Today is the wrap up sermon of our winter sermon series. Sadly, though, it is still winter. We have been talking about salvation for five weeks. Today I want to review a bit and maybe tie some loose ends together. This concept is really important: that we understand our salvation so that we value the gift of eternal life, that we thank and praise the giver of that gift, and that we have a better idea how that gift extends beyond our lives to the lives of other people, those not yet saved.
We’ve been looking primarily at two passages: Romans 8 and Ephesians 1. Today we are going to venture into Ephesians 2. This summarizes so much of what we have been talking about this winter.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. [that is the bad news–it is terrible, hopeless, news. Thankfully it isn’t the end of the story.] 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. 6 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. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
We began this series talking about sin, just as Ephesians 2 begins with a frank assessment of sin. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” A grim assessment.
But if you go to the doctor with a head ache and he prescribes aspirin, tells you to take it easy and have a glass of red wine, and it turns out you have a brain tumor, you under-diagnosed, under-estimated the problem and therefore came up with the WRONG cure, in fact the deadly cure.
Getting hit with the bad news opens up the door to the right cure, and ultimately delivers the life-giving cure.
Having an accurate assessment of the problem helps figure out the cure.
The problem with so much “faith” and “religion” is that it under-diagnoses, under-estimates the problem and therefore does not come up with an accurate cure.
WE under diagnose the problem of sin and therefore we don’t get the cure. The problem is a radical one, the cure needs to be equally severe.
I. Radical Sin, Radical Salvation
A. When I was preaching in seminary I came up with a little drawing, which I have tried to duplicate in Powerpoint. To me it helps understand the importance of a proper understanding of sin.
1. This is the sea of sin (“sin” is the Bible’s world for what is wrong with us and the world). It is a sea, an image of chaos and death. If you are left on your own in this sea of sin, you will die.
2. In the sea of sin is the boat of salvation–the safe place where we are free from sin (the devastating consequences of sin).
3. I’m going to lump every religious view (not just Christian) together and say that some people have a mild view of sin. It’s like when you are a kid and you aren’t suppose to sit too close to the edge and dangle your feet in the water, and you do.
4. You end up getting your feet wet with sin. Ruin a good pair of Sunday shoes. I once kicked my shoes into the badlands in South Dakota.
5. A moderate view of sin is when you take it a step farther–literally, and you have fallen over board. You are in the sea of sin, in real trouble, in danger of dying in that chaos.
6. You need help. Then there is
7. what I consider the radical view of sin. You are laying on the bottom of the sea of sin. Without a pulse. Decaying.
8. This is the image of what the Bible calls “Dead in your trespasses and sins.” This is a little more severe than falling over board.
Your view of SIN defines your view of a SAVIOR, just as the correct diagnosis of a disease determines the right kind and dose of medicine to treat that disease.
9. Look up at the boat and you will see the kind of savior that is needed if you have a mild view of sin. If your only problem is that you have splashed your soul in a little sin, then what you need is a good example to follow. Jesus is that example. You decide to follow Jesus, do the hard work of changing yourself, and you will be saved.
10. Adam, with this view of sin, is a bad example. Don’t follow the sinful example of Adam; follow the good example of Jesus.
a. TRUE: Jesus is a good example! But he is so much more because our sin is so much worse and we need more than a good example.
11. The moderate view of sin is far more biblical. It requires a savior who does more than just stands there and shows us how to behave. We need help; Jesus is our helper. So he throws us the lifeline (the ultimate lifesaver)– he gives us the help we need by dying on the cross for our sins, he gives us forgiveness for jumping overboard, jumping away from God into the sea of sin. We are in trouble, we need help. We need to grab that lifeline and hold on as Jesus pulls us to salvation.
12. The radical view of sin requires a radical response by God. So God sends Jesus, his one and only son, into the world of sin. This is the incarnation, Jesus being born into this humble, sinful world. He comes DOWN to our level. Immersed.
