Christ's Great Gifts to Sinners

Introduction

The God we serve is one whom loves to bless His people. He loves to fellowship with us. He loves to draw His people to Himself. He loves to give to His people and the return of His gifts to Him. As we close our 2020 Advent Series, we want to examine this phenomenon of God giving, in Christ, to His people. We have considered Christ’s journey for sinners. We studied his great acts for sinners. Now we will turn to Christ’s great gifts to sinners.

Background

When considering the gospel message, we must be careful to take all the gospel into account. Christ didn’t just come to die. He came to die so that we could live. Christ didn’t come to just to be crucified. He came to be resurrected as well. Christ didn’t just come to destroy. He came to destroy and re-create. Christ did not come just to take things away. He came to give gifts to men (Ephesians 4:8). We will turn to this now, barely scratching the surface, looking at some of the gifts Christ came to the redeemed.

Exposition

Christ’s Great Gift of Peace

First, we have peace with God - Romans 5:1: The lopsided war with God is over. We no longer have to fear his wrath or judgment. We have been brought into right standing via Christ’s sacrifice. This allows the father to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ (Romans 3:23). Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “Your sin was the ground of the quarrel; but it has gone, it has ceased to be, it is blotted out, it is cast into the depth of the sea.... Jesus hath taken our guilt, hath suffered in our stead, hath made full compensation to the injured law, and vindicated justice to the very highest; and now there is nothing which can excite the anger of God towards us”.[1]

Second, we have the peace of God - Phil 4:6-7, John 14:27: This comes via the prince of peace. This is a peace founded upon the nature and promises of God concerning His people. It is a peace that recognizes His love, care, and omnipotent power to do all that He has willed. It is a not a situational peace but is one we must lay hold to (Isaiah 26:3).

Third, we have peace as a fruit of the Spirit - Gal 5:22: That is, this peace is cultivated in us via the Spirit of Christ. It can grow and increase. It can’t be removed or eternally extinguished.

Christ’s Great Gift of Joy

This joy is based on Christ’s work - Luke 2:8-11: Our Joy is based on Christ’s coming and achievement of our salvation. We have joy because we have been freed to be in relationship with the Father via the Son and to obey the Son’s commands.

This joy is brought forth by the Spirit of Christ: Like “peace” it is a fruit of the Spirit. We cannot produce divine joy from within ourselves.

This joy in Christ is full and complete - John 15:10-11, James 1:2-4: As we are faithful in obedience, considering God’s goodness and His continual work by His Spirit on our behalf, we will experience a state of joy without deficiency. It is joy incomparable. It is a joy that will radiant forth, attracting the attention of the world, and compelling the unsaved to come and see and repent and believe.

Christ’s Great Gift of Adoption

We have become children of God - John 1:12 - 13: It is no longer just creature-Creator. All humanity may lay claim to that designation. In contrast, not all humanity can lay claim to status of sonship. Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon on adoption, may it plan for us words: “We are by nature the children of one who was attainted for high treason; we are all the heirs, and are born into the world the natural heirs of one who sinned against his Maker, who was a rebel against his Lord.”[2]

We have been given the Spirit of Adoption - Gal 4:6, Romans 8:15-16: We have entered into loving fellowship and communion. Charles Spurgeon describes it this way: “Adoption is that act of God, whereby men who were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, and were of the lost and ruined family of Adam, are from no reason in themselves, but entirely of the pure grace of God, translated out of the evil and black family of Satan, and brought actually and virtually into the family of God; so that they take his name, share the privileges of sons, and they are to all intents and purposes the actual offspring and children of God.”[3]

We have become joint-heirs - Romans 8:17: We will be rewarded in and with Christ.

Bibliography

1. Spurgeon, C. H. (1878). The Peace of God. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 24, p. 75). London: Passmore & Alabaster.

2. Spurgeon, C. H. (1861). Adoption. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 7, p. 99). London: Passmore & Alabaster.

3. ibid. Pg 98