Amazing Grace: God the Son
Galatians 1:3-5a, 13-16a
Charles Stanley tells of one of his seminary professors who at the end of his evangelism course distributed the exam with the caution to read it all the way through before beginning to answer it. This caution was written on the exam as well. As we read the test, it became unquestionably clear to each of us that we had not studied nearly enough. The further we read, the worse it became. About halfway through reading it, audible groans could be heard through out the lecture hall. On the last page, however, was a note that read, "You have a choice. You can either complete the exam as given or sign your name at the bottom and in so doing receive an A for this assignment." Wow? We sat there stunned. "Was he serious? Just sign it and get an A?" Slowly, one by one we turned in our tests and silently filed out of the room. When I talked with the professor about it afterward, he shared some of the reactions he had received through the years. Some students began to take the exam without reading it all the way through, and they would sweat it out for the entire two hours of class time before reaching the last page. Others read the first two pages, became angry, turned the test in blank, and stormed out of the room without signing it. They never realized what was available, and as a result, they lost out totally. One fellow, however, read the entire test, including the note at the end, but decided to take the exam anyway. He did not want any gifts; he wanted to earn his grade. And he did. He made a C+, but he could easily have had an A.
This is how many people react to God’s solution to sin: grace. Some people look at God’s standard--moral and ethical perfection as contained in the law--and throw their hands up in surrender. Why even try? They tell themselves. I could never live up to all that stuff. Others are like the student who read the test through and was aware of the professor’s offer but took the test anyway. Unwilling to simply receive God’s gift of forgiveness, they set about to rack up enough points with God to earn it.
Last week, we learned that in God the Father is tough love which is moral boundaries. It is laws and without laws we have chaos. Tough love provides absolutes and discipline. Those who live by the law gain security by fulfilling the rules, regulations and procedures. They begin to feel justified and proud of their accomplishments. But it is a false sense of security. A person can never live up to God’s moral and ethical perfection as contained in the law, for we are human, and thus that leads to failure because you are always falling short of God’s will.
That’s why tough love always needs to be balanced with grace. It’s why we have God the Father but we also need the Son, who is grace. God’s grace is unmerited favor, an unearned gift of forgiveness in the midst of sin. God’s grace truly is like the professor’s offer. It may seem unbelievable, but if we accept it, then, we, too, will discover that, God’s grace truly is free. All we have to do is accept it. People living by grace are secure in the love and forgiveness of God. They are grateful and delight in the kindness of God instead of feeling proud of their own accomplishments. People living by grace realize that we can rejoice in our weaknesses knowing that this affords God a greater opportunity to show Himself in His grace. His grace shows up best in our weakness. And when we are weak, we grow in faith and dependence on Him. As Paul wrote, "Most gladly therefore will I boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For when I am weak then I am strong. The less I have the more I depend on Him."
Today we are focusing on the second dimension of the Trinity, God the Son which is God’s gift of grace for a sin-filled world. Why is grace so important? First, grace helps us understand God’s love and will for us. If your understanding of the nature of God is wrong, then your attitudes and actions towards people are going to be wrong. In our Scripture today, Paul relates his experience as one who excelled in his understanding of the Jewish faith, better than all of his peers his own age. And he was intensely committed to the traditions of the faith. As a result, he hated all who contradicted the faith and its traditions. And so he began to persecute the followers of Jesus. He was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. But then he had an encounter with Jesus himself, who revealed himself to Paul as the Savior. Paul believed he was doing God’s will because he was trying to protect Judaism. But instead he was persecuting Jesus and fighting against God’s new work of love and grace in the world. Suddenly, Paul was in need of grace. He needed grace. If your understanding of the nature of God is wrong, then your attitudes and actions towards people are going to be wrong. This is why we see suicide bombers killing people in the name of God. They don’t understand who God really is or His will. This is why we need to understand grace and God’s son Jesus, because without it, God is a God of law, justice, condemnation and punishment.
