God’s Amazing Gift
TCF Sermon
May 27, 2001
Think about whether or not these things apply to you - you needn’t raise your hand…
- I find myself wanting to correct people on minor points, or actually doing it
- I would feel guilty if I stayed home from a meeting or activity just because I was tired
- I tend to focus more on what I did wrong than on what I did right
- I have difficulty saying no when someone asks me to do something for them, or feel guilty when I do say no
- when I look at how consistent I am in the spiritual disciplines, I feel that God must be disappointed in me
If you can relate to these things because they’re true of you - you may be a performer, trying to earn God’s love.
To some degree, I think we can all understand these things, which is why we’re going to take a close look this morning at what I’m calling God’s Amazing Gift.
That’s the title of this morning’s message. Of course, God’s amazing gift to us is Grace.
As we begin, let’s ask the question - why don’t you give a fragile crystal glass to a two-year old.
- they can’t and don’t appreciate it - they don’t know how to use it properly - they’re likely to abuse such a wonderful, costly gift, and there’s a good chance they’ll break it.
We’ll look at the reasons grace seems to be a risky gift in a moment. Since my girls were old enough to understand what I was saying to them, I have consistently told them that they cannot earn my love. There’s nothing they can do to make me love them more. There’s nothing they can do to make me love them less. Trust may be earned or blown, but love is unconditional.
- it can’t be earned
- it can’t be eroded or spent
The same is true of God’s love, and His expression of that love through His grace. The very word grace, as used in the New Testament, has an understanding of being unearned. It’s free. Or the way we often use to describe God’s saving grace - it’s unmerited favor. One Bible dictionary says this:
"the New Testament writers use this word for grace pre-eminently of that kindness by which God bestows favor even upon the ill-deserving"
Another says this: GRACE Undeserved acceptance and love received from another, especially the characteristic attitude of God in providing salvation for sinners. For Christians, the word "grace" is virtually synonymous with the gospel of God’s gift of unmerited salvation in Jesus Christ.
We owe our distinctly Christian understanding of grace to the apostle Paul.
His epistles employ the word charis - Greek for grace, and its related forms, twice as frequently as the rest of the New Testament writings combined. Paul had a very profound sense of human sin - too much so to believe that a person could ever earn God’s acceptance (Romans 3:23). That’s at least in part because as a Pharisee, Paul had sought to earn God’s acceptance by fulfilling the divine law. After meeting the risen Christ on the Damascus road, he had come to see that it was not a matter of earning God’s acceptance, but rather of coming to accept God’s love for him through Jesus Christ.
Because of this, Paul came to see a sharp dividing line between law and grace. Law is the way of self-help, of earning one’s own salvation. Grace is God’s way of salvation, totally unearned (Romans 3:24; Romans 4:4; Romans 11:6; Ephes. 2:8).
Grace is accessed by faith in what God has done in Christ (Romans 4:16). God’s grace comes to sinners, not to those who merit God’s acceptance (Romans 5:20-21). It is through Christ’s atoning work on the cross that God’s grace comes to us, setting us free from the bondage of sin (Romans 3:24-31).
I found this helpful illustration: When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award--yet receives such a gift anyway--that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God.
There are many passages of scripture which clearly speak to this issue - but we’ll look at just a few this morning, including this well known passage:
Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do
In this passage we see salvation clearly defined as something that is a gift of God’s grace… we also see the related understanding that even our good works are enabled by, and prompted by His grace. We are His workmanship, created for good works - which He prepared in advance for us to do. The transitional word "for" at the beginning of verse 10 here tells us that what is said in verses 8 and 9 relate to verse 10 - it’s all about His grace.
The faith, the works, all of it. Most of us understand that - at least in part. Most of us have a fairly clear understanding that we are saved by God’s grace. It’s even in the Bible Bowl ABC verses:
A - All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
B - Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved
C - Christ died for our sins
The way we receive this free, unearned gift, is through faith. And this passage makes clear that even faith is a gift. But you know, I’ve discovered that many of us, even accepting that our salvation is a gift of God’s grace, even realizing all the things about grace we’ve already reviewed this morning, somehow never get past that point.
In other words, we begin our Christian life in God’s grace, and then quickly abandon grace, and try to live our life, and almost to continue to earn our salvation, - by what we do, by our works.
Author Jerry Bridges puts it like this: "We tend to give an unbeliever just enough of the gospel to get him or her to pray a prayer to receive Christ. Then we immediately put the gospel on the shelf, so to speak, and go on to the duties of discipleship. The grace that brought salvation to you is the same grace that teaches or disciplines you. But you must respond on the basis of grace, not law."
This has been a problem in the church of Jesus Christ since soon after the church was empowered by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The early church faced the same problem. The context of their difficulty was that most of the earliest believers were Jews, and the Jews were a people of the law.
