November 18, 2012
Grace Happens - Part 2
This week they announced the Major League Baseball awards for best rookies, pitchers, hitters and managers. How do you know which hitter is the best? Is it how many home runs, runs batted in, or batting average? Or maybe they will use their ~
on base % ~ slugging % ~ or those numbers combined or maybe they’ll use a new stat called Wins Above Replacement — which I don’t understand.
How will they choose? How do they know. Let me put it to you this way, then we’ll be done with baseball . . . In the N.L. – –
Buster Posey has the best batting average and “On Base %.”
Chase Headley has the most RBI’s.
Ryan Braun has the most home runs and combined OBP and SLG
Giancarlo Stanton has the best slugging %.
It can be confusing. Well, on Thursday, Buster Posey was named the MVP.
Is it that confusing for us when we think about getting to heaven? What do our stats need to look like? How many merit badges would it take to reach heaven? Would we need to get all 121 badges like they have in boy scouts? What if God graded on a merit system? It only makes sense that good people go to heaven. Scouts have their manual, we have ours, the Bible.
So, we should set out to read the Bible so we can earn our Bible badge. We can pray, and earn our praying hands badge. We should attend church and receive the church badge. And the list goes on and on. God looks down on us and marvels at how many merit badges we’ve earned; until that great day when we come before God and He hands us a merit badge sash that’s huge; and we all wear our merit badge sashes in heaven.
But, how many merit badges does God demand of us? If good people go to heaven, then how many merit badges do we need to earn? You’d think God would tell us. But the Bible doesn’t tell us how many we need to do to get into heaven.
God wants us to be honest, not to lie. So, we should be earning merit badges for telling the truth, right? Can you tell the truth 80% of the time and still earn it. What if God requires 90%, but you’re at 89%? Can you earn extra credit? Do telling white lies to protect people count? Does exaggerating count? Who’s going to tell us if we’re still falling short of the threshold number? Are there certain good things we must do to get into heaven — certain non-negotiables?
Are there final exams? Are the grades posted anywhere? So, if God gives us merit badges for doing good, then does He give us demerit badges for doing wrong and committing sin? How many good deeds do we need to do in order to offset the bad deeds? Most people operate off of the premise that good people go to heaven, so how many good things do we need to do? How good is good enough? The problem is . . . I can’t find the answer anywhere!!! There’s no number listed!
For example, the Bible says do not covet. So, if I do, how do I make up for it? Do I wash the car I coveted? The Bible says do not commit adultery. That’s a serious sin. If a person commits adultery, what should they do? Go to the dentist and get 5 root canals with no anaesthesia. How do you settle the score? Is there a way?
What if having done everything you could do to be good, you’re still not good enough?!
Most people will tell you . . . do good, you will be saved. Do right and you will be saved. Do more and you will be saved. The entire premise is ~ do and be, do and be, do and be. We become robots and walk around saying do-be-do-be-do-be-do.
It’s the most common song which is sung in the world. If you do, you will be. Do-be-do-be-do. Every religion has their version. Every religion says, do and you will be, except for one. They hold to the premise that good people go to heaven. Do this and you’re in; do that and you’re in; don’t do that and you’re in.
You see, the problem is that there’s no standard definition of goodness. How do we know what good really is? Whose definition do we follow? How do we know how much is enough? What if I haven’t forgiven enough? Worshiped enough? Prayed enough? Given enough? Played with my kids enough? Helped the neighbor enough?
What if I asked you to play a game of catch with me, but didn’t tell you the rules. You might assume you know the rules, but when I throw the ball to you and you catch it, I tell you, “too bad, you lost 10 points.” Would you like that kind of game, a game where you don’t know the rules? You don’t know when you’re winning or losing points. You’d quit pretty soon. Maybe you’d quit on a God like that, too. A God who demands you to be good, but doesn’t tell you how good you have to be. We’d walk away from a God like that.
But that’s not the kind of God we have. Our God chose not to grade on a merit system. We have the kind of God who chose to save on a grace system. Paul teaches us ~ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. - Ephesians 2:8
What happens when grace happens? You receive the most amazing gift. It’s better than any Christmas present you’re going to receive this year. Can you earn this gift? Because if you have to earn a gift, it’s no longer a gift. This is a huge statement, it flies in the face of all the people and religions which believe if you’re good, you’re in.
