Grief, Grace & Gratitude

This evening, as we study this relatively short Question and Answer, we’ll be jumping around in the scriptures.

Q&A 2 highlights the three themes, or three organising principles of the entire catechism. Most of you have probably memorised them, and have taught them to your children. The three sections are sin/misery, freedom from sin/misery and thankfulness. The Catechism has headings beginning with Lord’s Day 2, which also reflect this organisation, Man’s Misery, Man’s Deliverance and Man’s Gratitude. But some of you have probably memorised them with a good mnemonic like grief, grace and gratitude or sin, salvation and service.

1. Grief

So, first, let’s look at grief.

We should take note that grief, sin/misery is the shortest section in the catechism. The longest section is grace. But grace has its climax in gratitude. Now, while it is important to understand our grief, our sin and misery, that is not where the majority of our focus ought to be!

a. This section is like a diagnosis.

This section is like a diagnosis. Turn with me, if you will, to . (Pause). All humans, Jews and Gentiles alike, are guilty. Paul tells us that lineage makes no difference. There is no get out of jail free card based on who your parents were.

Then, quoting from several places in the Old Testament, Paul graphically diagnoses the human situation. No one is righteous, not even one. No one understands. No one seeks God. All have turned their backs on God. All are worthless. No one does good, not even one.

Okay, that’s pretty clear. That’s blunt. But he goes on!

People are walking dead. They’re full of lies. What they say is poison, if it were possible to become more dead, or to infect the dead with more death, the poison from their mouths would do it. They curse God, and are bitter toward Him. They don’t think twice about killing, by thoughts, words, or deeds. Look at the world we live in now! Only God’s grace prevents the world from total annihilation!

Outside of Christ, there is no happiness, true happiness. People just can’t get along. If you don’t believe me, ask someone with a tough school bus run.

There is no fear of God. The world apart from Christ insists on doing it their own, wrong, evil way.

The diagnosis is bad. Everyone you see is walking dead. It’s just a matter of time until death catches up to them. Death is the result of sin. Sin=Death. God made that clear to Adam and Eve. They went ahead and sinned anyway.

That’s the diagnosis! That’s what we need to tell people. Some people have said, “That’s not good news! That doesn’t sound nice! We can’t tell people that!”

Of course, we can! We have to tell them as it is! If we don’t, if we try to couch it in niceties, we’re doing them a severe disservice! We’re making a mockery of God’s wrath toward sin! And we’re basically telling them we don’t really care about them! We can’t get soft on this! God didn’t get soft on it! Sin made him so angry; he kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, and placed an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance!

The diagnosis is terrible. People won’t want to hear it. But ask them this, “What would you rather have in your life? A doctor who tells you like it is right away, while there is still hope of treatment—or a doctor who waits until you’re on your deathbed, then tells you, ‘by the way. I’ve known about your condition for a long time. I could’ve told you sooner, but I didn’t want to ruin your life. Yeah, you could’ve been doing really well right now, but back then, I didn’t want to hurt your feelings, I didn’t want to make you upset!’”

What kind of doctor would that be? Good doctors have good bedside manner. We need to tell the truth, in a tender, loving and kind way.

Now, if we only give out the diagnosis, we’re no better than that lousy doctor who didn’t do anything for his dying patient, the one he could have saved.

2. Grace

This is where grace comes in, our second point.

a. This section describes the cure.

The remedy is Jesus. Jesus saves. The Catechism very carefully, very logically lays the foundation for Christ, why he is the mediator, how he is able to heal and forgive.

First, let’s look at &13. (Pause) Jesus has just called Matthew, who was a known sinner. Jesus invited what most people considered the scum of the earth, to be his disciples.

The Pharisees questioned him, “Why do you eat with sinners?” Out of Jesus’ disciples, the only one they would have approved of was Judas!

Jesus replied, and this is our text, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” (&13)

b. The sick need a doctor.

Jesus calls sinners to him. He invites them into his inner circle. Why? So that he can heal them.

Jump back a few verses. Look at .

Some friends bring a paralytic to Jesus. They knew that Jesus could heal him, bam, just like that!

