Surpassing Riches
Ephesians 2: 5-10
Listen to the response of people to one song. An opera singer said, “There’s a kind of wonderful calm that I feel when I sing this, a kind of uncomplicated feeling, the way one felt as a child.”
Johnny Cash said that this was, “a song with no guile…straight ahead, honest, gut level and heart level. When I sing that song, I could be in a dungeon, or I could have chains all over me, but I’d be free as a breeze.”
Judy Collins said, “It was always the song that gave me an inner experience of another dimension. I always feel that there’s a mystical territory between me and the audience.”
Marion Williams a gospel singer says, “It gets to most everyone. It gets to the heart of men.”
At his 91st birthday party, Dewey Williams said, “I feel good. I just can’t help it when I get to singing that song; It just do something to me.” (prison & beach)
In a Huntsville , Texas, prison, an inmate says, “I couldn’t hardly sing that song and get through, you know, four verses of it without chocking up…all I could do was just be humming and crying.
A Harlem choir boy says of his reaction to the song: I feel like I’m walking on a beach, and like wind is hitting me and stuff like that. That’s how I feel about it. Not like a rough wind; like a soft wind, just coming by, like a breeze.”
What could get such a response from such a varied group of people? What song could move so many different souls? It is a song that has spoken to the souls of so many for so many years. It is John Newton’s hymn, Amazing Grace.
While on the "Trail of Tears," the Cherokee Indians were not always able to give their dead a full burial. Instead, they sang a translation of Amazing Grace. There have been over 3000 published recordings of this song; it is the largest such collection of a single musical work in the recorded sound collection of the Library of Congress.
The full breadth of the collection is revealed by the great range of performance styles: big band, blues, classical, country, ‘easy listening,’ electronic, folk, gospel, different styles of jazz, ‘novelty,’ operatic, pop, rap, rock, rhythm ‘n’ blues, soul, and various ethnic, or ‘world music,’ styles.
The wide array of performers include children’s groups, religious ensembles, concert bands, bagpipers, steel guitarists, famous soloists and American Indians.
The song is about God’s grace. God’s grace is a doctrine of the highest value, revealed in its fullness in the pages of the N.T. Some of those ideas are described in the Book of Ephesians.
Eph 2:5-10 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly place in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Christianity is the only religious view that has salvation by grace. Hinduism is a works system. It demands progressive lives to achieve salvation by a process of works through reincarnation.
Janinism which is also found in India is one of the most severe systems of legalism in the world. Only the strong can be saved.
Confucianism emphasis the wisdom and efforts of man.
Buddhism is just another form of Hinduism that includes the discipline of figuring things out by observation.
In Islam ones salvation is never certain but there are all kinds of works that must be done to earn Allah’s approval.
The same is true of other cult groups.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are trying hard to earn favor by following the instructions of Headquarters and distributing WatchTower material.
Mormons baptize for dead people, do temple duty, mission work and other works to make it to various levels of heaven.
The Moonies are out selling flowers and all kinds of panhandling.
Hare Krishnas are just evangelistic Hindus.
Grace is something shown or received but it is not earned. Author, Phillip Yancey quotes a prostitute who was down and out in Chicago. She was asked if she had ever thought about going to church. Shockingly, she replied, “church!
Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. That would just make me feel worse.”
This does not mean we as the church overlook sin but do we give sinners the feeling they can approach us? Many have a view of church life as something that demands obedience to all kinds of rules before you can even begin to participate. (God’s grace rainbow)
We all need it, and not just from God but from and for each other. Any life examined close enough will reveal flaws and some of those flaws may be things we have to accept and receive. If everyone has to meet a criteria of perfection, your circle of fellowship will be very limited. Actually it will be only you and Jesus and it will only be Jesus showing the grace.
None of us can have a relationship with another human unless it is based on some grace. There is always something we must overlook, accept, be willing to deal with, show patience toward, offer forgiveness, demonstrate forbearance, tolerant and understand. By the way the more you offer grace and show grace and live grace- the more you may receive it when you mess up.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “to be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
Grace is the best gift Christians can give the world because it is the best gift we have ever received. From an early age we are taught to survive in a world that does not know grace. We are taught mottos such as: the early bird gets the worm, no pain no gain, there is no such thing as a free lunch, demand your rights, get what you pay for. None of these reflect grace.
Grace is a terribly misunderstood word and defining it sufficiently is notoriously difficult. Some of the most detailed theology textbooks do not offer any concise definition of the term. Someone has proposed an acronym: GRACE is G od’s R iches A t C hrist’s E xpense. One of the best-known definitions of grace is only three words: God’s unmerited favor.
A. W. Tozer expanded on that idea by saying, “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits on the undeserving.” Berkhof is more to the point when he says’ grace is “the unmerited operation of God in the heart of man, effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit”.
E. Stanley Jones once said:
“Grace is free, but when once you take it you are bound forever to the Giver.”
The Russian Czar, Alexander, used to love to disguise himself and mingle with his people to hear what they have to say. One night he visited the army camp and listened to some soldiers. While passing a tent he saw a young soldier sitting at a table with his head on his arm, sound asleep. The Czar tiptoed to the back of the chair and looked over his shoulder. There on the table before him he saw a loaded revolver. Beside the revolver was a sheet of paper with a long list of gambling debts.
After seeing the total the Czar noted a sentence below the figures saying, “who can pay so much?” Suddenly the czar understood the situation. The young officer had gambled away all he had and was about to take his own life for fear of the consequences that would come from not being able to meet his debts.
Then the Czar took up the pen and below the young soldiers question wrote the words “I, Alexander, Czar of Russia”. Quietly he turned away and went home.
The next morning the young officer woke up and immediately took hold of the revolver when suddenly he saw writing on his letter that he had not put there. He read the words of the Czar and in amazement he dropped the revolver. At first thinking it was some cruel joke, he then looked up a man approaching him with a bag. The messenger came to his tent with a bag of money from the Czar. The young soldier’s debt was paid in full and his life was spared both from his debt collectors and from himself.
Jesus once taught his followers to pray:
Matt. 6:12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’
Ephesians 2: 7,8 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Come and receive His grace and then leave and show it!
