The Grace of Christmas

The Grace of Christmas

Real Transformer (Optimus Prime) vs. McD’s Happy Meal Transformer

There are the real versions, and there are the cheap knock offs.

And, of course, the appeal of the cheap knock offs is that you can have everything that the real version offers, but at a fraction of the price, if not free.

But still, only the real thing is the real thing, and the real thing is always costly.

Yet, at the same time, nothing works like the real thing.

The Grace of Christmas follows a similar concept.

There are alot of cheap knock offs that try to pass themselves off as God’s grace. They’ll try to claim that they can do everything that God’s grace can do, but it won’t cost as much.

You don’t need to be transformed, you are who you are, and your brand of good is all that should matter.

And why take up your cross, you shouldn’t have to do that!

You deserve better.

But the truth is, what we deserve is far worse than anything we can imagine.

Yet God, by His Grace, came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to pay for the sin of you and me.

And the Grace that He came by was not cheap.

And what’s more, cheap grace has no power. It can’t transform you, and it can’t save you.

But God’s Grace made a way for our salvation.

The late German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in a very famous quote, explains this idea like so:

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjack’s wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! …

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods…

Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.

Above all, it is costly because it costs God the life of His Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs…

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer (February 4, 1906-April 9, 1945)

The apostle Paul understood this when he wrote about the amazing grace that transformed him, and that’s what we are going to examine today.

Why?

We were sick with sin, and we didn’t even know we had a disease to be cured from, yet God, in His Grace, came in the person of Jesus Christ to save us from our sin.

Because as we come to Christmas this year, it is essential for all of us to understand, not just why Jesus came, but the function of the gift that God offers to us in Jesus Christ.

What Jesus can accomplish in you and through you.

But that can only happen if you don’t settle for the cheap grace.

It might look good, it might seem like it might work just as well, but you will find out, sooner or later, that the cheap grace that you thought would get you by, doesn’t work at all. And you are in the same place you always were. Stuck in your sin, your maturity and growth still stunted and delayed, discouraged and dissatisfied, and longing for deliverance.

Friends, I want to tell you today that the Grace of Christmas is your deliverance.

And maybe the gift of Jesus Christ doesn’t look as appealing to you as whatever else you might want to apply in your life, but I promise you, only Jesus can affect the transformation in your life that you desire.

He’s the One you’re looking for.

He’s what you really want to find when you open your present.

Let’s pray as we come to God’s Word this morning.

1 Timothy 1:12–17 ESV

12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Some of you are familiar with the apostle Paul’s background, and some of you may not be. Quickly, the apostle Paul was originally called Saul, and he was a strict Pharisee before becoming a Christian. In his religious enthusiasm, he vigorously persecuted Christians, displacing Christian families from their homes, putting them in jail, and famously, holding the coats of those who were stoning Stephen, thus giving his effective approval of Stephen’s murder.

According to Pharisaic law, however, Saul was blameless. If anyone could get to heaven by keeping the law, it would’ve been Saul. One day, as Paul was riding to the town of Damascus, anxious to persecute more Christians, when a God stopped him through what the Bible describes as a bright light shining from the sky, literally throwing him off of his horse. God spoke to Paul and saved him, and in doing so, changed Saul’s name to Paul.

You can read about Paul’s conversion in Acts chapter 9.

So here, in his letter to Timothy, who was Paul’s pastoral protege, so to speak, Paul is referencing his former life, and is at once astounded by the patient Grace that God showed him, so much so that Paul breaks into spontaneous praise at the end of the section.

So, why was Paul so amazed by God’s grace?

Why are we, as a people, still so amazed by God’s grace?

To the point where a song literally called, Amazing Grace, is among the most recognized melodies and first verses in the entire world, along the lines of the Happy Birthday song and the Star Spangled Banner.

I want to suggest to you that the gift of Grace that Jesus gives us, and that we celebrate every year at Christmas is so amazing because it provides and powers the transforming work of Christ in us.

