Thanksgiving for the Grace of God

Parkdale Grace Fellowship

Sunday AM, January 6, 2008

1 Corinthians 1:3-4

Before going any further in this study of First Corinthians it is important for us to skim ahead in the letter and learn just what kind of people it is that Paul is writing to. We’ve already learned that they are sanctified saints, who have been called of God. However it may surprise you then to learn that a group of believers who are addressed as sanctified saints actually had a lot of serious problems.

Verses 10-11 tell us that there were factious divisions among them. Then 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 says, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”

Chapter four verse eight indicates that they were proud and boastful about their spiritual gifts. And look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:18, 21-5:2 “Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness? It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.”

And they were taking each other to court with law suits, 1 Corinthians 6:5-8 “I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!”

And chapters six and seven imply that some were involved in prostitution, (6:15-16) and some were seeking to divorce their spouses (chapter 7) Chapters 8 and 10 indicate that some were involved with idol worship and participating in sacrifices offered to idols 1 Corinthians 10:20-22 “Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”

And look at what was happening at their church fellowships: 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 “Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you . . . Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you”. And they were participating in the communion supper in an unworthy manner: 11:29-30. 1 Corinthians 11:29-30 “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.”

They were a congregation blessed with many spiritual gifts but even with these there was much abuse that Paul had to correct in chapters 12 and 14.In chapter 15 Paul had to correct serious doctrinal heresy in the church, 1 Corinthians 15:12 “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

Wow! Have they ever got problems! Keep in mind that this was not a church that had lacked good teaching. It was a church that the apostle Paul himself had planted; it was born out of a mighty move of God in which many were dramatically saved. And then Paul spent a year and a half teaching them to get them well established. What a blow it must have been to Paul to get the report from Apollos and from Chloe’s household about all the serious problems they were having. This is his spiritual family, he has led these people to the Lord and he has cared for them and nurtured them and taught them how they should live.

Now imagine for a minute that you are a parent who has left your family in good hands before taking a trip overseas. The kids are mostly all grown up, some are teens and some are young adults, some living at home and some are living in their own homes. While you are away you get a report that there are serious problems back home. The kids are fighting, some are involved in prostitution, some are getting drunk, the older kids are abusing the younger ones and not feeding them, there are affairs taking place between the married spouses and now some of them are looking for a divorce and others are suing each other in court. How would you respond to this news? What would be your emotional frame of mind? Paul did not catch the next boat to Corinth to straighten things out. He was moved by the Holy Spirit to calmly sit down and write a letter.

Keeping the situation that he is addressing in mind, let’s read again the opening verses of this letter.

Vs. 1-9

Not until verse 10 does Paul begin to address the problems, “Now I plead with you brethren . . .” As we read Paul’s response in contrast to how we are so often prone to respond we become aware right away that when we are led by the Holy Spirit (as Paul was) we will respond to a crisis very differently than when we are led by our flesh. Paul does not rant and rave and call them a bunch of backslidden, rotten rebels. That is the way Moses the lawgiver responded to Israel when they sinned and God strongly rebuked Moses for misrepresenting Him before the people and God forbade Moses to enter the Promised Land because of it. (Num. 20:10-12) Here on the other hand we see Paul, led by the Holy Spirit to call them sanctified saints. Paul does not identify them according to their performance, he identifies them according to what God’s word says they have become by faith in Jesus. This is important for us to learn. Too often we seriously damage and hinder people by labeling them according to their performance rather than according to who God has made them to be through their faith in Christ.

“But isn’t this sinful behavior that has to be confronted? Isn’t it wrong to turn a blind eye to sin?” Yes it is sinful behavior and Paul will not ignore it. As we read through his letter he very strongly confronts the sin. But first he begins by calling their attention to what God has done in their lives and who God has made them to be. They are a new creation, no longer sinners by nature but now righteous saints by nature. This is a good thing to remember when addressing believers including our children who are involved in sin. Begin by drawing their attention to who they now are through their relationship with Christ Jesus.

