WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE?
INTRODUCTION: We sing a song about amazing grace but have you ever stopped to meditate on why God’s grace is an amazing thing? How amazing is this grace that saved a wretch like me? And is there anything else that makes God’s grace amazing? What exactly is grace, what has it done for me, and what should my response be to it?
1) What is grace?
· We use the word to describe various things. We use the word to describe what we do before a meal: “Say Grace.” We use it to describe a dancer’s fluidity: “She is so graceful.” We use it as a name: “We named our daughter Grace.” Although these are okay, the essence of grace isn’t captured in any of these.
· Grace is a freely offered gift. Grace is used in the original Greek language to convey the idea of a free gift. Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” “When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award--yet receives such a gift anyway--that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God.” Someone once said, “Grace is everything for nothing to those who don’t deserve anything.”
· Grace is unique to Christianity. During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. “What’s the commotion about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” Philip Yancey wrote, ‘The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law—each of these offer a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional.’ Rom. 11:6, “And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”
· Grace is sacrificial. Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. Say I was pulled over for speeding. The Officer approaches my car and asks for my license & registration. He goes back to his car & radios in my info. He walks back and he tells me to slow it down & let’s me go. Is this grace? No. What if he wrote out the ticket but cut the fine in half. This still doesn’t represent grace. Grace would be when he comes back to my car, reminds me of the crime I have committed, writes out the ticket, with the fine being at the full amount, then hands it to me. Then he reaches out and takes the ticket back. He signs his own name in the ‘guilty’ spot, and then he turns the ticket in with his name on it and pays the full amount of the fine with his own money. That is grace.
2) What has God’s grace done for me?
· It paid my penalty. Grace goes beyond just forgiveness. Grace is when I pay the penalty for you. That’s what we might have a tendency to forget. God didn’t just forgive us. It wasn’t like we sinned and God said, ‘you’re forgiven.’ He went further than that. A price had to be paid. God just forgiving us wouldn’t have cost him anything. Sin’s penalty had to be taken care of. Grace doesn’t just involve forgiveness; it involves sacrifice. God’s grace cost him. That’s what was so amazing about grace. He was willing to go beyond just forgiving us; he went to the point of allowing his Son to pay the penalty for what we did. And because Jesus paid the penalty of death for me, I not only have forgiveness through him, I also have eternal life through him.
· It resurrected me. Eph. 2:1, 4&5. Sinners are not SICK; they’re DEAD! We don’t need RESUSCITATION; we need RESURRECTION! It doesn’t matter how “good” or “bad” a person appears, without salvation they are both dead. Can one corpse be deader than another? No. A person who has been killed in a car accident might look more dead than a person who has died in their sleep but the fact remains-they are both dead. God’s grace is amazing because it goes beyond revival; it brings us back to life as a new creation.
· It gave me spiritual gifts. Paul said in Rom. 12:6 that ‘We have different gifts, according to the grace given us’. It is because of grace that I’m able to do God’s work. I’m not gifted because I deserve it or because I earned it. I can’t take credit for my giftedness. My abilities come through God’s grace.
3) How should I respond to God’s grace?
· By recognizing the magnitude of it. 1Tim.1:12-15. The grace of God was especially vivid in Paul’s mind because of his past. If we’re going to respond properly to God’s grace then we need to recognize that grace kept us from having to experience eternity in hell. And then we need to consider that grace enabled us to receive eternity in heaven. ‘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!’ That’s the magnitude of grace.
· By not abusing it. Romans 5:20-6:2, 6:14&15. Shall we go on sinning because we are forgiven now? Shall we continue in our old ways because God’s grace covers us? Shall we abuse and take advantage of God’s mercy and kindness? ‘I’m saved; now I’m free to sin as much as I want’. Actually, your freedom to sin came before you were saved. Then, it didn’t matter how much you sinned because you were already dead. Now, however, you are free to be like Christ. Now your freedom is in your ability to have spiritual growth. Do we abuse the grace of God and figure, ‘well, I’m saved so I can just coast now. God accepts me as I am; He loves me no matter what. So, instead of trying to better myself as a response to my redemption I’ll just sit back, relax and carry on with my comfortable life until I get to heaven’. Cheap grace wants all of the benefits without any of the responsibilities. Costly grace desires to give my all in service to Jesus because he gave his all for me.
· By living a godly life. Titus 2:11-14. How we’re living our life since our conversion is a direct reflection of how we’ve responded to God’s grace. Are we living a life of change? Are we willing to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus? Or are we content with living a life of comfort? What’s amazing is that it’s grace that teaches me to say no to my worldly passions and desires. Why? Because a correct understanding of and appreciation for God’s grace will motivate me to not continue in what Jesus died for. “Eager to do what is good.” The law doesn’t make me eager to do what is good. The law scares me into obedience. I’m obedient because of fear of consequence or out of a sense of obligation. This is a begrudging obedience. But grace is amazing in that it teaches me gratitude that responds with an eagerness to do the good things, not out of fear or obligation but out of love. I am eager to do what is good because I understand and appreciate the undeserved favor I’ve been granted and I want to devote myself to doing his good will because that will please the one who died for me and gave me life. It is God’s amazing grace that teaches me and motivates me to stop gratifying self and start pleasing God. A proper response to grace is to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and ‘yes’ to godliness.
· By revealing it to others. Eph. 3:7-9. Because Paul understood the magnitude of grace, because he recognized that he was gifted through grace, he properly responded by communicating that grace to others. It was his mission. It should become our mission too. 1st Pet. 4:10, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” In a sermon about grace by K. Edward Skidmore, he cites an encounter he had with a young lady. He writes, “Coming out of a fast-food restaurant I noticed a young girl sitting on the curb who looked up at me and asked politely, “Sir, I don’t mean to disturb you, but I’m hungry and broke. Could you help me with a dollar so I could get a taco or something to eat? I stopped, pulled out my wallet and said, “A buck won’t go very far; here’s two.” She smiled and said, “ Thank you sir. And because of your kind deed may you have good karma come from this. You do believe in karma don’t you?” I responded, “I know a lot about karma. I’ve been to India several times and I’ve discovered that karma can be cruel. It tends to pay you back for some rotten thing you’ve done in a past life that you can’t even remember ever doing. But I know something better than karma. What’s better is grace. While karma pays you back for some deed you’ve done, grace gives you something you need but will never deserve through human deeds. Grace comes from God through the finished work of Christ. While you may wish me good karma, my wish for you is for God’s grace. That’s much better than anything karma will ever do for you. Tears came to her eyes, and she shook my hand and said, I want to think about what you said. I have a Bible and now I want to read it.” Col. 4:6, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” A proper response to God’s grace is to go out of our way to reveal that grace to others through our speech and actions. I have a proper response to God’s grace when I make it a priority to reveal, explain and share it with others.
CONCLUSION: ‘A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII. He was a colorful character who used to take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids. One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving. But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. "It’s a real bad neighborhood, your Honor," the man told the mayor. "She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson." LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, "I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions--ten dollars or ten days in jail." But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying: "Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant." So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.’ This is similar to what Jesus did. He first paid the penalty for us and then he taught us to respond to that amazing grace by practicing true religion.