Second, we need grace because we have all fallen short of God’s will. All of us have done things of which we are ashamed. Because of that, we’re carrying around guilt that we don’t need to be. If we don’t deal with that guilt, it becomes shame. Guilt is when you feel bad about something you’ve done; shame is when you feel bad about who you are. Many of us are infected by shame because we have not dealt with our guilt by turning to God’s grace and accepting his forgiveness, which empowers us to forgive ourselves. Instead, we try to deal with our guilt is by rationalizing or defending our wrongness We spend all kinds of energy trying to convince God, ourselves and others that we are right in our wrongness or rationalizing that if it doesn’t hurt anybody then it can’t be wrong. That’s called self-validation or self-justification. Or we turn to judging others. Because we want to prove our worth and justify our wrongness, we demean other people and their lifestyles. We put other people down to lift ourselves up.
So we try to justify ourselves. But the problem is we aren’t capable of justifying ourselves. Only God can justify us. There’s a difference between being self-validated and God validated. That’s why we need the grace of Jesus Christ. Absolutely nothing is outside the grace of Jesus. It’s what the Bible means when it says where sin increases, grace is all the more. Romans 5:20 Paul was a terrorist of his day and even a terrorist, who violently persecuted the people of God, experienced the grace of God. Nothing is outside of God’s grace and we all need God’s grace in our lives.
Third, grace changes how we see others. Jim Cymbala preaches at a church in the slums of New York. It was Easter Sunday and I was so tired at the end of the day that I just went to the edge of the platform, pulled down my tie and sat down and draped my feet over the edge. It was a wonderful service with many people coming forward. The counselors were talking with these people. As I was sitting there I looked up the middle aisle, and there in about the third row was a man who looked about fifty, disheveled, and filthy. He looked up at me rather sheepishly, as if saying, “Could I talk to you?” We have homeless people coming in all the time, asking for money or whatever. So as I sat there, I said to myself, though I am ashamed of it, “What a way to end a Sunday. I’ve had such a good time, preaching and ministering, and here’s a fellow probably wanting some money for more wine.” He walked up. When he got within about five feet of me, I smelled a horrible smell like I’d never smelled in my life. It was so awful that when he got close, I would inhale by looking away, and then I’d talk to him, and then look away to inhale, because I couldn’t inhale facing him. I asked him, “What’s your name?” “David.” “How long have you been on the street?” “Six years.” “How old are you?” “Thirty-two.” He looked fifty. “Where did you sleep last night, David?” “An abandoned truck.” I keep in my back pocket a money clip I fumbled to pick a few dollars out thinking; I’ll give him some money. David pushed his finger in front of me. He said, “I don’t want your money. I want this Jesus, the One you were talking about, because I’m not going to make it. I’m going to die on the street.” In that moment, I completely forgot about David, and I started to weep for myself. I was going to give a couple of dollars to someone God had sent to me. See how easy it is? I could make the excuse I was tired. There is no excuse. I was not seeing him the way God sees him. I was not feeling what God feels. But oh, did that change! David just stood there. He didn’t know what was happening. I pleaded with God, “God, forgive me! Forgive me! Please forgive me. I am so sorry to represent You this way. I’m so sorry. Here I am with my message and my points, and You send somebody and I am not ready for it. Oh, God!” Something came over me. Suddenly I started to weep deeper, and David began to weep. He fell against my white shirt and tie, and I put my arms around him, and there we wept on each other. The smell of His person became a beautiful aroma. God said to me: If you don’t love this smell, I can’t use you, because this is why I called you where you are. This is what you are about. You are about this smell.
Christ changed David’s life. He started memorizing portions of Scripture that were incredible. We got him a place to live. We hired him in the church to do maintenance, and we got his teeth fixed. He was a handsome man when he came out of the hospital. They detoxed him in 6 days. He spent that Thanksgiving at my house and Christmas too. A year later David got up and talked about his conversion to Christ. The minute he took the mic and began to speak, I said, “The man is a preacher.” This past Easter we ordained David. He is an associate minister of a church in New Jersey. And I was so close to saying, “Here, take this; I’m a busy preacher.” We can get so full of ourselves if not for grace. Grace received so grace we can share.
