Mens Breakfast
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Perhaps the most precious word in our christian vocabulary is the word GRACE.
Grace is God’s underserved favor to us. And we enjoy a lot of Grace.
We serve the God of all grace. 1 Pet 5:10.
God’s grace is always sufficient. 2 Cor. 12:9.
We sing songs about this Amazing Grace.
And our very salvation is all of grace.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
What is even more amazing is that this grace is not limited just to our salvation.
Every single blessing we count is an act of God’s grace.
As wonderful as grace is, and it is wonderful - it does come with a warning.
NB: Not a condition, grace is not conditional. If it were then it would not be grace.
No grace is unconditional, but it is not without danger.
As Christians who truly know the wonderful gift that is the grace of God, we are equally aware of how evil it is to abuse this amazing grace.
When Paul wrote to the Romans about grace and how precious it is, he made sure to include a warning:
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
What makes Grace so amazing is that it is NOT an excuse to sin, but it also helps us when we do sin.
16 Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.
Some have said that this verse in Hebrews contradicts the verse in Romans, but its clear that it does not.
Grace, in the life of a Christian is there to catch us when we fall, not to catch us when we jump.
Today i want to talk about grace. But not saving grace. I assume today that i am already speaking to folk who are well acquainted with saving grace.
I want to speak about the “other” graces of God, just one in fact.
Because the same rule that applies in abusing saving grace, also applies in abusing any other gracious gift from God.
Other than saving grace, for which we are all thankful, what other “thing” has been given to us, by God, all of His grace?
Well this could be a long list: Our families, our ministries, our Church, the Holy Word....
Yet our ability to enjoy all of these graces boils down to God graciously giving us life and a body to live in.
Our bodies are wonderful gifts from God.
13 For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
And since we were not even born when God gave us our bodies, they must be gifts of grace.
Here is my challenge: As much as we know it to be evil to abuse saving grace, are we not guilty of abasing the grace that gave us our physical bodies?
You are here today, and the reason why you love attending church, or a bible study - all of this is because each of you are determined to look after the grace that made your salvation possible.
You dont want to neglect it.
My question is: Why do we not have the same attitude towards the grace that gave us our bodies?
Why do we neglect to take care of this gift of grace?
A big reason is because we dont think that the body is as important as it is.
So we even use the life giving words of scripture to make excuses.
The most popular is:
8 for bodily training is just slightly beneficial, but godliness is beneficial for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
So when one reads this, we justify the neglect of our bodies.
The problem is that we do not take the current situation of this writing into account.
People to whom this was written walked on average 15km a day. They ate no processed sugar, almost no carbs, slept 10 hours every night.
In fact one study showed that the average first century Jew was as fit as today's triathletes.
So, when you are already as fit as an athlete, then yes bodily training is just slightly beneficial.
Here is a shocking truth i only recently discovered a few years ago.
In fact, our bodies can determine our spiritual wellbeing.
41 Keep watching and praying, so that you do not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
This verse is incredibly enlightening.
And this verse also reveals the reason why so many christians have a wrong understanding of their bodies.
When we read this verse we cannot help but draw a comparison to Galatians 5
17 For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want.
So when we hear Jesus say that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak we naturally see this as a battle between the evil flesh and the good spirit.
But what if that is not what Jesus is saying?
I want to draw your attention to 2 very important NT Greek words:
1: Sarx - Body.
5 For even though I am absent in body, I am nevertheless with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your orderly manner and the stability of your faith in Christ.
2: Sar-ki-kos - Carnal.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
2 different Greek words with 2 completely different meanings.
However look at these 2 verses:
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
11 Beloved, I beseech you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul.
Both of these verses contain the word flesh.
BUT in John 1:14 the greek is Sarx - Body ----- And in 1 Peter 2:11 the greek is Sar-ki-kos - Carnal.
In our english translations these 2 greek words with totally different meanings are often BOTH translated as flesh.
This of course causes problems - When you read the word flesh, unless you can exegete the passage, you do not know if its talking about the body or the sinful carnal nature.
So lets look at this verse in our study again:
41 Keep watching and praying, so that you do not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Again here we have the word flesh. But what is it referring too? Our sinful nature or our bodies?
And it really matters because it changes the whole meaning of the verse.
If the word “flesh” here means sinful nature then Jesus is talking about spiritual warefare.
But6 if :”flesh” here means body then Jesus is simply highlighting our natural body’s limitations.
So which is it?
Well, i highly encourage you all to do an exegetical examination of the verse and you will see that its Sarx NOT Sarkios.
So now knowing that, what is Jesus saying?
41 Keep watching and praying, so that you do not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
He is saying that we can be called by God to do something (watch and pray) AND we can be spiritually motivated to be obedient (spirit is willing) but if we have neglected the grace that gave us our wonderful bodies, we will be unable to serve God as we should.
Our body is valuable but also fragile.
For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.