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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Only Grace; Part I |
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Ephesians
2:8-9 Fourth
Sunday after Easter May
10, 2009 We have been looking at the “onlys” of the Bible. The first only is, only God. To put it in more grammatically correct form, only God is God. As God Himself says in Isaiah 44:6, “I am the first and the last; and beside me there is no God.” The second only is, only Christ. Only Christ is the full revelation of God, for as He said, if we have ‘seen” Him we have seen the Father. Only Christ is the way to God by His sacrifice on the cross. Again, quoting to words of Christ himself, “I am the way the truth and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me.” Third, only Scripture is the word of God. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” says 2 Timothy 3:16. It alone is the authority for Christian doctrine and life. These are important points. These are the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith, and, while libraries are filled with the explanation and application of these things, we can summarize them by saying, God alone is God, Christ alone reveals God, and the Bible alone reveals Christ. These are things we have talked about over the past three weeks. Today we want to talk about another “only” of the Bible, only grace. The Bible tells us quite clearly that when we are born we already have a problem with God. The problem is that we don’t want God to be God over us. We want to be our own gods. Yes, we want God to bless us, and protect us, and heal us when we are sick, and give us good weather when we go on vacation, and take us to Heaven, some day, but we don’t want God interfering in our lives by telling us what to do. We don’t want him telling us we can’t love anything more than we love Him, or, we can’t use other people as toys and commodities, or, we can’t covet what other people have. We don’t want Him telling us to keep the Sabbath holy or repent of sin or that certain things are true while other things are false and certain things are right while other things are evil. We are born, even conceived, with a desire to be the captains of our own souls. We are born with the desire to be our own gods rather than trust and obey God. Therefore, we go astray from Him. We follow our lower desires, and as we prayed together a few minutes ago, we neglect to do the things we ought , and we do the things we ought not. We are experts at convincing ourselves there is no harm in this, but we really know better. We know better because we have been hurt by others living as though they were God, and because we have hurt others and ourselves by acting as though we were God. But most of all, we have hurt God. He created us to be the beneficiaries of His love, but we have rejected Him. His commandments are righteous and good but we have broken them and done evil instead. We hear of people today who “have a problem with authority,” as though that excuses their unruly behavior. I have news for you; everyone has a problem with authority. Everyone resents being told what to do sometimes. We may not act out our resentment in anti-social behavior, but we would all rather be entirely free to do things our own way. God is the Ultimate Authority, and that is why we have a problem with God. Because we have a problem with God, God has a problem with us. We are criminals against His righteous laws. We are rebels against His righteous authority. We have done evil, and we deserve to suffer the consequences of our actions. The consequence of our crimes is life in spiritual prison, without parole, forever. But wait, isn’t there anything I can do? Can’t I start being good and get off for good behaviour? Can’t I give money and reduce my time, kind of like paying a fine? Can’t I make restitution for my sins? Do a little “community service?” Maybe I could do a little plea bargaining? No, the Bible makes it abundantly clear, the only way to have our God problem solved is for God to solve it for us. Let me put this another way. Most people think that when they stand before the Judgment Seat of God, He is going to weigh their good deeds against their sins on some kind of spiritual scale. If their good deeds outweigh their sins (which they are confident will happen) they will go to Heaven. But that is not the picture the Bible gives. According to the Bible everyone’s sins far outweigh their good deeds and no one can get into Heaven on the basis of his good works. Even our good deeds are like filthy rags in God’s sight, so we can never hope to win a pardon with them. It is as though we owe a debt of a trillion dollars in pure gold, and we are trying to pay it with a rusty beer can. Our souls are polluted with sin, and all things we do are also polluted, like water from a polluted stream. That’s bad news, but even worse is the fact that we can’t even change our attitudes toward God by ourselves. We can’t make ourselves stop having a problem with His authority. We can’t change ourselves from rebels to loyalists any more than a leopard can change his spots. So the bad news is, we can never solve our problem with God, or God’s problem with us. The good news is, we don’t have to. God does this for us as a free gift. We call this, “grace” and, as Ephesians 2:8-9 tell us, we are saved by grace. Grace is God’s initiative in saving us from the eternal life sentence which should be the natural consequence of our sin. Grace means God takes the initiative, not only in restoring us to His favor, but also in restoring Him to ours. In grace God removes God’s problem with us, and our problem with God. The word, “grace” simply means “favor” or “good will.” It especially has the meaning of showing mercy, and pardoning offences. It means God chooses to favor us and act in good will toward us, even though we don’t deserve it. How does He do this? First, He solved His problem with us by bearing the sentence of our crimes in Himself. You have heard people say, “Jesus died for our sins.” They are simply stating the vitally important truth, that Christ suffered the penalty of your sins for you. He died the death you should have died. He suffered the wrath you should have suffered. Christ was God in flesh, so, on the cross God bore in Himself all the hurt, anger, and frustration your sins have caused Him, instead of making you bear it yourself. He solved His problem with you, and He offers that solution to you as a free gift. He pardons you by bearing what your sins cost Him in Himself. That is grace. Second, He solved your problem with Him. Your problem with Him was that you wanted to be God. You wanted to be free of His authority, free to make your own decisions without consequences. In short, you were a rebel and a sinner against His holy Laws, and you didn’t want to be anything else. God solved this problem for you by changing you. The Bible calls this being born again, or being made into a new creature, or being regenerated. It simply means that we could not change ourselves into the kind of people God wants us to be, so God did it for us. The result of this work of grace is a new desire to live quiet and holy lives. It is a new desire to love and serve God. It is a new love for righteousness. The person with the God problem, which the Bible calls the carnal or worldly minded person, desires to live for himself. The commandments of God are slavery to him. They are foolishness. They are death. They are grief. But, to the person whose God problem has been solved, the commandments of God are wisdom and freedom and life and joy. We see that they are good and that they are for our good. We understand that “The law of the Lord is perfect,” “the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” and “the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” They are more desirable than gold, and “in keeping them there is great reward” (See Ps. 19: 8-11). As you see,
what I am calling our God problem is called by Scripture, “sin.” The
solution of our God problem is called “salvation.”
As Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly shows, salvation is all by grace.
“By grace are ye saved.”
What we could never do for ourselves has been done for us by God.
Our sins are forgiven and we are regarded as good and righteous in
God’s eyes. Our natures
have been transformed so that we delight in God and His will.
No more do we desire to tread the dark paths of sin and despair. We have a home in Heaven where our joy will be complete
forever. We have all
of this because of the wonderful grace of God.
Grace is the Good News that never grows old. Grace is the hope that
shines into our hearts, even through the burdens and sorrows we often face
on the road to the Heavenly City. We
have peace that the world cannot give because we know, “by
grace are ye saved.” Thanks
be to God. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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