13. When he reaches us he breathes life into our still, cold carcase. The Holy Spirit is like the oxygen to our souls that bring life back into what was once only death.
14. Or, as our passage says, He “makes us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions.”
B. That radical view of sin is the biblical view of sin. I know we often minimize sin and pretend we are still in the sun on the deck splashing “harmlessly” in the water; but God, whose judgement is perfect, says that our sin is the very thing that is killing us, and has left us for dead.
C. Your view of sin affects/defines your view of salvation. This passage lays it out so clearly and applies it so personally. Verse 1: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.”
1. 1 John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
2. You will get nothing genuine out of this sermon unless you understand that YOU are the stick figure at the bottom of the sea of sin. Or, if you have been saved for a while, then you were.
3. Verse 3 “All of us also lived among them [the disobedient, the objects of God’s wrath] at one time.”
4. Given that WE are sinners, that SIN is far more serious than we imaged it to be . . .
D. We don’t need advice. (We need radical Good News).
1. We don’t JUST need help.
2. We need new life. We need to be born again. We need to move from death to life. A little bit of help here and there isn’t going to cut it when we are dead and decaying at the bottom of the sea of sin.
3. There are plenty of people who can give you advice. Buddha has some great advice, so do fortune cookies.
4. There are lots of people who will give you help. The US Government and its many programs.
5. But . . .
E. There is but one savior. Salvation is unlimited in that it is offered to everyone, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but there is only one way to the surface, one way to escape the sea of our own sin--the person of Jesus Christ.
1. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men.”
2. A mediator is a go-between, someone who represents both sides. Jesus (who is eternal God) left heaven, became a man, in order to be the go-between, the mediator. The only mediator.
3. He, and he alone, was able to live a sinless life and offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins, pay the price, atone for sin. There is NO OTHER sacrifice, NO OTHER way to the eternal safety of salvation.
Given this reality of radical sin (DEATH) and radical salvation . . .
II. The Credit Goes to . . . Grace: It’s All God
It can’t go to us because we were laying on the slimy sludge at the bottom of the sea.
A. God initiates our salvation. It begins with his plan, his choosing, his grace. It is all God. Go back to your picture–who sent Jesus down to our level to save us from our sin?
1. If you have a radical view of sin, then you understand that at some point we were extremely passive in our own salvation.
2. If we were dead in our sin, then someone breathed spiritual life into us, awoken us, and then gave us the new life we needed. (Regenerated us so that we were born again).
3. According to this passage, that someone is God.
4. Ephesians 2:4-5 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”
5. This passage also clearly identifies who is responsible for bringing us up all the way to the surface. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:6.
6. The point of this passage is to emphasize grace, because . . .
B. Misplaced credit opens the door to pride, to boasting. If we do anything to deserve or earn salvation, we open the door to pride. then we elevate ourselves and demote God.
1. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
2. One of the big points about dwelling on our salvation is to highlight the role of God, so that we end up praising him more. Consider what he did. We were dead. Now we are alive.
3. “it is by grace you have been saved” Ephesians 2:5. One way to say this is that it is ONLY grace. 100% grace. Not a little help (God helps them that help themselves). No, it is all God.
4. If we don’t get that concept, pride will take over our souls and we will become nasty religious people.
5. If we get the concept of grace, then love will transform us into beautiful religious people. Because . . .
C. Love and grace grow together. You remember we met this woman in Luke 7 who crashed a dinner party hosted by Simon the Pharisee. She was the town sinner. She wept, with her tears she washed Jesus’ feet. Then she poured perfume on his feet and kissed them. Jesus offered her forgiveness of her many sins, and pointed out to the self-righteous Simon that he had shown no love to Jesus. So Jesus takes the opportunity to teach, Luke 7:47 “But he who has been forgiven little loves little." And those who have been forgiven much love much. If you are a Christian, you are forgiven MUCH. Every sin, sins of omission, sins you’ve committed, sins that rage in the secret places of your heart, rebellion that defies any rational explanation, sins of your childhood, your teen years, even sins in your future, sins on the day you die, ALL is forgiven in Jesus. Sin is radical. Salvation is even more so. And when we start to get that, we become less like self-righteous Simon the Snob and more like the weeping woman with the perfume, wanting nothing more than to stand by Jesus, expecting nothing more than to be able to serve him, even with our tears and our hair.
