“Understanding Grace”

Let us start of tonight with a word of prayer.

In the recent weeks, we’ve been talking about the basic doctrines of our Christian faith. We’ve talked about:

The attributes of the Holy Spirit.

What scripture says about prayer.

The biblical meaning of faith.

God’s perfect word, the bible.

What is the gospel?

And last week, the difference between earning and honoring.

This week, the day before Thanksgiving, we are going to learn and get a clear understanding of what the bible teaches us about GRACE.

When you think about the word grace, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Grace can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. You here grace mentioned a lot in our churches, but when you do, it’s meaning is not always clear and doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing in each church or congregation. So you can’t always be clear on what someone’s actually meaning when they mention the word grace. It means one thing to the Presbyterians, another to the Christian Church, a whole different thing to the Catholic Church, and I’m not even sure us Baptist’s have it exactly right. So grace can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, depending on what group of Christian’s are talking about it. My Mom always said, or had one of us kids say grace, over each meal we had together. What does that mean exactly? We really need a universal meaning of what grace is so everyone can be on the same sheet of music. You know what happens when a group of musicians try playing together when they’re each using a different sheet of music. You have a real big mess on your hands that nobody wants to listen to. That’s the way it is when we start talking about grace in the church today. We all need to understand what grace is.

I’m sure everyone that’s here tonight can sing the old hymn “Amazing Grace” without even looking at a hymnal, or in most churches today, without looking at the screen. At least the first verse anyway.

( Sing it) Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind but now I see.

But, have you ever really taken the time to ponder what John Newton, the Englishman who wrote the hymn, must of had in mind when he penned those sacred words back in 1772? He must have been thinking about a grace that was so immense and so amazing that it could bring salvation to even the “worst of sinners”, like the apostle Paul, as he calls himself in 1 Tim 1:15

1 Timothy 1:15

15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.

We all know what kind of guy Paul was, persecuting the early church, chasing them down and putting them in jail, and even guarding the coats of the group of Jews that where stoning Stephen to death in Acts chapter 6.

But the apostle Paul, presented the theme of grace to the world, shortly after the Lord Jesus chose and saved him on that road to Damascus back in the 1st century. Daniel Webster defines grace as a sense of propriety and consideration for others, or elegance and beauty of movement or expression. As Christians, we need to now how God defines the word grace in the Bible. The Bible describes grace as undeserved, unmerited, help from God. (unmerited means it can not be earned) A lot of preachers today explain grace as an undeserved, free gift from God. But nothing could be further from the truth. Grace had a tremendous price tag attached to it. Our grace that we recieved free, cost God everything. He gave up the life of His one and only son, to die on a cross so we wouldn’t have too, as the one time sacrifice to sin for all humanity. Both past and future sin, that is, Christ paid the penalty, for every person that ever lived before the Cross, and every person that has lived after the Cross. And if the Lord tarries, every person that will live in the future. The apostle Paul writes in Col 2:13-14 that:

Colossians 2:13–14 (NKJV)

13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all sins, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

So there was nothing free about it. There was definitely works, and a tremendous cost involved in our grace, but God did all the work and paid the price for us. That’s what made it so amazing for John Newton when he wrote the famous hymn. Most people don’t look at what Jesus did for us on the cross as grace. When we start talking about grace, most people think, well, it kinda sounds like grace is giving me all the freedom, or liberty I need, to do what ever I want to. But that is completely wrong. They will read Romans 5:20-21, and think they have a license to sin. Or that grace promotes sin. They fail to go on and read chapter 6.

Romans 5:20–21

20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul’s not saying here we have a license to sin. Paul is saying that sin is awful and inexcusable, and has to be paid for. Grace kills sin, grace punishes sin, but your not the one that’s being punished, Christ was. That’s what grace is. Christ took the punishment that each and everyone of us deserves and placed it on Himself as an act of God’s grace. That’s how great God’s love is for us.

Paul anticipated his listeners thinking like this. That if grace increases right along with sin, then it must be ok if I just keep on sinning. I can do what ever I want to under this grace idea. That’s why you have to read chapter 6. Paul writes in Rom 6:1-4:

Romans 6:1–4 NKJV

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

What Paul is saying here is that when we were saved, we actually died with Jesus on the cross when he died. Not physically like He did, but spiritually. Our old self, our sinful nature, died with Jesus. And that when Jesus was raised from the dead by God to live forever, we were also raised back to life with Him spiritually, to live forever, so we could begin a brand new life in Christ. It should bring so much peace to a Christian’s life to KNOW that we received eternal life the very moment we were saved. We are never going to die !! These physical, mortal bodies will die, but our presence, our spirit never will. Not to mention that someday we will get a brand new immortal body. I get excited when I think about that. Paul makes it clear in 2 Cor 5:8-10 that the moment we die physically our spirit will be present with Jesus in heaven.

2 Corinthians 5:8–10 NKJV

8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

What Paul means by appearing before the judgment seat of Christ is not whether or not we get into heaven, we’re already there, it’s to receive our rewards for the things we’ve done for God while serving Him on this earth.

I got side tracked a little bit there for a second. But getting back to grace, the Bible makes it clear that grace never promotes sin. It makes us want to honor God with the way we live our lives. Grace is what entices Christian’s to worship the Lord. We are so grateful for the grace He’s given us, it makes us hunger and thirst to learn more about Him and grow in that grace. Grace makes us dead to sin. Paul tells us this in Romans 6:11-14:

Romans 6:11–14

11 Likewise you also, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey it’s evil desires. 13 And do not offer your members as instruments to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be your master, for you are not under law but under grace.

Why people ask the question, doesn’t too much grace just lead to more sinning? I’m not sure. I guess some people believe an overemphasis on God’s grace will lead to more sinning in the Christian’s life. But Paul tells us in Titus 2:11-12 just the opposite:

Titus 2:11–12 NKJV

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

Grace is what encourages Godly living, so we need all the grace we can get to overcome all the temptations satan, the world, and our sinful nature throws at us. God’s grace is what holds us up and keeps us going in this dark world we have to temporarily live in. And aren’t you glad it’s just temporary? For Eph 2:8-10 states:

Ephesians 2:8–10 NKJV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So by that grace, I hope we can leave here tonight with a better understanding of how much God has done for us through His incredible gift of grace. Let us pray together.

As we are singing our last song tonight, and we’re reflecting on how wonderful and how marvelous God’s grace really is, if you’ve never honored God by asking the Lord Jesus to come into your heart and be your personal savior, this would be a perfect time to do just that. God has made that so easy for us, all you have to do is just DO IT. The Bible says it’s fool proof. The Bible says that anyone, and I do mean anyone, who calls on the name of the Lord WILL BE SAVED. It doesn’t matter what your past may look like, remember the apostle Paul, and King David whom commited terrible sins. All the Lord cares about is your future. And He wants all people to spend that future with Him in eternity, in that place called heaven. Don’t wait another second. If you have any doubt at all about your eternal security, or what’s going to happen when you die, I beg you to settle it. Get it taken care of right now, right here. Right where you are sitting, quietly, with heads bowed, and your heart’s toward God, just pray a little prayer like this..............