A. A comedian was joking about life in the U.S.A. and said, “Believe it or not, America is still the land of opportunity. An immigrant who comes to this country with absolutely nothing, and becomes a citizen, immediately owes $80,387.”
1. Yup, that is the share per citizen of the U.S.A. national debt as of 10 AM last Thursday morning.
a. And if they’re a tax paying family, then their share of the national debt is $213,276.
2. Next time you visit NYC, you might want to visit The National Debt clock, it is only a block away from Times Square.
a. The National Debt Clock is a billboard-sized running total display which is constantly updated to show the current United States gross national debt and each American family's share of the debt.
b. There are plans to install an updated model that can display some quadrillion dollars.
B. I’m not an economist, or a politician, but my experience has taught me that when people owe more than they earn or own, it usually causes trouble.
1. I’m not here this morning to talk about financial trouble, but the national debt clock is a good illustration to get us thinking about a different and more serious kind of debt.
2. What if heaven had a debt clock – not one that tabulated financial debt, but one that tabulated our spiritual debt?
3. The Bible often refers to sin in financial terms – Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts” (Mt. 6:12).
4. So, imagine for a moment that if sin is a debt, and there was a trespass counter in heaven that clicked a higher and higher total with each infraction, how big your number would be.
5. Which reminds me of the old joke about the man who died and went to heaven.
a. When he arrived at the Gates of Heaven, he saw a huge wall of clocks.
b. The man asked an angel, “What are all those clocks?”
c. The angel answered, “Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move.”
d. “Oh,” said the man, “And whose clock is that one, it looks like it has never moved?”
e. The angel answered, “That’s Moses’ clock. The hands have never moved, indicating that he never told a lie.”
f. “Incredible,” said the man, “And whose clock is that one?”
g. The angel said, “That’s Abraham Lincoln’s clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that honest Abe told only two lies in his entire life.”
h. The man asked, “So where’s my clock?”
i. “Your clock is in God’s office. He’s using it as a ceiling fan.”
C. So whether there is an adding machine totaling the number of our sins, or a clock spinning when we lie, the idea of our spiritual debt is depressing and scary, because our debt of sin has serious consequences.
1. The Bible tells us that: “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).
2. The Bible tells us: “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; you sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
3. Max Lucado writes: “The algebra of heaven reads something like this: heaven is a perfect place for perfect people, which leaves us in a perfect mess.”
D. Unfortunately, the realization of our moral debt sends some people into a frenzy of good works.
1. For them, life becomes an unending quest to do enough, to be better and to accomplish more.
2. They believe that if they attend church enough, and tend to the sick enough, and fast and pray enough, and give enough of their time and treasure, then their debt will be erased.
3. Sadly, this approach to salvation always leaves people wondering, “Have I done enough?” And most conclude: “Probably not!”
E. Other people, when faced with these thoughts of the debt of sin, and the path of good works, throw up their hands and walk away exasperated.
1. They give up in defeat, declaring, “It’s no use, I will never be good enough. God is too demanding. God will never be pleased or satisfied.”
2. Others just decide that none of this makes sense and that God must not exist, and if He does exist, He is not worth knowing.
F. Is there any hope for the weary legalist who is tired of trying to please God with their good works?
1. Is there any hope for the atheist who has concluded that there must be no God?
2. Are despair and disbelief the only options?
3. No, there is another option which clearly and correctly understands who God is and what God wants.
4. That correct understanding is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
5. Jesus declared it simply in John 3:16 - For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (CSB).
G. No one was more thrilled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and no one better articulated what it meant, than the apostle Paul.
1. Paul simply and clearly explained it this way: 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!... 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — 9 not from works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:4-6, 8-9).
2. Paul understood this Gospel of salvation by grace so well that he could declare this promise: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).
3. You might wonder how in the world that Paul could say that – had he not seen the debt we owe? He’d certainly seen his own sin, right?
H. You will recall that Paul entered the pages of Scripture as Saul of Tarsus, the self-professed Pharisee of all Pharisees and saw himself as the most religious man in town.
1. Unfortunately, all his scruples and law-keeping had made him a self-righteous, religious fanatic.
2. His fanaticism propelled him on a bloodthirsty quest to extinguish anything and anyone Christian.
3. But all of that began to change on the road to Damascus.
a. That’s when and where the resurrected Jesus made a special appearance to Saul.
b. Jesus’ surprise appearance knocked Saul off his high horse, figuratively, if not literally.
4. Saul was left without physical sight for three days.
a. During his time of blindness, God helped him to see the truth about Jesus and his own life.
b. God gave him a vision that a man named Ananias would restore his sight.