1. WE become more loving people, greater servants, when we get the concept of grace.
D. Now I know what some of you must be thinking. What about faith. One of the things I’ve learned from this sermon series is that Faith is basically . . .
III. Showing Up
A. Faith is not a work. Faith is showing up, saying I need what you have, and accepting it as a free gift. Look at how faith and works are contrasted in this passage:
1. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.
2. Do you need faith to accept the gift of salvation freely offered to you? Absolutely. At some point, when the Spirit has breathed life into your soul, taken your heart of stone and made it into a heart of flesh, you respond in faith to God’s grace.
3. But the Bible never identifies faith as anything more than a response to grace. Faith isn’t something we DO (work), it’s just saying, “Here I am. A sinner. And I need what you have. I need salvation, new life. I accept it.”
4. Faith is no more a work than a child opening a present on Christmas day earns that present by unwrapping it. It is just accepting what is 100% a gift from someone else.
5. Because our salvation is all grace, from beginning to end, the completion of our salvation depends on God’s faithfulness and not ours. That’s good news because . . .
B. Salvation is not the end of the story of our lives. It is the beginning of a journey.
1. “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6.
2. During that journey with Jesus on the road of salvation, God has called us to do great things. “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10. That sentence comes after the radical teaching on grace because we won’t serve God with our whole hearts and with our lives unless we get grace, until we understand the absolute gift of our new life. Then, out of thanks and love, we serve God; we serve our community; we serve the world as Jesus did.
3. “He who has been forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:47.
4. On the other hand, when we understand what Jesus has done for us, we want to show him our love, we want to show his love to other people.
Sometimes Christians resist the clear radical teaching on grace because we are afraid of spiritual apathy, which means being a lazy Christian.
If I’m saved by grace, and I can’t lose my salvation, why should I do anything? Where’s my motivation???
Love. Gratitude!
If God chooses people, if predestination is working in this world, in people’s lives, then why do I need to share the gospel?
That’s not the logical conclusion of all this.
What is amazing is that God has a plan,
that he is working in our lives
And through our lives
AND in the lives of other people–even godless pagan people,
to adopt them into his family.
The Holy Spirit is working in the lives of unbelievers,
and we are called to partner with God
to JOIN IN the good work that he is already doing.
I find more comfort, more motivation, more confidence
to live out my faith and share my faith
when I understand God’s grace.
He has me in his hands, he has everyone else too.
This truth that all have sinned–this levels the playing field. What do I have in common with people outside the church? Sin.
Radical sin and the need for a radical savior.
Challenge: 5 points of Calvinism?
There are theological labels that we attach to many of these biblical ideas that we’ve talked about over the last month. You can call the mild view of sin Pelagianism, and the moderate view Arminianism, and the radical view of sin, Calvinism. You might say that we have spent the last five weeks talking about the five main points of Calvinism.
I have tried to present the teachings of these ideas from the Bible without using the theological labels and phrases (unless they are in the Bible), because I find that often the theological label creates more problems than it solves. I can speak the language of theology, I just choose not to unless it helps us understand the biblical teaching.
CONCLUSION: Our sin has orphaned us from God. But our Father loves us and has provided for our reunion with him.
Jesus is the way to the Father. He is the one who arranges your adoption, even before you are aware of it. YOU have been adopted. YOU are chosen. YOU are deeply loved. The papers are signed, the price has been paid, the home has been arranged, you simply have to . . .
Show up! Accept the gift that is freely given. Receive him, believe in his name, and you will have the right to be called a child of God.
