All Because of Grace
Ephesians 2:4-10
Community Bible Experience
March 23, 2014
Morning Service
Misconceptions about grace
1. Grace is not enough
Somehow we falsely believe that grace is not enough to provide salvation. We believe that we need something more to get into heaven. We have to have more faith, more prayer time or more service to the church. We believe that we have to do more spiritually because grace is too easy. There must be something more that we must do. When grace is no longer enough to gain salvation, salvation becomes about us instead of Jesus.
2. Grace can be earned
The false concept that grace can somehow be earned by enough good works or enough acts of service. We have to do enough good things to be able to get into heaven. If we could somehow earn grace, it wouldn’t be grace. How many good things would you have to do to get into heaven? The reality is that it is by grace alone that we gain entrance into heaven.
3. Grace allows us to sin
Another misconception is that because we live under God’s grace that it gives us the right to sin or behave however we wish. The reality is that we do live under the grace of God but it is not a license to sin or to go back to our old lives. The grace of God gives us the ability to live a godly life. Grace allows us to be empowered to walk with God and not walk in the old lifestyle.
This morning I want to explore the reality of God’s grace. If you have your Bibles with you, please open them to Ephesians 2:4-10
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. Ephesians 2:4-10
I. The life giving power of grace is amazing
The reality is that before we encountered God’s grace, we were dead. We were as lifeless as a car battery without any charge. We weren’t physically dead but rather we were spiritually dead. We were breathing, still had a pulse but we were really not living. We were simply existing, just being part of the landscape of life without experiencing life. There is a massive difference between being alive and really living. Just being physically alive does not mean that we really experience life.
Our transgressions and sins had created within us a state of spiritual death. We looked good on the outside but on the inside we were lifeless. Sin caused us to fall away from the plan that god had for our lives and we were living with an inner corruption that plagued every area of our lives. The corruption of sin was killing us from the inside out. We existed in the middle of an unlived life.
It is not until we experience the amazing nature of God’s limitless and amazing grace that we move from death to life. God’s grace causes a change within us and we move away from the unlived life and enter a new reality of eternal life. We have been given a spiritual jump start to bring the dead battery in our hearts to life.
God extended His divine favor to those who didn’t deserve it. Grace is being given what you need, instead of what you deserve. The reality is that we deserve to remain in the life that was dead. We deserve to be far away from God. We deserve a life that ends in death. Living in God’s grace means that He gives us precisely what we need rather than what we really deserve. God gives us life when we deserve to die – He offers us what we desperately need.
I have come that they may have life and have it to the full John 10:10
Jesus Himself makes the purpose of coming to earth clear. He came to give us life when we were walking in death. Jesus came to give us the opportunity to experience genuine life and to do so in abundant fashion. The life that Jesus offers is full and overflowing with His divine grace. He gives us a life that we can get no other way. Jesus exchanges the emptiness of our unlived life for the depth of His fullness. It is an offer that we could never earn and never deserve. We have this offer all because of grace.
II. The motivation behind grace is amazing
God extends His grace to us because He loves us too much to let us go. The Sidewalk Prophets have a song that brilliantly illustrates the reality of this.
You Loved Me Anyway
I am the thorn in Your crown
But You love me anyway
I am the sweat from Your brow
But You love me anyway
I am the nail in Your wrist
But You love me anyway
I am Judas’ kiss
But You love me anyway
See now, I am the man that called out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking ground
Yes then, I turned away with this smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out for You
So ashamed of my life, my life, my life
We were dead in our sins but God loved us anyway
We were rebels against Him but He loved us anyway
We were slaves to our sin nature but He loved us anyway
How is this even possible? All because of grace
God sought out what was in our best interest and did it. He came to bring us what we needed. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves and that exemplify the nature of God’s amazing grace. He acts with a compassion that we cannot comprehend. In our sinfulness, we would never be able to approach God. God approaches us with an offer of divine compassion. He trades our unlived life for an opportunity to genuinely live.
III. The place grace gives us is amazing
God first made us alive with Christ and changes us from the inside out. Then God raises us up with Christ. Not only do we have the promise of salvation through God’s grace. We are also given the promise that our new life starts the moment we accepted Christ.
Christ rose again, but our sins did not; they are buried forever in His grave – John Brown
We are raised up with Christ. This means that because of God’s grace we walk in the power of the resurrection here on earth. We get to live the grace filled life here and now. We don’t have to wait until we get to heaven, we can experience it now. We have the honor of walking in the resurrection power right now and that power allows us to live daily for Christ. Believers will be raised from the dead on the day of the resurrection but right now we are raised from the spiritual death caused by sin. We were dead but now we live because Jesus lives. All because of grace – amazing!
We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms
Jesus has taken His rightful place in the universe, at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus is seated in heaven as a sign of His finished work and triumph over sin and death. There are two distinct promises with this. First, we will one day be given a place in heaven with Christ. There is a future aspect to the work that we have not yet experienced.
Second, we are seated with Christ now. How can this be? We share in Christ’s victory over sin and death right now. We are given a new citizenship in Christ’s Kingdom, now. We are moved from death to life now.
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in our lives now. The power of the resurrection moves in us every day to help us live for Christ. The resurrection gives us hope in our trials. The resurrection gives us the strength of Jesus to overcome the power of sin. All because of grace.
Conclusion
Over two hundred years ago, the grace of God impacted the life of a man who had made himself wealthy through the slave trade. He was so touched by grace that not only was he saved, he became a minister in the Church of England. The man’s love of music led him to write hymns for the church. His name was John Newton and his most famous hymn is still sang today, Amazing Grace.
Grace is receiving a blessing that we do not deserve. The ultimate blessing that God wants to give us is rescuing us from sin and death. He breaks the chains that hold us in bondage.
What do you need to be set free from this morning? What chains are holding you back in you walk with God? What shackles are around you today?
As we sing this morning, open your heart today and let God rescue you. Let him step and save you from your bondage. The altar is open, come and find the grace you need.
