Given, Not Earned
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 22 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
What does Grace accomplish?
It is a question that seems so easy to answer, yet so difficult to expand on.
For some, grace is the reason we are alive. For others, grace is a christianeze word that we use to justify bad behavior, because “God’s grace is sufficient.”
The word Grace (or forms of it) is used in the Bible 170 times. What is interesting about it though is that it is mentioned in the gospels only 4 times whereas Paul uses grace as the primary way to describe what God’s love looks like in action.
We are instructed to both accept God’s grace and give it to others.
What the Bible does make VERY clear though is that Grace is not something that we earn, nor is there anything we can do to earn grace. It is simply given to us because of God’s love for us.
I am the type of person that likes to earn what I have and be given something.
I remember the first time I got a raise at work. I was working for a company named Grand Rounds and at the end of the year they do employee assessments to see what size raise you are going to get, if any at all. I felt like I had a good year and was almost waiting to see how much of a raise I was going to get. The max amount was a listed as 3.5% of your current hourly rate. So we all get our letters back and mine says 9.8%. You would think I was excited to get this raise, but I was confused. Firs of all, I felt like I had a good year, but not that good of a year. Secondly, it was 3 times the size of our max. So I schedule a meeting with my manager to see what happened. Instead of being content and grateful I reacted by trying to get an explanation for the raise.
That is how we are with God’s grace sometimes. We ask, well why would God have grace on us? Why would he love us so much? How is it possible that I can be forgiven for what I have done instead of just saying “Thank you God.”
Until we can accept that God’s grace is given to us, we cannot see how God’s grace affects us.
LET’S PRAY
What is God’s grace?
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
So we are given grace and peace when we enter into a relationship with Jesus. That is the starting point. That is where all of this begins.
Verse Three says, that we have everything we needs for a godly life...
If you were here on Sunday we talked about this a little bit. It means that we do not have any excuse to not operate in the way of God’s love. He gives us grace because he loves us and calls us to love others in the same way he had grace for us.
You could almost define grace as “God's life, power and righteousness given to us by unmerited favor.” In other words, God has shared with us what we need to share with others without us having to earn any of it.
But before we share it with others, it is important to know what his grace does for us.
God’s grace saves us
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
First, God’s grace saves us.
It is important to distinguish that it is his grace, and not the works we do, that saves us. Salvation is given strictly on the basis on God’s grace.
This matters because oftentimes we boast about what that salvation brings.
We boast about our freedoms
We boast about what we have
We boast about how we are
Here we are told that since we did not earn God’s grace we cannot boast about what we have.
If you consider the life you live and consider that you only live that life because God allows you to there is no room to boast
But faith is required for this as we see at the end of verse 8.
No we cannot earn grace, but it does require us to have faith that God’s grace can and does save us.
The first thing is that God’s grace saves us.
God’s grace justifies us
According to Romans 3:24
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
The only reason any of us are considered righteous is because of the redemption we receive through the death of Jesus.
The redemption being referred to here is the same as it was in Jewish tradition.
When a family member would die, the next person in line would have a chance to redeem property.
This means they took possession and purchased land in exchange that they would care for that property.
We are justified because Jesus paid the purchase price for our sin. By doing so, he cares for us and asks to care for what that entails.
Living a sinless life is impossible, but living a life that strives to seek what is right in God’s eyes is how we honor the redemption given through God’s grace.
God’s grace justifies us.
God’s grace sanctifies us
Sanctifies is one of those fancy words that everyone kind of struggles to define.
IF we simplify what it means, it the process of being set aside. In our case, this means being set aside for the purpose of God.
13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
We are sanctified through the work of the spirit when we believe.
We are “set aside” to live out our purpose which is to further God’s Kingdom.
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
to be sanctified is to be holy.
God’s grace sanctifies us
God’s grace empowers us
This is ultimate what this all leads to. When you look at God’s grace as a whole, the actions of saving, justifying, and sanctifying lead ton God’s grace being the source of our power. This is why Paul uses this throughout his letters.
If we are operating in God’s grace. If we are acting in his love, we should be able to say as Paul says in
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
Paul was the hardest working person in the room. He went from killing christians to teaching them and was always so hungry and eager to learn and grow and expand his knowledge of the gospel. Even the hardest working person in the room recognized that it is not by his own power or works or knowledge that he had attained, but the power that the grace of God gives him.
God’s grace empowers us
Conclusion
When we try to operate in God’s love by his grace, we are committing to the calling God has placed on our lives. That is a the calling of service. To serve others. to love others that they might come to know the love God had for us. That they might get to experience God’s grace for the very first time. That they can look how good and rich life is with Jesus. that they can see that there is nothing they can do to make life better. That the limitations they have on their own power are present because they are missing the source from which their power should be coming from.
If we accept this gift that God has given us and let is save, justify, sanctify and empower us, we won’t be wondering why. Instead we will be ask how? How do you want to use me God? How do I use who you made me to be so bring others into this incredible grace you have given us.
If you aren’t sure wether you are living in God’s grace, now might be the time to get sure. All you have to do is accept that God has given a gift that you cannot earn and start your relationship with Jesus. If that is you come talk to me tonight.
If you are sure, but don’t feel like you are a living a life that resembles this, start by acknowledging the generosity of god’s gift and start living in his righteousness. It starts by you admitting, man things need to change.
Let this be your starting point to living a life that is saved by grace, justified by grace, sanctified by grace, and empowered by grace.
Let’s pray.