The Grace of God

• please open your Bibles to Ephesians 2
• (Ephesians 2:6) And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
• (Ephesians 2:7) 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.
• (Ephesians 2:8) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–
• (Ephesians 2:9) not by works, so that no one can boast.
• in his book The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey tells the story of a friend who works with the down-and-out in Chicago:

A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter – two years old! – to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable – I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman.

At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, na?ve shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already felling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse”

• the crying need of this world is to understand God’s grace
• the woman in this story needs God’s grace, and she also needs to find a church that believes in and lives God’s grace
• Jesus is never recorded as using the word grace, but his life was full of it
• he was friends with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners
• he pardoned a woman caught in adultery
• he exhibited God’s kindness to people who only deserved judgment
• this morning – one week away from Easter Sunday – we’re going to look at one of God’s most surprising qualities
• it’s a quality, that if properly understood and lived out in this church, will draw person after person into this church and into the kingdom
• it’s my goal this morning to clearly communicate what God’s grace means
• this morning I’m going to preach the gospel of grace that is so easily misunderstood, and highlight one of God’s amazing attributes – his grace
• grace means that God deals with his people not on the basis of what they deserve, but according to his goodness and generosity
• but I’m going to go further than this definition and tell you exactly what grace means
• three things:
• NUMBER ONE: GOD’S GRACE MEANS THAT WE DON’T HAVE TO EARN OUR SALVATION
• another version renders Ephesians 2 this way:
• (Ephesians 2:8 NLT) God saved you by his special favor (grace) when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
• (Ephesians 2:9 NLT) Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
• (Ephesians 2:10 NLT) For we are God’s masterpiece.
• you see, this is completely contrary to human thinking
• in life, everything is predicated on performance
• we’re taught as children that if we want something, we have to earn it
• as adults, if you want a promotion, you need to put in long hours and extra effort
• if you want a sales award, you’ve got to post the numbers
• if you want to succeed, we’re told that we have to make it happen ourselves
• we approach God in the same way
• we think we have to somehow earn salvation by our righteous deeds
• the only problem is what the Bible says about our righteousness:
• (Isaiah 64:6) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
• to paraphrase Isaiah, our most righteous acts – our Sunday best – are like service station “grease rags”
• they’re dirty laundry
• noble deeds could never get us into heaven, no matter how hard we try
• our efforts fall pitifully short
• then God comes along and says, “My grace means you don’t have to earn salvation”
• Philip Yancey writes:
• God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell. In the words of Robert Farrar Capon, ‘If the world could have been saved by good bookkeeping, it would have been saved by Moses, not Jesus.’
• you need to realize that this is different from every other religion
• only the God of the Bible says that we don’t have to earn our salvation
• during a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if anything, is unique to the Christian faith
• they began eliminating possibilities
• is it the incarnation? other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form
• is it the resurrection? once again, other religions had accounts of gods appearing in human form
• eventually, C.S. Lewis wandered into the room
• “What’s all the rumpus about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions
• Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”
• the conferees had to agree
• “The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of law – each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional” (Philip Yancey)
• (Titus 3:3) At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
• (Titus 3:4) But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
• (Titus 3:5) he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
• (Titus 3:6) whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
• (Titus 3:7) so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
• God saved us – not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy!
• we don’t have to earn salvation!
• many people try to earn salvation by their good deeds
• but no matter how many good deeds we accomplish, it’s still not enough
• along comes God, and he says, “I’ll give you my Son, to earn salvation on your behalf. Salvation, adoption into God’s family, and eternal life are my gifts to you – completely free of charge”
• that’s some offer
• listen: fact number one is that God’s grace means that we don’t have to earn our own salvation
• Christ has already done that for us
• NUMBER TWO: GOD’S GRACE MEANS THAT WE DON’T HAVE TO WORRY THAT OUR SINS ARE TOO GREAT
• Martin Luther wrote to his friend:
• “If you are a preacher of grace,” he said, “do not preach a fictitious, but a true, grace; and if the grace is true, carry a true, and not a fictitious sin. Be a sinner and sin vigorously…”
• and then he wrote, “It is sufficient that we recognize through the wealth of God’s glory, the lamb who bears the sin of the world; from this, sin does not sever us, even if thousands, thousands of times in one day we should fornicate or murder“
• are you shocked by what Luther wrote?
• “sin boldly…for sin does not sever us, even if thousands, thousands of times in one day we should fornicate or murder“
• L uther was using hyperbole to make an important point: sin can never overpower God’s grace
• we never have to worry that our sin is too great for God’s grace
• most of us know the embarrassment of bouncing a check
• but God has no problem covering his checks
• God’s grace is so inexhaustible, so unlimited in its supply, that it never runs out
• (Romans 5:20) But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.
• this could literally be translated, “Where sin abounds, grace super-abounds”
• someone asked theologian Karl Barth what he would say to Adolf Hitler, and he replied: “Jesus Christ died for your sins”
• Ron Nikkel, who heads up Prison Fellowship International, gives a message to prisoners in which he says:
