Unmerited Favor
Notes
Transcript
I think a topic that we talk a lot about these days when referring to Christianity is the word Grace. It is probably the most familiar word in the Christian vocabulary.
Many years ago a theologian, wrote a book titled “Grace is not a Blue-eyed blonde”. This book was trying to shock us into realizing that we throw around many theological terms and words and do not truly understand what they mean.
In the next few weeks we are going to look at the doctrines of our faith and try to better understand what they mean.
The word grace and its related words appear in scripture about two hundred times. The first reference to grace is gound in Gen. 6:8, where we read that “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord”. The final appearance of the word is recorded in Rev. 22:21 - “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all”
We need a firm grasp on the doctrine of grace, it is the foundation on which other doctrines rest.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
The concept of Grace
The concept of Grace
What does this word mean?
In the original language of the New Testament, the word implies a favor freely done.
The word for “Gift” springs from the same root. The Greeks used this word to describe favor shown to a friend.
When Jesus came and died on the cross, grace leaped from its confinement as an expression only to friends and included enemies as well. The Whosoever will!
As Paul said in Romans:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus had much to say about Christians’ relationships with their fellow humans. He said that terrible hard thing: “Love your eneomies!”
And in His concern that our “love” for enemies woul degenerate into an artificial emotion He said “Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44).
We need to understand that grace goes beyond our salvation.
Grace becomes the spring from which all blessings flow from God.
In other words, He who saves us by grace us into the sphere of grace and endows us with all the blessings and favors that accompany this divine expression of love.
In fact, this attitude of God was hinted at in the Old Testament.
This coat may be the only blanket your neighbor has. How can a person sleep without it? If you do not return it and your neighbor cries out to me for help, then I will hear, for I am merciful.
They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them,
So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.
Paul wrote Romans 5 that God abounds in grace. The word translated “abound” means to “Exist in superabundance”. All of God’s dealings with his people are filtered through His marvelous grace! We can be eternally grateful that God deals with us through grace and not justice.
The Sufficiency of Grace
The Sufficiency of Grace
How can we say that God’s grace is all sufficient?
It is true simply because grace comes to us from the glorious and transcendent nature of God Himself. It is one of His infinite attributes and it is the result of the eternal counsel and purpose of His will. We must not forget that grace is an act not just a favor or a gift from God.
Grace reveals what God is as well as what He does.
Grace comes through Christ.
I am so thankful for Jesus. So thankful for His obedience and the fact that His act of selflessness allows me to experience the gift of grace.
Jesus’ life on earth was a platform from which grace was displayed. The writer of Hebrews summed it up this way”
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Paul spoke of the riches of God’s grace.
What are some of these riches you may ask?
When God freely gives sinners eternal life through grace, He credits them with a perfect righteousness. That is, when God observes Christians - sinners saved by grace - He sees them not their continued imperfections and sins, BUT CLOTHED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT WAS IMPUTED TO THEM THROUGH THEIR FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
This elevates Christians to a relationship that cannot be broken, it is a position with God that is imprenetrable!
A further provision of God’s all-sufficient grace is that is makes us to be “at peace with God”.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
This means that there has been brught about a reconciliation, creating an insoluable bond between God and the redeemed.
Another vital benefit of God’s grace is that we as believer have access to God through prayer. Christians are enjoined to “Come Boldly” to the throne of Grace to make their requests known of God.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Finally this evening, let’s talk about:
The Scope of Grace
The Scope of Grace
Paul told Titus that God’s grace is for everyone one!
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Someone once said that if you take the “g” from the word “grace” you have the word “race”. Grace is for all within the human race, for all stand on one common ground - namely, that of bring sinners.
Jesus said:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
From beginning to end, the gospel presents the universality of God’s saving grace.
There is one thing we must understand clearly about God’s grace.
Grace does not imply that God passes by any person’s sin or takes it lightly.
Sin is so horrible in God’s sight that He can in NO WAY tolerate it!
God sees the sinner as utterly ruined, hopeless, and helpless. And the triumph of grace is seen at Calvary, where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet.
There Christ bore the curse of human sin and with God’s hatred against sin He vindicated us the basis of His grace, He can now forgive the sinner!
Grace is God’s part and faith is ours!
We simply accept, by faith the grace of God. We do not grow into grace but we do grow in grace.
Once we are made sharers of divine grace, it becomes a progressive force in our lives.
Grace is not just a seed in the heart that lies dormant, but a blade, an ear, then full corn in the ear. As the roots spread, the plant grows!
The scope of God’s grace ever widens.
As Christians start to grow in grace, they grow in spiritual stature toward God and grow smaller and smaller in their own eyes.
Through grace one grows out of self conceit, because grace subdues it.
Growing in grace means that all of the virtues of the Christian life - the fruits of the spirit Paul described in Gal. 5:22-23 - grow proportionately.
We need grace to see these things in our lives.
As we grow in grace, the growth of corruption is hindered. The flowers of grace prevent the weeds of sin from spreading.
So the question is are the fruits of the spirit evident in your life?
Or are you yielding a garden of weeds spiritually speaking?
Lots of times once we get on the road of the Christian life we think we don’t need continued work and growth. Please friends don’t fool yourself in thinking this. We need to ask the Lord to continue to show us areas where we need to be molded and shaped and where things need to be cut away.
It’s so much easier for you to look at my life and see what I need to fix and for me to look at yours and see the areas you need to fix. We need to ask the Lord to let our eyes be opened to see, hear and heed His voice and direction we need to take to be better representatives for Him.
Conclusion:
There is a Hymn written by Robert Robinson called “Come thou Fount of Every Blessing”.
O to grace how great a debter
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let that grace now like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee.
There once was a ship in distress on the high seas because its water supply had run our. The crew was in danger of dying from thirst though there was water all around them. When hope was almost gone, they saw a ship off in a distance.
At once they set off distress signals. The only answer they got, as they signaled to the passing ship that they were without water, was, “Dip is up!” What a heartless mockery to tell those sailors to dip up buckets of sald water!
They signaled again, but the same answer came back “Dip it up!”.
In despair, they lowered their bucket.
Imagine their amazement and joy when the water proved to be freshwater!
They thought they were in the high seas, but they had drifted to the mouth of the Amazon river!
This may seem to be a bit of a comical story but I said this to try to bring across an important point about the grace of God.
Countless souls are dying of spiritual thirst today, when all around them there is the availibility of the saving grace of God! All that is need to be done is have faith and “dip it up!”.
Tonight I invite you to have faith and call out to Him and receive His saving grace!