Grace…
Ephesians - Live Like You Really Are
Chuck Sligh
January 22, 2012
TEXT: Ephesians 1:2 – “Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. ”
INTRODUCTION
Paul frequently opened his letters with his desire that his readers experience these twin blessings—grace and peace. Today I want to talk to you about grace, and next week we will discuss peace.
Illus. – At a comparative religions conference at Oxford University, the wise and the scholarly were in a spirited debate about what is unique about Christianity.
Someone suggested that what set Christianity apart from other religions was the incarnation, but it was pointed out that this if found in some other religions too.
Another suggestion was the resurrection; but it was again pointed out that some other religions have accounts of people returning from the dead.
Then, as the story is told, C.S. Lewis, the famous 20th century Oxford Christian apologist, walked into the room a little early for his presentation. After hearing a little of the debate, he asked, “What’s all this rumpus about?”
“We’re debating what’s unique about Christianity.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” answered Lewis. “It’s grace.” Lewis continued by pointing out that only Christianity claims God’s love comes free of charge, no strings attached.
No other religion makes that claim:
• Buddhists follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment. – It’s not free at all.
• Hindus believe in karma, that your actions determine your next life.
• Jews believe that one must keep God’s Law to be acceptable to God
• In Islam, one must do certain actions to appease Allah, who is not a god of love.
• Only Christianity posits a God who loves mankind unconditionally, so much so that He devised a plan to provide salvation as a totally free gift that merely has to be accepted by faith: plus nothing and minus nothing.
Grace is THE distinctive of Christianity, so we need to understand it.
The word grace is a very important and precious word in the Christian’s vocabulary.
Think of the many songs that have been written about grace—
• Old standards include Amazing Grace; Wonderful Grace of Jesus; Grace Greater than Our Sin; and Only a Sinner Saved by Grace.
• Contemporary songs also exalt God’s grace through songs such as Amazing Grace—My Chains Are Gone; Your Grace Is Enough and Grace Alone.
The great Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest says: “It is hardly too much to say that the mind of God has in no word uttered itself and all that was in His heart more distinctly than in this word grace.” (Treasures of the New Testament, Kenneth Wuest, p. 15)
What is grace? Well, it depends upon the context in which the word it used. The Bible actually uses the word grace in three distinct ways in the New Testament. Let’s examine them:
I. FIRST, THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF SAVING GRACE – Go with me to Ephesians 2:8-9 – For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Everything about this passage of scripture drips of grace.
The Greek word for grace is charis.
In classical Greek charis meant “a favor freely done, without claim or expectation or return.” The ancient Greeks used charis as a favor that was always bestowed on a FRIEND, never an enemy.
Right there charis leaps an infinite distance from the Greeks, for God gave His Son for His ENEMIES, and Jesus died for his ENEMIES—a thing unheard of before.
So biblically speaking, saving grace may be defined as “the action whereby God freely gives to unworthy, willing recipients that which he does not deserve.”
Grace is nicely expressed in a well-known acrostic of the word:
G od’s
R iches
A t
C hrist’s
E xpense
Why do we need God’s grace, and how did God’s provision of it come about?
Paul explains this in Ephesians 2, which we’ll look at in detail in a few weeks. But to understand the scripture we just read—Ephesians 2:8-9—we’ll have to take a quick peek at the verses before it.
Verses 1-3 describe the reason we need to be saved to begin with. – Paul explains how we were dead in trespasses and sins against God and we walked according to the course of this world and Satan and fulfilled the desires of our flesh and mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, that is, we were destined for God’s judgment of our sin.
But verse 7 tells us that God showed “the exceeding riches of His GRACE in His kindness to us through Jesus Christ.” You know the story: Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth, lived a sinless life; died on the cross for our sins in our place; rose from the dead; and ascended into heaven to be at the right hand of God the Father. While on the cross, God poured out His judgment on Jesus for our sin so that it was punished in Jesus instead of us having to pay the penalty ourselves.
