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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Only Grace, Part II |
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Ephesians
2:8&9 Rogation
Sunday May
17, 2009 Only God is God. Only Christ is the way to God. Only Scripture is the authoritative revelation of doctrine and faith. Only grace puts sinful people right with God. These are some of the foundational doctrines of Biblical Christianity. Compromise any one of them, and, no matter what you call it, you have deserted Christianity and have invented a new religion of your own making. Last week I spoke about grace. I emphasized the doctrinal aspects of grace. Today I want to continue speaking about grace, but I want to do so in a less doctrinal way, because grace is not primarily a doctrine; it is the disposition of the heart of God towards us. I can express the heart of this sermon by simply saying, grace is the love of God in action toward us. I want to look at three passages of Scripture and see in them the grace of God abounding to sinners. In the eighth chapter of John’s Gospel we find the story of a woman taken in adultery. I am sad to say the religious leaders of the Jews had forgotten about the grace of God. When they forgot about grace they deserted Biblical faith and embraced a new religion of their own making. Usually when people make up their own religion, they create an easy religion. Especially today many “churches” are inventing easy religions which require no holiness, no transformation of life or thought; religions in which their “god” blesses everything they do, and just wants people to get along and “love everybody.” But the religion of the Pharisees was a hard religion; a religion that emphasized earning the good will of God through ceremonies and deeds and rules. It was a religion of pride, because, in their minds, no one ever measured up to their standards of righteousness, except them. And they hated the rest of the common herd who could not give enough money, or observe all the ceremonies, or keep all the rules they made up in place of the commandments of God. There are many passages in the New Testament which show the empty hypocrisy of their religion. We read that they loved to be “seen” fasting or praying, or giving alms because they did it all as a show, to impress others with their “holiness.” Jesus said they were like tombs, bright and shining on the outside, with rotting corpses on the inside. He said they trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others (Lk.18:9). One of the most telling passages of the Bible shows one of these religious leaders praying in the Temple, saying, “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, … or even as this publican” (Lk. 18:11). This is an arrogant prayer, a hateful prayer. It says, “I am not a sinner like other people. I, by my own will am righteous because I make myself do righteous things. I am better than other people.” This Pharisee walks proudly into the presence of God to boast of his righteousness, in stark contrast to the words of Paul that says salvation, from start to finish, is the gift of God, “not of works, lest any man boast.” These religious leaders caught a woman in adultery, and brought her to Jesus to trap Him into saying something that would cause the common people to stop following Him. The Law required the woman to be stoned to death. That is how seriously God takes sin. It is not a joke. God is deadly serious about it. “The soul that sins it shall die,” God said through the prophet Ezekiel (Ez. 18:4). So here is a woman who has ruined her life. She will always be known as a loose woman, scorned and laughed at. She may even loose her life because she would not control her physical passions. This is so typical of human beings. We make such messes of our lives. Think with me about the words of Christ in Luke 15:4 which tells us of a man who has lost a sheep and goes out into the wilderness to find it. Do you know what they call a sheep that is lost in the wilderness? Dinner. Some predator, human or animal, is going to find that sheep and eat it. Spiritually speaking, the predator is Satan and the wilderness is the despair, the loneliness, the alienation, and the emptiness in our soul, together with the anger of God against us, which we have created by our own sin. I think of yet another example of this in the parable we often call the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15:11-32). It is the story of a foolish young man who rejects his father’s house, abuses the gifts of his father, and runs headlong into a life of wickedness and vice. He soon finds himself alone and broke, working for wicked people as a swineherd, probably sleeping in the hog shed and, certainly, eating pigswill. He is hungry and filthy and despondent and desperate. His life is in ruins. Of course his outward circumstances symbolize the inward, spiritual ruination of his soul. He has left the house of God, who is his real “Father.” He lives in a spiritual pigsty eating spiritual pigswill, and there is nothing he can do about it. The terrible thing about this story, is, it is our story. All of these stories are our stories. We are the woman caught in adultery and about to be stoned. We are the lost sheep, alone in the wilderness about to become Satan’s dinner. We are the prodigal son living in a pigsty and eating pigswill. All of these stories illustrate the complete destruction of the sinner’s life and soul before God, and they all tell our stories. But look at the response of Jesus in each of these stories. To the adulterous woman He says, “neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.” Notice He didn’t say her sin was OK. He didn’t say it was not sin, and she could return to it. He didn’t say her sex life was her own business. He didn’t say He didn’t care about it. He said, “go and sin no more.” But He also said, “neither do I condemn thee.” Her life is ruined, she has rejected Him and broken His commandments, and she deserves her punishment, yet Jesus chooses to treat her, not as an enemy, but as a friend. Not as a criminal, but as a beloved child whose sins have been removed and forgotten by Him. This is grace. To the lost sheep, Jesus is the rescuer. Remember that it is the sheep who has left the shepherd, not the shepherd that has left the sheep. The sheep has gone astray and followed its own way. But the Shepherd does not leave it to die in the wilderness. The Shepherd goes into the wilderness to find it and bring it back to the Fold. It is not an easy task. It is not an easy walk down the garden path. He may have to climb mountains and cross rivers. He may face heat or cold, or hunger and exhaustion. He may have to battle lions and wolves, but He will find that sheep, and He will save it. This is what Jesus did to find lost sinners and bring them back into the fold. On the cross He went into the wilderness, He suffered the hardships, He fought the lions and the wolves, and He paid the ultimate price for our sins. The Bible says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us , and sent his Son to be the propitiation (or, pay the price) for our sins.” We might just as easily say, “herein is grace.” And what is Jesus’ response to the prodigal son? Remember that the prodigal son was an adulterer too. His sins deserved death, just as did the adulterous woman’s. But what is Christ’s response. Jesus, represented by the father, runs to the prodigal son and kisses him and cleans him up and gives him the best clothing and the best food and the place of honor in his house. He calls his friends together and rejoices because this sinner was dead and is alive again, and was lost and now is found. In grace, God reaches down to sinners and brings them back to Himself. He washes the stink off of them, and dresses them in the clean purity of the righteousness of Christ. He prepares a feast for them, giving them the Bible, the Church, prayer, Christian fellowship, and many other blessings, which are a veritable feast to the hungry souls of sinners. He brings them into His house, that is the Church, the body of Christ. He brings them into the most intimate fellowship with Himself, so that their joys are without number and without end. Everything they cannot do for themselves, God does for them in Christ. Every part of the mess they have made of themselves and their lives, God cleans up in Christ Jesus. We were dead but now we live in Christ. We were lost, but now are found, and God did it all. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t win it by being good. We didn’t make it possible by doing something or by earning it in any way. God did it for us because He choose to do it. This is grace. This is, as Julia Johnston wrote; “grace that can pardon and cleanse within, grace that is greater than all our sin.” Thanks be to God. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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