Fourth, we need to experience grace so we can share grace. The boy stood defiantly. “Go ahead, give it to me.” The principal looked at the young rebel and asked, “How many times have you been here?” The child sneered, “Apparently not enough.” “And you have been punished each time?” the principal responded. “Yeah, I been punished, if that’s what you want to call it. Go ahead. I can take whatever you dish out. I always have.” “And no thought of your punishment enters your head the next time you decide to break the rules does it?” “Nope, I do whatever I want to do. Ain’t nothin’ you people gonna do to stop me either.” The principal looked at the teacher who stood nearby. “What did he do this time?” “Fighting. He shoved Tommy’s face into the sandbox.” “What did Tommy do to you?” “Nothin’, I didn’t like the way he was lookin’ at me.” The teacher stiffened, but a quick look from the principal stopped him as he quietly said, “Today, is the day you learn about grace.” “Grace? Isn’t that what you old people do before you sit down to eat? I don’t need none of your stinkin’ grace.” “Oh but you do,” said the principal. The drew closer and whispered, “Oh yes, you truly do…” The boy continued to glare as the principal continued, “Grace, in its short definition is unmerited favor. You cannot earn it. It is a gift, and is always freely given. It means that you will not be getting what you so richly deserve.” The boy looked puzzled. “You’re not gonna whup me? You just gonna let me walk?” The boy studied the face of the principal, “No punishment at all? Even though I socked Tommy and shoved his face into the sandbox?” “Oh, there has to be punishment. What you did was wrong, and there are always consequences to our actions. There will be punishment. Grace is not an excuse for doing wrong.” “I knew it,” sneered the boy as he held out his hands. “Let’s get on with it.” The principal nodded toward the teacher. “Bring me the belt.” The teacher presented the belt to the principal. He carefully folded it in two, and then handed it back to the teacher. He looked at the child and said, “I want you to count the blows.” The principal walked over to stand directly in front of the young man. He gently reached out and folded the child’s outstretched, expectant hands together and then turned to face the teacher with his own hands outstretched. One quiet word came forth from his mouth. “Begin.” The belt whipped down on the outstretched hands of the principal. Crack! The young man jumped. Shock registered across his face, “One,” he whispered. Crack! “Two.” His voice raised an octave. Crack! “Three.” He couldn’t believe this. Crack! “Four.” Big tears welled up in the eyes of the rebel. “OK stop! That’s enough. Stop!” Crack! came the belt down on the hands of the principal. Crack! The child flinched with each blow, tears beginning to stream down his face. Crack! Crack! “No, please,” the former rebel begged. “Stop, I did it, I’m the one who deserves it. Stop! Please. Stop…” Still the blows came. Crack! Crack! One after another. Finally it was over. The principal stood with sweat glistening across his forehead and beads trickling down his face. Slowly he knelt down. He studied the young man for a second and then his swollen hands reached out to cradle the face of the weeping child and said, “Grace…”
Grace came to you through the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth who at Calvary received the punishment that you and I deserve for our sin. His back was whipped for the idols that we have bent our backs to. Nails were driven through His sinless hands for the things that we have done with our hands. Nails were driven through His feet for the paths that we have chosen to walk. He wore a crown of thorns for the things we have given our minds to. A lance was driven into his heart for the things we have held in our hearts. Truly we have received God’s grace.
Grace is life-changing power. It is healing grace. It’s amazing grace. It comes down to this, when you are at the end of the rope, you just pray the Jesus prayer - Jesus save me. There is nothing else you can do…it’s all about God’s grace. Grace received so that then grace can be shared.
I want to invite anyone who wants to come to the altar and open yourself to God’s amazing grace. You don’t have to say what your situation is…God knows what it is…but you respond because you know you need a work of God’s grace. Come up here and stand with me; I’m going to pray with you. All it means to stand in this place is that I can’t, God can.