So then we come to verses 8-9 where Paul makes it clear that on the basis of what Christ did on the cross, our salvation is a free gift, and there is NOTHING we could EVER do in the way of works or good deeds or religious activity that could appease God’s wrath against our sin. His wrath has already been appeased by the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of every person.
We can only be saved by accepting God’s free gift of salvation through faith. Through faith in what? Jesus answered that question many times in His earthly ministry. Perhaps the greatest expression of His answer is found in the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
If you would simply believe Jesus’s promise and trust in Jesus, instead of trusting in your works or religious duties, you have the solemn promise of Jesus, God’s Son, who as God cannot lie, that you will have everlasting life, and in the process, God will take your life and clean it up and give you the Holy Spirit to guide you into righteous living.
Illus. – In the early 20th century, a minister named Harry Morehouse was walking in a poorer section of the city where he lived, and watched as a boy of five or six came out of a store carrying a pitcher of milk. The little lad made his way carefully along the street, and then slipped and fell. The pitcher broke, and the milk ran all over the sidewalk. The boy let out a wail, and Morehouse rushed to see if he was hurt. There was no physical damage, but the youngster wouldn’t be consoled and kept crying repeatedly, “Mama’ll whip me! My mama’ll whip me!”
Morehouse said to him, “Maybe the pitcher isn’t broken in too many pieces; let’s see if we can put it together again.” The boy stopped crying at once and after buying some glue, he watched Morehouse start gluing the pitcher back together. There were one or two failures and each time the boy started crying again, but was silenced by the big preacher. Finally the whole pitcher was complete except for the handle.
Then Morehouse handed the finished pitcher to the little fellow. But within a few steps, the boy knocked the whole thing apart once more. This time there was no stopping his tears, so Morehouse gathered the boy in his arms, walked down the street to a nearby store and bought a new pitcher.
Then he and the boy returned to the grocery store and had the pitcher washed and filled with milk. He carried the boy on one arm and balanced the pitcher of milk in the other hand until they arrived at the boy’s home. Very gently he deposited the little boy on his front steps, put the pitcher carefully into his hands and asked, “Now will your mama whip you?” A smile broke across his dirty little face. “Oh, no sir! ’cause it’s a lot better pitcher’n we had before.”
Listen to me: if you’ve never been saved, the pitcher of your life and its milk of your goodness have been spilled and broken beyond re-gathering and you stand ready for a whipping from God for Hebrews 9:27 says, “…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” You may have spent much time trying to patch the pieces together again, but God assures you that you are broken beyond repair. But praise God, the Lord Jesus has intervened to save you! He waits for you to come to the place where you realize it’s impossible for YOU to repair your life in a way that would ever satisfy the perfect holiness of the God.
And you know what He wants to do? He wants to give you an entirely new pitcher—that is, a whole new nature, a new life, one better than the old one. And then He wants to fill the pitcher of your new life with forgiveness of sin and a home in heaven, a family called the church that will love you and nurture you and help you and give you a sense of belonging. Finally, Jesus wants to carry you in safety in His strong arms ALL THE WAY TO THE FATHER.
These are God’s riches at Christ’s expense—all FREE, all because of God’s “amazing grace.” Oh, dear friend, THAT’S GRACE!—Marvelous, wondrous, matchless, FREE GRACE!
But there is one thing He will not do—He will not force His grace upon you. You must see the need for God’s provision because of your sin before God, and you must abandon all hope of salvation in any works or goodness in you, and you must come to God in humble trust in what Jesus did on the cross for you at Calvary. As Paul said in Romans 3:24 – “Being justified FREELY by his GRACE through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” I urge you to turn to Christ TODAY. TODAY avail yourself of the grace of God before it is everlastingly too late.
II. THE SECOND WAY THE BIBLE USES THE WORD GRACE IS WHAT WE MIGHT CALL SUSTAINING GRACE. – Please go with me to 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 – “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Paul doesn’t tell us what his “thorn in the flesh” was, but by definition, a thorn in the flesh is something painful or uncomfortable that goes on and on. Perhaps it was trials and persecutions that Paul bore, for he says in verse 10 – “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” Most expositors believe that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was a painful and grotesque eye disease that plagued him in the latter years of his life.