It is God’s grace that transforms us from the wretches we are, to the righteous ones of God.

I think we can forget, or overlook, the significance of such a transformation simply because the headline in our lives regarding salvation is that we were going to hell but now, through our faith in Christ, because of the sinless life and sacrificial death and resurrection, we now can enjoy eternal life in heaven with God.

The transforming work of Grace is so important because it frees us from having to uphold the Law of God in our hearts and lives.

Make no mistake, the Law of God matters. It is a standard of righteousness that God does not compromise. However, human beings, you and me, have no chance of keeping all the Law because we are spoiled by sin to begin with.

So Jesus, fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, and thus was an acceptable sacrifice before God, for the payment of sin, and the accomplishment of salvation for all who would believe in Him.

So now, Christians can live from a position of righteousness, instead of having to work for a position of righteousness.

But we forget that easily don’t we?

How often do we try to barter with God?

We try to make deals with Him that if He will just do this for us, we will never do that again.

Or how often are we afraid to come into God’s presence because we are ashamed?

Or how often do we feel unworthy to serve Him or others because of the circumstances or actions in our lives at the moment?

When we get into these kinds of circular spiritual traps, we are forgetting that God’s Grace has transformed us and that we are a new creation.

The problem is that our new creation is something that we discover and that God uncovers over the course of our lives, so we might recognize our newness right away. And because we don’t recognize our newness, we think we are not changed, or that somehow we have to do in our lives what God said that He has done and/or will do in our lives.

The 3-Fold Process of Salvation

Justification: Freed from the penalty of sin.

A legal position. We are justified before God, and therefore we can inherit eternal life with Him. Happens at the moment of salvation/regeneration.

Sanctification: Freed from the power of sin.

The uncovering of the new creation that God has made us over the course of our lives. This is how we become more and more like Christ over time. Happens over our whole lives.

Glorification: Freed from the presence of sin.

We enter into a sinless eternal, in sinless and glorified bodies. Happens after physical death, completed at the resurrection of believers’ bodies.

Now, all of this, is work that God does on our behalf by Grace, and we access it through faith.

But we misunderstand Grace. We don’t see Grace as a power that God uses to affect transformation in our lives. We see Grace as a passive patience, as if God is just sitting there letting us get away with whatever we want. But that’s not Grace!

With a misunderstanding of Grace:

Justification ------------------Sanctification------------------------Glorification

Through Faith By Myself Through by Grace Faith by Grace

And when we misunderstand Grace, our lives seem to be endlessly futile and profoundly disappointing.

Why?

Because we are trying to produce in our lives what only God can produce, and what’s worse, when we don’t see the fruit in our lives that we want to, we become even more discouraged and “try harder,” until we can’t anymore and then we just quit.

I know because I’ve seen it over and over again in people’s lives.

And I know because I’ve done it in my life.

With a right understanding of Grace:

Justification ------------------Sanctification------------------------Glorification

Through Faith Through Faith Through by Grace By Grace Faith by Grace

You see, this is why the apostle Paul broke into spontaneous praise at the end of this section. He was fully aware that he was being sanctified, or transformed, by God. And he was exponentially grateful that God would do this in his life, because he could not do it on his own.

Even Paul, who excelled at keeping the Law, could not sanctify himself.

And if not for Christ, he would not have hope of such a work in his life.

Let’s look at a parallel that Paul gives us to describe his transformation, and then we will apply this to our lives in a final illustration before we close.

In , Paul uses three words to describe himself and his former life.

1 Timothy 1:13 ESV

13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,

“Blasphemer” - He used to curse the name of Jesus

“Persecutor” - He desired to destroy Christianity

“An Insolent Opponent/A Violent Man” - He was violent toward believers and hated them

Don’t forget, Paul, in his former life, was a strict Pharisee, which meant that he knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards, yet he was so blind, he thought he was following God by doing these things.