5. When Ananias came to Saul, he restored his sight and Saul got up and was baptized (Acts 9:18)
6. And Saul of Tarsus was transformed into Paul the apostle.
7. Within a few days, Paul was preaching about Jesus.
a. Within a few years, Paul was off on his first missionary journey.
b. Within a couple of decades, Paul was writing letters of the Bible we still read today.
I. We aren’t told exactly when Paul understood the full meaning of grace.
1. Did he fully understand it instantly when Jesus appeared to him on that Damascus Road?
2. Or did the full understanding come during the three days of darkness, with fasting and prayer?
3. Or did the understanding come after his healing and baptism?
4. We aren’t told when Paul really understood it, but we know that Paul did get it.
5. Paul truly got grace, or better yet, grace got Paul and it transformed his mind and life.
6. Paul embraced the amazing grace offer that God would make us right with Him through Jesus, a salvation based on grace and not by works.
J. The good news of the Gospel is in response to the bad news of the Gospel.
1. Paul declared the bad news of the Gospel when he wrote: 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; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one… 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10-12, 23).
2. People often bristle at the indictment of these verses and take offense at the allegation.
3. They question: “No one righteous?…no one seeks God?…all have fallen short?” and they declare that that doesn’t apply to them.
4. Then they produce their resumes of righteousness that includes: how they pay their taxes, love their families, avoid crime and addiction, and give to the poor.
5. They conclude that compared to the rest of the world, they are really good people.
6. But herein lies the problem: our standard is not the rest of the world, rather our standard is Christ.
7. How righteous is Christ? He is perfect. He was tempted in every way, yet he did not sin (Heb. 4:15).
8. And so, compared to Christ, the rest of us are…well…can you hear the debt clock ticking?
K. So what do we do? Jesus is holy; we are not. Jesus is perfect; we are not.
1. The chasm that separates us from the holiness of God is insurmountable.
2. Do you think that God might not notice our sin? Do you think that He might just overlook it?
3. God is a just God, and being a God of justice means that sin must be punished.
4. So what is the solution for this dilemma? What is God’s solution?
L. And so the bad news of the Gospel is “All have sinned and fall short” (Rom. 3:23) and the “wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
1. But the good news of the Gospel is “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
2. And Paul elaborates on this truth in Romans 3: 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness (Rom. 3:24-25).
3. So we see that God never compromised His standard.
a. God satisfied every demand of His justice, while at the same time, He gratified the longing of His love.
b. Being too just to overlook our sin, and being too loving to dismiss us, God placed our sin on His Son and our sin was punished there.
c. Paul explained it this way in 2 Cor. 5:21: He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
d. Peter explained it this way in 1 Peter 2:24: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
4. When Jesus hung on the cross, bearing our sins, He felt the weight our sin and the pain of separation from the Father – that’s why He cried out “Why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46)
a. And when the mission was complete and all that needed to be accomplished was successful, Jesus cried out, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30).
5. And at the moment of Jesus’ death, an unbelievable miracle occurred – the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Mk. 15:37-38).
a. The curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place was no small, delicate drape – it was a wall made of fabric.
b. The fact that it was torn from top to bottom reveals that the hands behind the deed were divine.
c. God himself grasped the curtain and ripped it in two declaring in an illustrative way that there was no more division, no more separation, no more sacrifices.
M. Heaven’s work of redemption was finished.
1. Christ finished his perfect life and Christ’s death brought new life.
2. The barrier that had separated us from God was removed and no longer needs to be a barrier.
3. Salvation was no longer accessed and accomplished through sacrifice and good works.
4. Salvation was now found in Christ and the righteousness of Christ.
5. So, as we have seend already, Paul declared in Ephesians 2: 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4-7).
6. Notice that we are saved because of God’s grace and mercy and love.
a. Notice also that God’s blessings and riches are given to us with Christ and in Christ.
7. That’s why God’s promise to us is that “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ” (Rom. 8:1).
N. Paul explained how this great transfer and credit of the righteousness of Christ happens in Romans 4: 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness (Rom. 4:3-5).
1. To credit something is to make payment for it.
2. If you have a credit card and you write a check for the complete balance, then the debt on the card is removed – you would have a zero balance – no debt – no obligation.
3. According to Paul, God has done the same with our spiritual debt.
4. Paul presents Abraham as an example of a recipient of God’s grace.
5. Abraham had a spiritual debt – he was a good man, but not good enough to be debt-free.
a. Abraham’s debt clock had been clicking upward in its total.
6. But for all the bad things Abraham had done, there was one, critically important thing he chose to do – He believed – He put his trust in God.
