriptures said.
As we studied the bible together, I discovered that I committed sins because I was a sinner. My sins were expressions of my sinful heart.
I began to understand that ALL of the requirements of God’s law were outside of my reach, that I did not have the righteousness to meet them, the works to satisfy them, and that I never would!
1 John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Jude: 24-25: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever."
These scriptures, among others began to liberate me from performance based living and free me to live in the riches of God’s grace.
Folks, I don’t know what burdens you are bearing, what unnecessary load you are carrying because you have mixed God’s grace with your own efforts. I do know that it is in Christ alone that our answers are found, it is in letting Jesus be our “all in all” – our salvation past, salvation present and salvation future that we find freedom. If you are carrying a burden you cannot bear…I invite you to come and lay it down during our worship and ministry time in just a few moments.
Let’s pray.