As we saw last week, in Paul’s greeting to the Corinthian believers he blesses them by pronouncing grace and peace to them (verse 3). Now again in verse four Paul thanks God for the grace of God which was given to the believers at Corinth. It has been observed that the grace of God is just as significant of a theme in First Corinthians as it is in Romans. (Thiselton, p. 35) God’s dealing with the church at Corinth throughout this letter provides for us a very graphic illustration of the grace of God. Romans gave us the theology of God’s grace but 1 Corinthians applies that grace to a real life situation.

There is often a lot of confusion among Christians about the nature of God’s Grace. Grace does not mean God turns a blind eye to sin. God never turns a blind eye to sin, He is absolutely just and will never let a single sin go unpunished, but executes perfect justice. Here are some brief facts about the nature of grace. (Adapted from William Newell, “Romans”, Chicago: Moody Press, 1948, p.245-46)

1) Grace is God acting on our behalf according to His own nature. Therefore grace will always act consistently with the nature of God and the word of God. Grace will never accommodate sin. But Grace makes full provision for the payment of sin’s penalty through the cross of Jesus Christ.

2) There is nothing we can do to cause grace to happen, or to make God obligated to be gracious.

3) Grace is sovereign and totally unconditional. It can act toward whoever it pleases in any way that it pleases. It can, and often does, place the most undeserving people in the place of greatest blessing.

4) Grace cannot act upon anyone who is either a worthy recipient or able to do it themselves. Grace is always undeserved.

5) Because there is nothing in us that can possibly cause God to be gracious it is useless for us to try to earn God’s Grace.

6) The recipient of Grace is forced to humbly acknowledge that we are absolutely unworthy and completely unable of ever becoming worthy and yet we are blessed, not because of anything in us but because of who God is.

Keeping these points in mind will help us understand what Paul is saying in verses four to nine.

Vs. 4

You are absolutely unworthy and undeserving but God has loved you and blessed you. That is true of every one of us.

Notice the reason for Paul’s thanks beginning in verse four and continuing through verse eight. He doesn’t give thanks for the Corinthian believers’ faithfulness to God. They were unfaithful. Rather he thanks God for God’s undeserved faithfulness to these people. He does not give thanks for the performance of the Corinthian saints, but rather he gives thanks for what God’s grace, given through Jesus Christ, has accomplished in them.

A sure way to be disappointed in life is to trust in people’s ability to be faithful. One of the most common sources of disappointment in life is in people who let you down; who do not keep their commitment; who do not honor their word; who say they will do something but then some more interesting distraction comes along and they don’t fulfill their promise. Another sure way to get discouraged and frustrated in life is to trust in ourselves to be faithful. If I get disappointed with my performance it is evidence that I had believed in myself. I actually thought that I could do better.

When any of us fail, the problem, or the cause of the failure, isn’t because we didn’t perform as well as we should have or could have performed; our failure wasn’t because we could have done better. The problem is in where we put our faith; we trusted in ourselves! Therefore we failed. We put confidence in our flesh. We actually thought we could have done better than we did. God has only ever expected one thing of us: that is to fail. He knows that we are but dust. He knows that apart from total dependence upon Him we can do nothing of any eternal value. He knows that all of our righteous efforts are unacceptable filthy rags. Therefore His word to us is not to try harder to succeed. His Word to us, the good news message, is simply, to put no confidence in ourselves but to trust entirely in Christ for everything. Christ in us is the only hope of Glory.

Therefore Paul doesn’t respond to the Corinthians by tearing a strip off of them and saying what’s wrong with you? You should be doing better than that. Paul knows what is wrong with them. He knows why they are failing, it’s because they have lost sight of the grace of God which is their only hope. They have taken their eyes off of Jesus; they have stopped depending upon Jesus for everything and he knows that apart from dependence upon Christ they cannot possibly live the Christian life no matter how hard they try. They needed to get their eyes back on Jesus and to depend upon His grace alone.

If you underline or circle every time Paul mentions the name of Jesus or Christ Jesus in this first chapter you will find that thirteen times in the first seventeen verses Paul connects what he is saying to the person of Jesus. Then in the second verse of chapter two he says, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” As we study First Corinthians we will see that the Christian life is all about Jesus and what was accomplished at the cross.

This is how Paul begins his letter of correction to a church that has floundered badly.