Imagine their surprise then, when instead of touching him, or commanding him to get up and walk, which is what they expected Him to do, Jesus instead said, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

But so that we may know that Jesus has the authority on earth to forgive sins, he then told the paralytic to get up and walk.

c. Illness is a symptom of the sinful human condition—the paralytic’s greater need was forgiveness.

The paralysis was a symptom. Illness is a symptom of the sinful human condition—the paralytic’s greater need was forgiveness. As we saw earlier, all of us are on the way to the grave, unless Christ returns first. All of us are already on our way to decay. This man’s paralysis was a symptom of an underlying problem. That underlying problem is sin. Jesus gets to the heart of the situation, the source, by pronouncing forgiveness to the man. The forgiveness was based on faith, faith shown in the action of bringing the man to him, perhaps the man himself begged his friends to bring him.

The healing was done just to prove Jesus’ authority. The man didn’t need to be healed physically! He needed to be healed spiritually! That’s the point! That’s the underlying condition which needed the most attention! The miraculous healings simply proved Jesus power and authority over sin!

Jesus Christ is the great physician. He not only tells us what our condition is, He provides the remedy! He heals us! Sometimes he graciously gives us physical healings today. We ask that God, in His grace, will show us the power of his forgiveness, through the physical healing of our loved ones. But in reality, we know that they’ve already been forgiven! Already they are perfectly restored! Whether they live or die, they are eternally in Christ, all of us are!

And so, that knowledge helps us deal with their illnesses! Knowing that the underlying problem, sin, has already been dealt with, we can deal with the symptoms, whether Christ takes those symptoms away, or gives us the grace to live with them. That’s grace.

3. Gratitude

As I mentioned earlier, gratitude is the climax of the catechism. This is what it is leading up to! On account of what Christ has done, as a result of us turning to him in faith, we have received forgiveness. We also have received healing.

a. We are now able to walk spiritually.

Just as the paralytic, after being forgiven, after being healed physically was able to walk, actually get up and walk, we too are able to walk spiritually! We are now able to live, to obey, to be all God created us to be!

b. says that we have Christ in us, the hope of glory.

says that we have Christ in us, the hope of glory. This is the amazing thing about grace and gratitude. Christ, totally out of his own graciousness, chose to save us. He heals us from sin, from death. He makes us alive in him. This means that we are free to live gracious lives, thankful lives. Not only that, Christ is the one who works this graciousness out in us!

Christ in us, the hope of glory means that it is Christ living in us, through the Holy Spirit, that enables us to live righteous lives. The hope of glory. says, “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the gory of God.” What’s the glory of God that Paul’s referring to in verse 23?

c. Glory is God’s perfect moral character.

Glory is God’s perfect moral character. This is what God created us to reflect, to image in life. We were to bear God’s image. Sin corrupted, distorted and brought death, destroying this ability in humanity. In Christ, we have hope of being able to reflect God’s perfect moral character, that is to be obedient children, because Christ, who was perfectly obedient his whole life on earth, now lives in and through us.

Gratitude then, is inviting Christ to live, via the Holy Spirit, in and through you. What does this look like? When we are connected to Christ, our head, we behave like his body. My head, my brain controls my body. Ordinarily, it does whatever I want it to do. There are some things I can’t do, like cartwheels. But if my mind tells my hand to move it moves.

When we submit to Christ, when we allow him to have lordship in our lives, then we will conform to his will, his way of living. We won’t need to come up with new rules and regulations. We won’t need to come up with new and better laws. We will begin to desire more and more, to live for Christ, according to his will revealed in scripture, in the commandments.

God in his mercy, tells it like it is. He doesn’t spare us any grief out of sentimentality. He says it like it is. In his grace, God comes to us, though we are his enemies, though we deserve everlasting death. God does for us that which we could never do, pay the penalty of sin. Christ died so that we may live. He is alive and now lives in us. We respond with gratitude, happily demonstrating our love for God by allowing Christ to rule in our hearts and lives!

If you understand the misery of the situation, respond to God’s grace in Christ, if you haven’t already, and live a life of gratitude. Amen.