In Jesus Holy Name November 1, 2009
Text: Romans 3:21-24 Reformation
“The All Sufficient Grace of God”
Twenty years after the demonstrations that brought down the Berlin Wall many say that East Germany is spiritually near death. The Nazi and Soviet regimes that ruled East Germany tried to de-Christianize the cradle of the Reformation. The estimate today is that 70% of the East German population knows virtually nothing about Christianity.
Rev. Ulrich Parzany who succeeded Billy Graham has the main speaker at ProChrist evangelistic meetings stated: “I was standing in front of a Berlin church as some young adults passed by. Referring to the giant crucifix over the entrance, one of them asked, “Who is that guy hanging up there?” (Christianity Today October 11, 2009)
In 2005 Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denten published their research with American teens. They concluded that a new religion has emerged in America.
In “Soul Searching’s The Religion and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers” they summarize the new theology:
1) A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life.
2) God wants people to be nice, good and fair to each other, as taught in the bible and by most world religions.
3) The central goal in life is to be happy and feel good about one’s self.
4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5) Good people go to heaven when they die.
My question: “How do you define good?” “Does everyone have their own definition?
Complete these common American phrases for me:
1) If it sounds too good to be true……… it is.
2) We make money the old fashion way, we…… earn it.
3) There’s no such as a free……. Lunch
4) There is no gain without……. Pain
5) God helps those who……. Help themselves
Everything about the American way of life teaches us that you get what you earn in life, that there is no free lunch, that you make your bed and then you lay in it. In America we are very aware of the values of competition and winning and we know what it means to work hard and use elbow grease. We value effort and sweat. We tell people, “You get what you deserve in life.” And “if you want to make something of your life it’s up to you”.
This is called the American work ethic. The only problem with the American work ethic is that God doesn’t operate on the American work ethic. It makes it difficult many times for us to relate to God because we’re in this driven work mentality.
The problem is explained in Psalm 145:8 It tells us that God, rather than being in a work ethic mode, it says: “God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.”
The bible says God is gracious. That means He loves to be gracious. God loves to bless people who don’t deserve it. You can not understand the Christian life unless you understand grace. It is the heart of our faith. It is the heart of our relationship with God. When you understand grace you’re going to feel closer to God. The grace of God is what saved Martin Luther and rescued Christianity from the ethic that you can buy your way into heaven, and purchase your forgiveness with money.
You need to understand the difference between mercy and grace. Mercy is when God with holds from us what we deserve…. Punishment. Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve… forgiveness and blessing.
In confirmation class we teach our students this acrostic on G R A C E.
God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.
Romans 3… “All of us need to be made right with God by His grace, which is a free gift through Jesus Christ.” “There is righteousness from God that comes to us through faith in Jesus….for all have fallen short of the glory of God…. And are justified freely by grace, through Jesus Christ..”
If you ask fifty to a hundred people along the sidewalk “How do you get to heaven?” You’d get a lot of different answers. But basically they would all be summarized in, “You’ve got to earn your way into heaven.” Or “The way you get to heaven is you try to be good and do your best.” Or “Work real hard a being good and just try to be a good, moral person.”
You need to understand that God says that salvation is absolutely free…. You can not earn it, you can not buy it, you can not work for it.
This is the fundamental difference between Christianity and every other religion. Every other religion, every other belief system, I don’t care if it’s Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam…. You can summarize every other religion in one word…. “Do”. Each system is different. They may have a different list but to gain heaven, to gain God’s approval, it’s always something you have to do. Rules, regulations, rituals.
On the other hand if you were to summarize Christianity in one word, it’s the word “done.” It was done on the cross by Jesus Christ…. In answer to the question of the two young adults who walked by the church in Berlin… “The guy hanging on the cross was Jesus.”
E. Stanley Jones once said: “Grace is free, but when once you take it you are bound forever to the Giver.”
The grace of God. This is why we have gathered this morning. We have gathered to give thanks to God for His grace and our Lutheran heritage. Someone once said: “If we stop celebrating who we are we risk loosing our identity.”