In verse 14, Paul writes about his transformation:

1 Timothy 1:14 ESV

14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Here, we see that:

Grace was the power that gave Paul salvation

Faith appropriated God’s salvation into Paul’s life

Love applied it/secured it for Paul forever

The Grace of God in Paul’s Life Changed Him From A/An:

Blasphemer of Christ to a Blessing of Christ

Persecutor of Christians to a Proclaimer of the Gospel

Opponent of God to an Obedient Servant of God

Paul was so thankful for God’s Grace because all that God was doing in his life, he could not do on his own.

What about you?

What kind of grace do you think God is giving to you?

What kind of grace are you looking for?

A cheap grace?

Or a costly grace?

Cheap grace is misunderstood and powerless

Costly grace transforms the most bitter enemy of God into one of His most influential leaders.

Dinosaur dig illustration

We are the bones. We were buried by sin. We were in the hands of sin.

But when we were justified, we went from sin’s hands into God’s Hands, and this gave us spiritual life, and spared us from the penalty of sin.

BUT, sin’s power still affects us. So God sets out to remove the sin from our lives, and this takes time. This is sanctification.

The bones can’t dig themselves out of the sand.

The bones can’t clean themselves off.

In fact, the bones don’t even know what they’re going to become.

Who can do these things?

Who can know these things?

In dinosaur terms, perhaps the scientist or the archaeologist.

In human terms and spiritual terms, God.

Volunteer to dig out the bones

When bones are clean, call band up

And one day, God will renew the body that goes with these bones, or in our case, with our spirit.

And it will be glorified, that’s our glorification, which is the culmination of God’s salvation in our lives.

And it is powered by Grace.

Its funny.

We read the Bible, and we read that when we are saved we are a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come, and that God has given us certain new attributes and a new identity in Him.

Yet, we somehow don’t believe Him, and so we try to work for those things that God has already given us, instead of discovering them, and accessing them through faith.

But we can look at this box, that tells us that there’s dinosaur inside, we’ll believe it no questions asked.

Do you find anything wrong with that kind of thinking?

Do you think there might be some room to renew your mind when it comes to the work of Christ in your life?

Ephesians 1:1–6 ESV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Quickly, here are just a few of the blessings that God has given to you, not that you work for, but that you already have and only need to discover and access through faith.

Paul tells us that we are:

In Christ

Holy and blameless

Chosen

Adopted as sons and daughters of God

Forgiven

We have been given:

Knowledge of the mysteries of God

A purpose to live for God's praise

The Holy Spirit as a foretaste of future glory.

And this is really a summary of what we have been given by God, and its not complete.

But here’s the thing:

You don’t work for holiness, you let God make you holy by uncovering it in your life.

And the more your holiness is uncovered, the more you will your life as holy.

The more you allow God to brush away the sands of sin that have had you buried for thousands of years, the more you will see your purpose, the more you will understand about God, and the more you will find hope in the promised future of eternity with Him that you have.

How about just the fact that God chose you on purpose.

It wasn’t you prayed a magic prayer and God had to take you on His team because you said the magic words.

God chose you on purpose because He created you and He wants to use you, and He wants to be with you.

But you say, “Well I’m so unworthy!”

And God says, “So was Paul, but I chose him too.”

This box is cheap grace. Its not even a real dinosaur. Oh it looks like one, maybe. And it can be fun for a little while. But it won’t transform you. And it doesn’t bless you with every spiritual blessing. And it didn’t choose you. It didn’t pay for you, rather you pay for it.

But God’s Word is costly Grace. And it will transform. And He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing. And He paid for you. And He chose you. And now, He wants to uncover all the richness of who you are, and who He has designed you to be for his Glory, for now and forever more.

This is the Grace of Christmas.

Let’s stand, and like Paul, let’s enthusiastically and loudly, praise our Great and Almighty God together as we close today.