Here, God tells us I will give you the gift of salvation. You don’t earn it, which is so great, because you cannot earn salvation. According to the Bible, it’s not that we’re good people who don’t know what to do, it’s really the opposite, we’re sinners, who fall short of the glory of God.
We are dead in trespasses and sins . . . - Ephesians 2:1
We are . . . lost . . . - Luke 19:10
We are . . . perishing . . . - John 3:16
We are . . . under the wrath of God . . . - John 3:36
We are . . . blinded . . . - 2 Corinthians 4:3-4
We are like an unclean thing. And all our righteousness is like filthy rags. - Isaiah 64:6
We really don’t like to hear that, do we? It’s true, but it’s not good news. We don’t like to admit we’re sinners, or wicked or commit iniquities. Notice in the great hymn about grace, Amazing Grace, the first line goes like this . . . Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a decent guy like me. Oh, I wish, but then I wouldn’t need grace. No, John Newton understood, we’re all wretches. Not a kind word, is it? We tend not to dwell on the word wretch, instead we dwell on the word grace. But, maybe it would help to focus more on what it means to be a sinner and a wretch, so we can more appreciate the gift of grace even more.
One of the ways Jesus explained sin was in a parable from Luke 19. He said ~
12 He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to crowned king and then to return.
13 So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds of silver to invest for him while he was gone.
14 But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’
Now, who’s who in the story. Jesus is the king and we are the servants in the story. We’ve told Jesus, we don’t want Him to be our king. We’re just fine on our own. In fact, the crown looks just fine on my head. Thanks for asking, but you’re free to go help someone else.
Sin is our intentional and unintentional moving away from God. It’s our belief that I comes before God. And when we do that, we are committing sin. Isaiah 53:6 says it well ~ We all, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.
When God showed us His way, we said, ‘no thanks, I’m good, just the way I am. I’m going to go my way.’ We’ve all found our own way. It’s not that few of us have, it’s that ALL of us have.
Paul said, 10 there is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. – Romans 3:10-12
Most pastors don’t like to talk about sin. And it probably doesn’t put you in a good mood. We don’t get excited hearing this. But hear’s the point, any understanding of grace must include a conversation about sin. To understand the beauty and power of grace we must understand the severity of sin.
In order to understand how great God’s gift of grace is, we need to understand how ugly our rebellion against God is. We try to downplay our sin. It’s not that bad. It didn’t hurt anyone. Nobody else knows what I did.
The bottom line is this ~ God has a great dream for you and I. His dream is for a new kingdom filled with people from every tribe, every language, and every nation. It will be filled by people who have agreed that He is the King, and they are not. What will make heaven even better, adding to the fact that there will be no sickness, no death, no hunger, no heat, no cold, but add to that the fact that there will be no sin, no rebellion. We will not be enemies, we will be together in heart, spirit and mind. Isn’t that cool?
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. – Ephesians 2:8-9
There will be no boasting in heaven, because all of those merit badges will be on the ground. God isn’t focused on our good works to get us into heaven. We need to understand that. He’s first and foremost concerned with our heart, our spirit and our mind. Not with our hands and our feet.
You see, God does expect us to work. In fact, we were created to work, and on top of that, we were created to do good works. BUT, there’s that word again . . . we were created to do good works because we’ve experienced the grace, power and presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Remember that little song — — do-be-do-be-do-be-do-be-do?
Instead - we do not to be . . . we do because of Him.
We don’t need more works to do, we need someone to do the works for us. God does not save good people. Let me say it this way . . . good people do not go to heaven. You know why? Because there are none. But God does save sinners. He does save those who admit they are in need of grace and forgiveness.
In Isaiah 55, we read these great words ~ 1 Come to me all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Who comes to God’s table? You who have no money, you who are bankrupt, you who have nothing to bring, you who are spiritually bankrupt, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. God didn’t come to call the righteous, but to call the sinners.
When it comes to salvation, your merits do not matter. Whatever great achievements you’ve accomplished, add nothing to what God has given you through Jesus Christ His Son. It’s a gift. And I might add, just as your merits add nothing, your demerits do not remove the free gift of salvation God has given to you through Jesus Christ.
So, your merits do not give you salvation, so you cannot boast; and your demerits do not take away your salvation, so you shouldn’t be afraid. We live in a state of God’s wonderful and powerful, never ending amazing grace!