Historical events, dates on a calendar are reminders of our spiritual journey with God. In the month of October, on All Hallowed Eve, in the year 1517, Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor at the University of Wittenberg, Germany posted his 95 thesis on the door of the Castle Church. And so the Reformation began on the Eve of All Saints Day.
During the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church was selling indulgences. An indulgence was a piece of paper that you could buy from the church stating that your sins were forgiven. You could buy forgiveness of sins for a week, a month or a year depending on how much money you wanted to spend.
You see, people then and now, are not so different. People want some assurance that they can have peace with God. People want to be in heaven after their last heart beat on this planet. The want to be with God….. but how?
The piece of paper was an easy answer…. But it wasn’t God’s way. Eugene Peterson in “the Message” writes the words of Paul this way: “Since we have complied a long and sorry record as sinners… (We’ve tried to break our bad habits… we can’t.) Left to our own efforts to earn our salvation… we can never eradicate our past mistakes, the commandments we have broken… “We are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God will for us… so out of sheer generosity he put us in a right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in… God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear the world of sin.”
In Martin Luther’s day the average person heard these words: “As soon as the coin in the coffer clinks, the soul from purgatory springs.” With coins you could purchase forgiveness. Those words meant that the death of Jesus on the cross did not purchase total forgiveness nor righteousness.
Today we hear these words: “We are all on a spiritual journey. There are many pathways to God.” In Martin Luther’s day, the truth of justification was tossed out for the sake of coins and a piece of paper called an indulgence. In our day justification by faith in Jesus is tossed aside by the demand for tolerance and the loss of absolute truth.
Buddha said, “I’m searching for truth.” And he adopted the eight fold path to follow.
Mohammad said, “I am a prophet of the truth. I teach truth.” And the Koran was written.
The Hindu scriptures state: “truth is elusive.”
Everyone is betting on something. The Atheist is betting there is no God.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the life and the truth. No once comes to the Father except through me.” He did not say, “I am one truth among many.”
The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Corinth. “For God made Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might be righteous, holy and forgiven in God’s sight.” In the world of psychology this is called “transference.” God transferred to Jesus all of our sins, the commandments we have broken and transferred to us all of His righteousness. It is a free gift… it is called grace.
Johnny Miller, who served as President of Columbia Bible College 1991-1999 in Columbia, South Carolina tells this story to help us understand the gravity of our sin, which separates us from God. He writes:
“I gained insight into the grace of God from a $.25 cent can of soda. I think it has made me a better servant of God. My son and I were in Atlanta, Georgia, for the play-offs between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals. A sign prohibited bringing food into the stadium, but I had lugged a bag with me. I rationalized that on my salary I couldn’t be expected to spend over a dollar for what I could buy for a quarter. I was fortunate to be someone’s guest at the game. Furthermore, it would be a waste to throw away food. So I slid through the gate with my bag at my side, and was relieved when the gatekeeper either didn’t see or didn’t care.
In the third inning I popped open a can of soda and was washing down some nuts when it struck me: “I was a criminal.” If an user saw me, we could be thrown out. What a humiliating headline; Bible College Professor ejected!.
Then I realized something worse: “I was a sinner.” To save 75 cents I had risked my honor, my integrity, and that of my Lord and my witness to my host.
You might think that I had an over active conscience. The crime, the sin seems so trivial. But that, is what makes it all the worse; That I would sell out so cheaply.
(My heart was not right.)
How could I make it up? Get arrested? Pay the fine? I seem stuck with unrelieved guilt. What can I do, God?
(Isn’t that the quest of every human being? What can I do?
Nothing! Grace! Jesus paid for this one too. Such a high
Price for such a cheap sin!
Grace is the offer of God to us. Heaven is not something we can earn… It is God’s free gift through faith in Jesus. Grace is the unexplained joy of God at giving something price…less to the totally improvised.
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.
My chains are gone… I’ve been set free.
My God my Savior has ransomed me.
And like a flood his mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace.”