We don’t know for sure what it was, but it was something bad enough that Paul pleaded three times with God for God to lift it from Him. But instead, God chose not to heal him. God’s only answer to Paul was this: “My grace is sufficient for thee, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities…” This is God’s “sustaining grace.”
God’s sustaining grace may be defined as “the power and strength to persevere and overcome trials and difficulties.”
How many times have I been in the very valley of despair, facing some trial, or obstacle to my comfort, or opposition, or struggle, and I didn’t think I could bear it any longer! My cross seemed too heavy to bear. I BEGGED the Lord to TAKE it away—to DELIVER me from it. I would say to the Lord, like the Psalmist, “Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. 6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. 7 Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness.… 8 I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.” (Psalm 55:5-8)
But instead of deliverance, the Lord reminded me: “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
And you know—God’s grace IS sufficient!
• Somehow, God strengthens His people with grace in the midst of trials.
• Somehow, we overcome.
• Somehow, we’re compelled to go on, to not give up, to trust the Lord, despite the struggles.
Where do we get the power to do that—from the reservoir of God’s sustaining grace. And everyone who has gone through these times of despair and trouble can testify at the end of it that God’s grace is the only thing that got them through it.
III. FINALLY, THERE SEEMS TO BE A THIRD WAY THE BIBLE USES THE WORD GRACE—WHAT WE MIGHT CALL SANCTIFYING GRACE. – 1 Corinthians 15:10 says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
Grace in this aspect may be defined as “the desire, will and power to do God’s will.”
Paul is saying here that what he has achieved in his Christian life was not by his own power, but the grace of God that was working in Him.
Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 2:13 – “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” – If you either DESIRE to do God’s will, and if you ever DO God’s will, it is because of God giving you those desires and the power to act upon those desires.
These Scriptures teach that God operates in us, and it is through His grace that we function in the Christian life if we let Him.
• God commands us to LOVE HIM; then He gives us the grace to love Him—that is, the will, power and desire to love Him.
• He commands us to SERVE HIM; then He gives us the grace to serve Him.
• He commands us to LIVE HOLY BEFORE GOD—then He gives us the grace to be holy.
• He commands us to LOVE ONE ANOTHER—then He gives us the grace to love one another.
Sometimes people delay trusting in Christ because they don’t think they can live the Christian life. They’re right; they can’t—not by themselves. But BY GOD’S GRACE—they CAN.
Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13) – That is, with GOD’S GRACE operating in my life.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul said “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
That’s sanctifying grace—the will, power and desire to do God’s will.
CONCLUSION
Praise God for the wonderful grace of Jesus!
If you’re not saved this morning I urge you to accept God’s free gift of grace. What a tragedy it would be to throw away something obtained at such great cost, but free to you.
The writer of Hebrews said it this way, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation…” (Hebrews 2:3)
Later he says, “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto [that means to insult] the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29)
Oh dear sinner, don’t trod under foot the Son of God who died for you. Don’t discount the blood of Christ shed for you. Do not insult the Spirit of grace working in you and wooing you to Himself. Come to Jesus and be saved today.
If you are saved already, God’s grace ought to produce three responses from you:
• First, such wonderful, undeserved grace wrought at such great sacrifice by our Lord ought to compel you to surrender wholly to God.
Is there some area you should surrender to Christ today? Is there some sin that you need to confess this morning? Are you right with God? If not, why not make things right today?
• Second, when we ponder the incredible grace of God, it ought to motivate us to work and labor for such a giving, gracious Lord.
If I gave you a gift of a million dollars, you would be grateful to me the rest of my life. God has given us SO much more that! Let’s serve Him with our whole hearts in return.
• Third, in the midst of trouble and trial—go to the Lord for sustaining grace.
You can appropriate it, and rest in it, and it will give you the strength to carry on through those difficult times. Where do you find God’s sustaining grace? In God’s Word, in the closet of prayer, and in the community of the people of God.