• “We don’t know who will make it into heaven. Jesus indicated a lot of people will face surprises: ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven.’ But we do know that some thieves and murderers will be there. Jesus promised heaven to the thief on the cross, and the apostle Paul was an accomplice to murder.”
• grace has no limit!
• we never have to worry that our sins are too great!
• Paul wrote:
• (1 Timothy 1:13) Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
• (1 Timothy 1:14) The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
• (1 Timothy 1:15) Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst.
• one of the devil’s most dangerous lies is that our sins are too great for God’s grace
• let me tell you this morning – God’s grace has no limits!
• no matter what sins you have committed, in the distant past or even in the recent past, God’s grace is able to cover those sins and more
• wouldn’t it be great if we preached this message loud and clear, so that prostitutes, thieves, and immoral people would realize that we have good news for them
• what an amazing fact, that our sins are never too great for God
• NUMBER THREE: GOD’S GRACE MEANS THAT WE DON’T HAVE TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE BY OUR OWN EFFORT
• there are a lot of people who believe we’re saved by grace, but once we’re saved, they act like we live the Christian life by human effort
• they believe that we’re saved by grace but live but live by effort
• but Paul wrote to the Galatians:
• (Galatians 3:3 NLT) Have you lost your senses? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
• have you ever seen a church that tries to live by external rules – do this, don’t do that
• at one time, the list included coed swimming, wearing shorts, jewelry, or makeup, dancing, bowling, and reading the Sunday paper
• the old Baptist creed, “We don’t smoke, we don’t chew, we don’t go with girls who do”
• do you know the problem with these rules?
• if rules were enough, we wouldn’t need grace!
• we certainly weren’t saved by works, and we’re not going to live the Christian life by conformity to external standards!
• some people have gone to the other extreme, and said that since we’re saved by grace, we can live however we want
• they haven’t read Romans 6 or Titus 2:11-12
• God accepts us the way we are – but he certainly doesn’t want us to stay that way
• but don’t ever try to live the Christian life on your own effort!
• don’t ever become enslaved to manmade rules!
• having been saved by grace, don’t begin to live the Christian life on the performance treadmill, thinking that you can earn God’s favor by your acts of righteousness
• as Philip Yancey writes:
• “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more – no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries and divinity schools, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less – no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love”
• the key is to love God; everything else falls out from that
• both Jesus and Paul summed up all the law in the simple command, “Love God”
• Augustine made the famous statement, “If you but love God you may do as you incline,” and he was making a good point
• what God calls us to is not a set of external standards
• he calls us to a divine love, out of which our good works will naturally follow – apart from human effort
• if we properly understand God’s grace, we’ll get of the performance treadmill
• let me ask you some questions, taken from Jerry Bridge’s book, Transforming Grace
• these questions will reveal if you’re trying to live the Christian life on your own strength
• you know you don’t understand God’s grace when…
• you live with a sense of God’s disapproval
• you feel sheepish bringing your needs before the Lord when you’ve just failed Him.
• you think of His grace as something that makes up the difference between the best you can do and what he expects from you.
• you feel you deserve an answer to prayer because of your hard work and sacrifice.
• you assume that 1 John 1:9 no longer applies because you’ve sinned too much.
• you feel more confident before Him if you’ve been faithful with your Christian disciplines (prayer, quiet time, witnessing, etc.).
• you can’t honestly say you see yourself as “blameless” in His eyes.
• you don’t really believe He likes you.
• you can think of someone to look down on.
• you shy away from asking God for things because you think it annoys Him.
• you think of the Christian life as “the cost of discipleship” rather than the chance to experience an unending supply of His goodness toward you.
• you fear that the day may not go as well as expected because you missed your quiet time.
• you assume you can do something to make God love your more or less.
• you believe you’ve been called into His service because of your worthiness or qualifications.
• don’t think you can please God by human effort; receive his grace and the power to live a holy life from him
• don’t try to live the Christian life on your own strength, or accept when others impose external man-made religious laws on you
• (Galatians 3:3 NLT) Have you lost your senses? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
• a man who was used to chopping trees down by hand went to a hardware store
• the owner said, “We have this new power saw. With this saw, you can cut down thirty trees a day instead of the three you’re doing now”
• the man said, “Are you serious?”
• “Yes, thirty trees a day with this power saw”
• the tree-cutter said, “I’ll take one”
• a week later, he came back
• “Why did you sell me this piece of junk? It took me a week to cut down one tree with this piece of junk. I was better off using my old axe!”
• the store owner said, “Let me see it”
• he took the saw, pulled on the cord, and it started right away with its motor roaring
• the man jumped back and asked, “What’s that noise?”
• you don’t buy a power saw so you can go out and put even more effort into cutting down trees
• you don’t receive God’s free gift of grace so you could continue trying to live life on your own
• receive God’s gift today – not only for salvation, but to live a life that’s pleasing to him
• that’s God’s amazing grace
• three facts:
• number one: God’s grace means that we do n’t have to earn our salvation
• number two: God’s grace means that we don’t have to worry that our sins are too great
• number three: God’s grace means that we don’t have to live the Christian life by our own effort
• in church we sing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me”
• do you really know the grace we’re singing about?
• are you open to this grace – a grace that’s so amazing, it seems scandalous?
• will you open your heart this morning and take in this grace in its richness, its fullness, and its pardon?
• let’s pray

Adapted in part from Our God is Awesome by Tony Evans