God's Amazing Grace

God’s Amazing Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9 / 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Opening Ilustration:

When the kids were younger, we were at Sea World, and we watched in wonder as the trainers persuaded the dolphins and seals and whales to perform for us.

And invariably, the trainers would wrap their arms around that huge animal and attempt to show us how timid, and friendly they were.

Chuck Swindoll describes Grace the same way - a HUGE Topic -

Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes Grace

The subject of grace is like that—a big subject to try and get your arms around or to get a hold on.

With a flip of a tail or the snap of jaws - we would see how powerful and huge those water mammals are.

Do you ever get caught up in the wonder of God’s Grace and HOW BIG IT REALLY IS?

Are we placating God with our gifts?

Are we content with the amount we receive?

Is our one time aisle walking, do little for Him after that type of faith honoring to the Extreme Grace that He died to give?

How much more of His Grace is there out there? I’ve certainly never tapped the extremes of His wonderful undeserving favor - Grace to me sometimes is trapped in between four walls and specific people - but it is MUCH Wider, Stronger, and Impulsive than that.

Before we go much further - I’d like to define Grace once more.

Academic First

5485. χάρις charis, khar´-ece; from 5463; graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstr. or concr.; lit., fig. or spiritual; espec. the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude):—acceptable, benefit, favour, gift, grace (-ious), joy liberality, pleasure, thank (-s, -worthy).

James Strong, A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), 77.

88.66 χαριτόω; χάριςa, ιτος f: to show kindness to someone, with the implication of graciousness on the part of the one showing such kindness—‘to show kindness, to manifest graciousness toward, kindness, graciousness, grace.’

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains.

G.R.A.C.E.

G.R.A.C.E. - God’s - Riches - At - Christ’s - Expense - Chuck Swindoll

Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us of another practical way to look at Grace.

TWO TYPES OF GRACE:

Costly Grace

Cheap Grace

COSTLY GRACE -

Grace and God’s Power are needed to move forward PAST sin and into the Transformative Aspect of Grace – where we are so thankful for the gift that we never want to go back to the SIN.

Do you think the Prodigal Son EVER thought about going out on his own after he walked that road of redemption?

Likely he NEVER DID – but if he ever did, there is the short recall of the heartache, and the wonderful GRACE and MERCY that the Father offered at his restoration and healing .

Here is the way GRACE works for us:

Sundays – preachers sort of diagnose and begin a healing process. Sometimes they are going to touch on a nerve – and that painful reaction is the beginning of Grace. We can fight it or we can come broken, and allow the Lord to salve and heal.

Grace is the solution to sin! Grace, Grace greater than all my sin.

Free to THEE - but So COSTLY To THE SAVIOR!

It’s Free Grace or No Grace At All

“The testimony of scripture, from beginning to end, is that the offer of salvation in Christ is completely and totally free.

No strings attached.

I come sinful, broken, and needy to God and he gives me the righteousness of Christ. I don’t have anything to offer God. The only thing I contribute to my salvation is my own sin. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”

https://theblazingcenter.com/2018/03/cheap-grace.html

Oh but after that coming - that giving - that acceptance - we must not sully the shine, take a step back from the glory, we cannot cheapen what Christ did by giving less than our best in every situation.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that Cheap Grace is “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 cheapjacks’ 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!

The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing….

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without 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 self all that he has.

It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.

It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and 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 cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.

That is why is must not be cheapened by running back to sin time and again!!

Allow Grace to dig up the ROOT of sin and throw it away…Don’t resist when the Word of God or a sermon touches a nerve - that’s the time to dig up the roots so it doesn’t blossom any longer.

Crepe Myrtle Tree on DOGWOOD LANE

Allow Grace to Dig Up the Root of Sin

tired of it poking me in the eye and covering our clothes with blossoms - so i cut off the branches that hung over the sidwalk. BUT the tree remained…and eventually it began to threaten the sidewalk with THE ROOTS!!

So out came the AX! The SHOVELS! The Root of the problem had to go so that it wouldn’t damage the foundations of our walk!

GRACE Must be allowed to Uproot Sin so that it doesn’t damage the foundations of our Walk With Christ.

We must never CHEAPEN The Costly Grace of Christ Who paid everything to give it.

emptied of the godhood

Became a human, taking on the form of a servant

Dying to pay the penalty that you and i owed for sin.

Giving Hope to the Hopeless.

Life to the Lifeless - We Were DEAD in our SINS, unable to help ourselves.

But there’s also a huge problem with the phrase “cheap grace”.

Hebrews 10:26–27 NASB95

26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

This passage should help us balance the Costly and Cheapened Grace. We should never take Grace for Granted - we have to see that though God takes the Church Kid, The Father, Mother…He also takes the Crack Addict, the Prostitute and the Murderer - with the same Extravagant, Magnificent, Freely Given Grace.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eleven: A Preacher in Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:1–10)

Certainly Paul was a man of rich Christian character because he permitted God to mold and make him in the painful experiences of his life. When you walk along the shore of the ocean, you notice that the rocks are sharp in the quiet coves, but polished in those places where the waves beat against them. God can use the “waves and billows” of life to polish us, if we will let Him.

Paul’s thorn in the flesh was given to him to keep him from sinning. Exciting spiritual experiences—like going to heaven and back—have a way of inflating the human ego; and pride leads to a multitude of temptations to sin

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eleven: A Preacher in Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:1–10)

In the Christian life, we get many of our blessings through transformation, not substitution. When Paul prayed three times for the removal of his pain, he was asking God for a substitution: “Give me health instead of sickness, deliverance instead of pain and weakness.” Sometimes God does meet the need by substitution; but other times He meets the need by transformation. He does not remove the affliction, but He gives us His grace so that the affliction works for us and not against us.

God’s Grace is enough! His unmerited favor upon us! When we sin, When we don’t.

When we live, when we die.

When we need it, and when we don’t think we do. That’s just it - His Grace is always there - and therein lies the problem. We want the blessings of Gracee, the subsitutions of His power.

“As Paul prayed about his problem, God gave him a deeper insight into what He was doing. Paul learned that his thorn in the flesh was a gift from God. What a strange gift! There was only one thing for Paul to do: accept the gift from God and allow God to accomplish His purposes.

God wanted to keep Paul from being “exalted above measure,” and this was His way of accomplishing it.

When Paul accepted his affliction as the gift of God, this made it possible for God’s grace to go to work in his life. It was then that God spoke to Paul and gave him the assurance of His grace.

[How many times have we seen someone with an AFFLICTION That Turns It To God’s Glory - Likely they struggle with that THORN. But God Pushed them to see what Paul eventually saw - MY GRACE, God’s Grace - His Unmerited Favor - IS SUFFICIENT, MY POWER is Perfected in your weakness. After all, it is not us who is supposed to get the Glory!! It’s God! To God Be the GLORY!!]

Whenever you are going through suffering, spend extra time in the Word of God; and you can be sure God will speak to you. He always has a special message for His children when they are afflicted.

God did not give Paul any explanations; instead, He gave him a promise: “My grace is sufficient for thee.” We do not live on explanations; we live on promises.

Our feelings change, but God’s promises never change. Promises generate faith, and faith strengthens hope.”

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 675–676.