When some Jews came to Christ, they came with their baggage, so to speak. They came thinking they had to receive the gift of salvation from Jesus, and continue to keep the Jewish laws. There were even groups who insisted on this, not just for themselves, but for other Jews, and even for Gentiles.
Paul had some pretty tough words for the Galatians, who seemed to be falling into this trap, too - the same trap we see many today falling into
Galatians 2:21-3:5
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" 3:1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
The key verse in the context of what we’re looking at this morning is verse 3:
Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Paul had some pretty strong words about human efforts. When we think we’re doing pretty well, doing lots of good things, Paul points out that we’re not the hot stuff we think we are. In comparison to God’s holiness, he writes in Romans 3:10-12: As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
Despite this biblical understanding of our human effort being as, it says in Isaiah, "filthy rags," we continue on in the Christian life as if our efforts will earn us something toward eternity. That’s why we get trapped in the performance mentality. That’s why many of us believe if we’ve performed well and had a "good" day, for example, if we read our Bibles this morning, or if we’ve performed some selfless act of service, we are then in a position for God to bless us.
This means that although we believe we’re saved by grace, we can earn, or forfeit, God’s blessing in our daily lives by our performance.
The reverse is also true. When we blow it and we know it - - when we’ve had a "bad" day with God - no Bible reading, no prayer, kicked the cat, stuff like that, we might almost expect everything to go wrong.
The truth is, there is never a day when we can stand before Him on our own two feet of performance. There is never a day when we are worthy enough to receive His blessings. The fact remains, however, that He blesses us anyway.
He forgives our sin when we don’t deserve it. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness
Jerry Bridges notes: "If God’s blessings were dependent on our performance, they would be meager indeed. Even our best works are shot through with sin - with varying degrees of impure motives and lots of imperfect performance. We are always, to some degree, looking out for ourselves, guarding our flanks, protecting our egos. It is because we do not realize the utter depravity of the principle of sin that remains in us and stains everything we do, that we entertain any notion of earning God’s blessings through our obedience."
He goes on to add: Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace."
The fact that God forgives us and blesses us when we don’t deserve it, and of course, we never really deserve it, is what makes grace seem to be such a risky thing.
Author Philip Yancey, in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace, calls these things loopholes. We all understand loopholes. Webster’s defines a loophole as a means of evading something unpleasant - a hole that provides a means of escape.
Yancey notes that in his book he provides what he calls "a one-sided picture of grace - portraying God as a lovesick father eager to forgive, and grace as a force potent enough to break the chains that bind us. He writes: "depicting grace in such sweeping terms makes people nervous, and I concede that I have skated to the very edge of danger. I have done so because I believe the New Testament does, too."
He then proceeds to tell the story of a friend of his he called Daniel. Daniel was about to leave his wife of 15 years for another woman, someone younger and prettier. He knew the personal and moral consequences of what he was about to do. But he had a larger concern - and he asked his friend "Do you think God can forgive something as awful as I am about to do?"
What a question, huh?
Yancey pondered, "How can I dissuade my friend from committing a terrible mistake if he knows forgiveness lies just around the corner?"
C.S. Lewis quoted Augustine, who said, "God gives where he finds empty hands." Then Lewis noted that a man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift. Then Yancey wrote: "Grace must be received. Lewis explains that what I have termed grace abuse stems from a confusion of condoning and forgiving. To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted, as well as offered, if it is to be complete…and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness." Ultimately, Yancey told his friend that, yes, of course, God could forgive him. But he also challenged him with these thoughts:
What we have to go through to commit sin distances us from God. We change in the very act of rebellion, and there is no guarantee we will ever come back. He said to his friend, "You ask me about forgiveness now, but will you even want it later, especially if it involves repentance?"
Consider what a tremendous "risk" God took by announcing forgiveness in advance. Yancey says that the scandal of grace involves a transfer of that risk to us. Of course, the apostle Paul realized these risks, too. He addressed these things at length in Romans, and we’ll just cite a few references:
Romans 3:8
Why not say--as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say--"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved. (doesn’t sound like letting them off the hook for their sin to me)
Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Romans 6:15-18
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Paul’s idea in these passages is this: as believers, we’re raised to a new life - just as we witnessed in those public professions of faith last week in baptisms. If we’re raised to new life, why we would we want to hang around the grave, where our sin, and our old lives, are supposed to be buried. Sin has the stink of death around it. Why would anyone choose it?
What it all comes back to is our response to God’s love and grace. What God wants is not a good performance. He wants my heart. And from my heart’s response to His amazing grace, good works, yes, even good performance will flow. The New Testament motivation for "being good" is not obligation, it’s gratitude.
