Sermon for Sunday November 5th, 2006
By Grace Alone by Tom McCrossan
Ephesians 2:4-2:10
By Grace Alone -- Ephesians 2:4-2:10
Grace It is UNDESERVED KINDNESS. Someone has said, “Grace is everything for
nothing to those who don’t deserve anything.”
An atheist once said, “If there really is a God, may He prove Himself by
striking me dead right now.” Nothing happened. The atheist proudly announced,
“You see, there is no God.” His friend responded, “You’ve only proved that He is
a gracious God.”
“Grace is the power of God made available to meet all our needs.” - Joyce Meyer
MAIN IDEA: Only by God’s grace can we be saved.
ILLUSTRATION:
You may know the story about the Sunday School teacher who wanted to teach her
class about grace. And so one day she asked them, “If I sold my house and my car
and gave all my money to the church, would I get into Heaven?”
“NO”! the children all answered.
Again she asked, “If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept
everything neat and tidy, would I get into Heaven?”
And again, the answer was “NO!”
“Well,” she continued, “then how can I get to Heaven?”
In the back of the room, a five-year-old boy shouted out, “You gotta be dead!”
Christian faith is not about what we can do for God, but what God has done for
us. What Luther saw in the spring of 1513 turned the world of religion on its
head. In Luther’s time, the church was basically teaching that God was passive,
but humanity was to be active. That is, God was on His throne reigning. And
human beings were to be scurrying around seeking to win God’s favor.
Luther’s eyes were opened to another reality--that it is God who is active.
Salvation is all about what God has done in Jesus Christ. Because Christ gave
himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, our debt to God is forever
paid.
Why do I need to be saved? Because I am a sinner and the wages of sin is death;
eternal separation from the life of God.
During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the
world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began
eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions
of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had
accounts of return from death.
The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room.
“What’s the [commotion] about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues
were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Lewis
responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”
The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems
to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the
Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish Mosaic covenant, and the Muslim code of
law—each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make
God’s love unconditional [Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion,
pp. 116-117; citation: Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing about Grace?].
I. I can NEVER DO ENOUGH to deserve salvation.
In 2001, Reader’s Digest asked Muhammad Ali what his faith meant to him. Ali
replied, “[It] means [a] ticket to heaven. One day we’re all going to die, and
God’s going to judge us, [our] good and bad deeds. [If the] bad outweighs the
good, you go to hell; if the good outweighs the bad, you go to heaven.” That’s
what many people believe. But that’s not what the Bible says.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves—it
is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
READ James 2:10; and Rom. 3:19.
I need to be saved by grace. I need undeserved salvation.
II. Christ DID ENOUGH to provide salvation for me.
There are only two principles by which God deals with people—grace and law.
Think of the nature of God: 1) God is all-powerful, the Creator. 2) God is
everywhere. 3) God is personal. 4) God is holy; the Righteous Judge. And 5) God
is love. These all fit together in the Biblical portrait of God. But you cannot
have love without holiness; nor holiness without love. In human judges, or in
almighty God!
According to the principle of grace, God deals favorably with people in a way
they do not deserve. Law requires Him to deal with people in a way they deserve.
Since sinners deserve hell, they cannot be delivered from this penalty by law.
The spiritual blindness of man is evident in that all their religions teach that
people are saved by their works, the very principle which bars them from
acceptance with God. No one can ever be saved from his sins apart from God’s
grace.
This is exactly what Martin Luther experienced for himself. He knew he was a
sinner, and he knew he could not by himself escape God’s justice. He felt
condemned. Until he understand God’s grace in Christ.
What has Jesus done for me? Here are 7 different words the NT uses to describe
Jesus’ gracious action on our behalf.
A. SUBSTITUTION: Jesus died in my place (1 Peter 3:18).
B. JUSTIFICATION: Jesus made me right with God (Rom. 4:25).
A word from the courts. God sees me innocent, no longer guilty.
C. RECONCILIATION: Jesus made peace with God possible(2 Cor. 5:19).
Jesus the bridge
D. ADOPTION: Jesus made me a part of God’s family.
“He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance
with his pleasure and will” (Eph. 1:5).
E. REDEMPTION: Jesus purchased my salvation with his blood(1 Peter 1:18-19).
A marketplace word, referring to slaves being purchased. We were slaves to sin
until Jesus purchased us out of the slave market and set us free from sin’s
bondage; now we belong exclusively to Him.
F. ATONEMENT: Jesus satisfied God’s justice (1 John 2:2; 4:10).
In heathen circles it was a word that meant “to appease the anger of the gods.”
Biblically to satisfy the justice of God and his anger at sin, so that mercy is
given.