7. And because Abraham believed, a wonderful and amazing thing happened to his debt clock – it was returned to zero.
8. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
9. God’s promise to Abraham and to us is salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
O. So, Just how does a person get into Christ? A person gets into Christ when their faith leads to repentance, confession and baptism (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38).
1. Galatians 3:27-29 says: 27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
a. Here we see Paul reminding the Galatians of their new identity because they believed and were baptized into Christ.
b. Having been baptized into Christ they left their old sinful lives and fully embraced their new life in Christ.
2. Paul said a similar thing to the Romans in Chapter 6: 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-4).
a. Through our baptism, we were baptized into Christ, and in our baptism we were untied with Christ in His death and resurrection, which produces newness of life.
P. What blessings do we receive because we are in Christ?
1. I like the way Paul explains the new life we have in Christ to the Colossian Christians: 1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Col. 3:1-4).
a. Notice that we are raised with Christ, our life is hidden with Christ, and Christ is our life.
2. Paul declared: for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26).
3. Because we are in Christ, God gave us grace in Christ Jesus before time began (2 Tim. 1:9).
4. Because we are in Christ, we are loved by God with an inseparable love – “nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).
5. Because we are in Christ, we have “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Eph. 1:7).
6. Because we are in Christ, we have become a new creation – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
7. I pray that all of us will hold on to the blessings and privileges of being in Christ Jesus.
P. To be in Christ means we have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice as payment for our own sins.
1. When we put our faith in Him and continue to have faith in Him, Jesus’s righteousness covers us – we are clothed with His righteousness – it is our covering, our armor.
2. To be “in Christ” means that God no longer sees our imperfections; but only sees the righteousness of His own Son.
3. Only “in Christ” is our sin debt cancelled, and our relationship with God is restored and secure.
Q. Max Lucado writes: “Salvation, from beginning to end, is a work of our Father. God does not stand on a mountain and tell us to climb it and find Him. He comes down into our dark valley and finds us. He does not offer to pay all the debt minus a dollar if we’ll pay the dollar. He pays every penny. He doesn’t offer to complete the work if we start it. He does all the work, from beginning to end. He does not bargain with us, telling us to clean up our lives so he can help. He washes our sins without our help.”
1. And because of that, gone is the fear of falling short.
2. Gone is the anxious quest for right behavior.
3. Gone are the nagging questions: Have I done enough? Am I good enough? Will I achieve enough?
R. An elderly woman was once asked about the security of her salvation.
1. Even though she had dedicated her life to the Lord, a cynic asked, “How can you be sure? How can you know that after all these years God won’t let you sink into hell?”
2. The sweet, seasoned believer replied, “He would lose more than I would. All I would lose would be my own soul. He would lose his good name.”
3. And isn’t that what it always comes back to – it is not about us, it is all about God.
4. God is faithful to His promises because God keeps His Word, He cannot do otherwise.
5. So, when God says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, He means it.
S. Frederick Buechner wrote these words about God’s grace: “Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth. A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing you have to do…There’s only one catch. Like any other give, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.”
1. God’s grace is received when our faith leads us to repent and be baptized, and that’s when our sins are forgiven and we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit.
2. So, let me ask you: where do you stand today in relation to God’s grace?
3. Have you received it, or are you still resisting it?
4. If you have received it, are you standing in it and appreciating it without abusing it?
4. How are you trying to show your appreciation for it?
T. In his book, Twelve Things I Want My Kids to Remember Forever, author Jerry Jenkins gives some advice to his sons about the debt we all owe to God.
1. Jenkins wrote: “When I bought you a bike and you brought me a handful of dandelions, you weren’t repaying me. You were thanking me. And those otherwise worthless weeds were precious to me. Figuratively, if not literally, they were a sweet fragrance to me because they came from a pure, innocent grateful heart that had no capacity to really repay. That’s what we have to offer God: lives framed by goals that are not self-driven, but are qualitative, intrinsic and right-motivated.”
2. When we offer God our hearts, our lives, and our deeds, we aren’t repaying God, rather, we are trying to show our appreciation.
3. And even though our good works are like worthless weeds, they are a sweet fragrance to God when they come from a pure and devoted heart.
4. Let’s keep showing God just how grateful we are that we are in Christ, and let’s hold on to the promise that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!
5. If you’re not a Christian and are interested in becoming a follower of Jesus and getting into Christ, then come and talk with me or one of the other elders or ministers after the worship service ends.
6. If you are watching from home, then please give us a call and we can talk with you about getting into Christ and receiving the salvation found in Him.
Resources: Unshakable Hope, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2018