It’s the idea that we’ve been marvelously saved from sin and death - at a tremendous cost to God and His son Jesus. We’ve been rescued from an eternity apart from the living God by His amazing grace. How can we do anything but serve Him, follow Him, please Him???
So when we do things that might otherwise be seen as performance or duty, they’re really our best response to His love and grace. We’re responding with gratefulness to what He’s done for us.
2 Cor. 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
Ultimately, we believers can dispense only what we have received. That’s true whether we have received material blessings or spiritual. The good work is done through God’s enabling. Attempts to live by the Law lead only to spiritual disaster. In Galatians 5, Paul addresses these things:
Galatians 5:2
Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised (and in this context, it meant if you let yourself be forced into keeping the law and ignoring grace), Christ will be of no value to you at all.
Galatians 5:6
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
What happens within when a believer tries to live as if under the Law rather than under grace? Jerry Bridges wrote a book 20 years ago called The Pursuit of Holiness. If you’ve ever read any of his books, you know he is very serious about the need for believers in Jesus to commit ourselves fully, with an undivided heart, to holiness. He notes that the pursuit of holiness requires sustained and vigorous effort. He writes that it demands the highest priority in the life of a Christian, because to be holy is to be like Christ, and this is God’s goal, and should be our goal, for every believer.
So, he would note, as I would echo, that living by God’s grace does not mean we shouldn’t go to church, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be faithful in serving,
it does not mean we shouldn’t be faithful in reading the word, faithful in prayer, faithful in all the spiritual disciplines - careful in guarding against, and rooting out, sin from our lives.
Yet, this same author writes: " the pursuit of holiness must be anchored in the grace of God, otherwise it is doomed to failure" He says, "the pursuit of holiness must be motivated by an ever-increasing understanding of the grace of God, or else it can become oppressive and joyless."
How many of you find yourselves in an oppressive and joyless Christianity? That individual will find himself or herself in bondage, living as a slave rather than a freeman (Galatians 4:21-5:1).
One commentary noted: "The Galatian Christians, like you and I, stand always at just such a fork. We must either take the path of relating to God through Law, or of relating to God by grace through faith. We cannot have it both ways. If we are trying to relate to God through the Law, we are not living by faith and being a Christian will make no practical difference in our lives ("Christ will be of no value to you" - as we just saw in Gal. 5:2). We who are called to live in the sphere of God’s grace will fall from that grace. Our hope for transformation now will be replaced by futile self-effort, for "the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:6)."
Here’s another illustration:
A husband and wife didn’t really love each other. The man was very demanding, so much so that he prepared a list of rules and regulations for his wife to follow. He insisted that she read them over every day and obey them to the letter. Among other things, his "do’s and don’ts" indicated such details as what time she had to get up in the morning, when his breakfast should be served, and how the housework should be done. After several long years, the husband died. As time passed, the woman fell in love with another man, one who dearly loved her. Soon they were married. This husband did everything he could to make his new wife happy, continually showering her with tokens of his appreciation. One day as he was cleaning house, she found tucked away in a drawer the list of commands her first husband had drawn up for her. As she looked it over, it dawned on her that even though her present husband hadn’t given her any kind of list, she was doing everything her first husband’s list required anyway. She realized she was so devoted to this man that her deepest desire was to please him out of love, not obligation.
When Martin Luther shared his discovery from scripture of the biblical doctrine of justification by grace through faith, someone responded, "If this is true, a person could simply live as he pleased! Indeed!" answered Luther. "Now, what pleases you?"
What pleases us should be to do what pleases God. Augustine was the great preacher of grace during the fourth and fifth centuries, and his response on this point was similar to Luther’s. He said that the doctrine of justification led to the idea, "Love God and do as you please." Because we have misunderstood one of the gospel’s most basic themes, Augustine’s statement looks to many like a license to indulge one’s sinful nature. But in reality it touches upon the motivation the Christian has for his actions.
The person who has been justified by God’s grace has a new, higher, and nobler motivation for holiness, and a reason to reject the condemnation that the enemy can bring when we don’t do it right. Let’s always remember there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Let’s remember that the enemy condemns, and beats up on us, when we don’t do it right. But conviction of the Holy Spirit shouldn’t cause us to feel condemned. Conviction may feel bad, just like condemnation, but conviction will cause us to change, will lead us onward in Christ Jesus, not just feel bad.
Living by God’s amazing gift is ultimately a very freeing thing. The apostle Paul consistently made what God has already done for believers the basis of his appeals for them to lead lives in keeping with their destiny.
Christians do not live worthily in order to obtain salvation, but because they have been granted salvation. He wrote to the Thessalonians, and with this we’ll close:
2 Thes. 1:11-12
With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 12We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