G. FORGIVENESS: Jesus sent my sins away from me. (Eph. 1:7).
In the movie Saving Private Ryan, a group of Army Rangers receive a mission to
go deep into enemy territory to save Private Ryan. They hit skirmish after
skirmish, and some of them are killed along the way. They finally get to where
Private Ryan is holed up, and they say, “Come with us. We’re here to save you.”
He says, “I’m not going. I have to stay here because there’s a big battle coming
up, and I’m not going to abandon my fellow soldiers.”
What do the Rangers do? They all stay and fight, and almost everyone dies except
Private Ryan. At the end, one of the main characters—played by Tom Hanks—is
sitting on the ground. He’s been shot and he’s dying. But the battle has been
won.
Private Ryan leans over to him, and Tom Hanks whispers, “Earn this.”
A Christian pastor who was a Ranger, has written: "It’s very unlikely that any
Ranger would say, “Earn this.” Why? Because the Ranger motto for the past two
hundred years has been “I chose this.” In other words, I volunteered for this.
So, if Tom Hanks was really a Ranger, he would have said, “I chose this. You
don’t have to earn this. I give up my life for you. That’s my job.”
And so, when you look at the cross and see Jesus hanging there, what you don’t
hear is “Earn this.” What He says is “I chose this. You don’t have to pay
anything for it” [adapted from Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and
Occasion; citation: Tom Allen, Preaching Today #200].
Not "earn this;" but Jesus said, "Remember this!"
Grace is often defined by using the five letters of the word: God’s Riches At
Christ’s Expense.
III. Salvation is a GIFT for me to RECEIVE, not a REWARD for me to EARN (Rom.
6:23).
ILLUSTRATION:
A student in a youth ministry class at Hannibal-LaGrange College in Missouri
learned this lesson from his professor.
This student had left work early so he could have some uninterrupted study time
right before the final in his Youth Issues class. When he got to class,
everybody was doing their last minute studying. The teacher came in and said he
would review with them for just a little bit before the test. They went through
the review, most of it right on the study guide, but there were some things the
teacher was reviewing that this student had never heard of. When questioned
about it, the teacher said that this material was in the book and they were
responsible for everything in the book. The class couldn’t really argue with
that.
Finally it was time to take the test. The prof. instructed the class to leave
the exam booklets face down on the desk until everyone had one and then he would
tell them to start.
When the students turned the exam booklets over, every answer was already filled
in! The bottom of the last page said the following: “This is the end of the
Final Exam. All the answers on your test are correct. You will receive an ‘A’ on
the final exam. The reason you passed the test is because the creator of the
test took it for you. All the work you did in preparation for this test did not
help you get the A. You have just experienced . . . grace.”
The teacher then went around the room and asked each student individually, “What
is your grade? Do you deserve the grade you are receiving? How much did all your
studying for this exam help you achieve your final grade?”
This student, writing about this experience, says, “Now I am not a crier by any
stretch of the imagination, but I had to fight back tears when answering those
questions and thinking about how the Creator has passed the test for me.”
Afterward his teacher had this to say: “I have tried to teach you all semester
that you are a recipient of grace . . .” The teacher went on to say he had never
done this kind of final before and probably would never do it again, but because
of the content of many of their class discussions, he felt like they needed to
experience grace. Not just talk about it, but experience it. [From “Mike’s
Funnies List.” Cited on Pastor Tim’s Illustrations List.]
All of us here need to EXPERIENCE grace--not just know about it intellectually.
Many of us grew up in homes where love was conditional. We were not conscious of
it, but that is how we experienced life as a child. Our parents’ acceptance was
performance-based. If we did well, we experienced our parents’ approval. If not,
we experienced their disapproval. And so, at a level at which we are not even
aware, all our lives we have been trying to measure up to our parents’
expectations. And the sad thing is that we never can.
And so many of us have this deep sense of unworthiness. And you know something
interesting--it’s some of the finest people in the church who have this sense of
unworthiness. And it’s robbed us of our joy. We’ve tried to do the right thing
all our lives and all it has gotten us is that we are standing on the outside
looking in at the joy others seem to have.
All our lives we have been taught about salvation by faith, but we have not
associated it with that deep unhappiness that many of us feel.
Here is the good news: You do not have to measure up. You do not have to be at
the top of your class. You are accepted. You are loved. Salvation, wholeness,
healing of the inner person by God is not performance-based. In fact, in order
to experience God’s grace, you and I have got to somehow forget everything we’ve
ever learned about being good. That sounds radical, doesn’t it? But that is what
Luther saw half a millennium ago. We are saved not by our performance, but by
our faith in an omnipotent and all-loving God.
Salvation is a GIFT for me to RECEIVE, not a REWARD for me to EARN.
How do I receive the gift of salvation?
• By ADMITTING that I am a sinner.
• By BELIEVING that Jesus Christ died from my sins and rose from the grave.
• By CALLING to God for salvation.
These are the ABC’s of salvation: Admit, Believe, and Call.