Gods amazing grace
We sing that song so many times that I think we forget to focus in on what it is teaching. The man that wrote this song seems to have a good understanding of just how amazing Gods grace really is. Without the grace of God no one can be saved. So the morning we are going to explore God amazing Grace.
In every letter that Paul writes excluding the book of Hebrews if he even wrote that book he always writes something along the lines of Grace and peace be with you. He says this in both the beginning and the end of his letters. Grace is a word that Paul used often. But what exactly does Grace mean? Well let look at a couple of definitions
I personally think that
the Bible defines grace the best starting in:
Ephesians 2:4- But
God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and
made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift
of God, 9 not of works, lest
anyone should boast. 10 For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
From the verse we can
clearly understand why Grace is many times called unmerited favor. Even though
you and I were hopelessly lost in sin God loved us enough to give us his son as
perfect sacrifice so that we could be saved. There is absolutely nothing you or
I could ever do to earn or merit Gods saving Grace that is why he had to give
it to us and why his grace is so amazing. With out Gods grace none of would be
saved because we are all sinners. Paul bears this out in his letter to the
Romans
Romans
Romans
So as you can see every
human is in desperate need of Gods grace or else we would never have the
ability to step foot in heaven. The only human to every live a life free off
sin was Jesus Christ and it only through him that we receive the grace of God.
Many people in the
religious world today do not fully understand what the grace of is and what
involves. In fact many of them would take the verses that we just looked at in
Eph 2 and they would say that we are saved by grace alone. But, friends the
Bible simply does not teach in way form or fashion. Now I have absolutely no
problem with a person saying that they are saved by grace or even if someone
says they are saved by faith because both of these statements are true. However
you cannot say that you are saved by faith or by grace alone because the Word
God does not teach that at all.
8
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it
is the gift of God, 9 not
of works, lest anyone should boast. 10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
In these verses we learn that
are two parts to a person salvation.
First of all there is Gods grace, which his part in which he gave us his son
and the forgiveness of sin. Second of all we have our part which is our faith.
Now this is not talking about us merely believing but instead is talking about an
obedient active faith. In others words God has provided us with the gift of
Grace but it is up to us to accept that gift by having a obedient faith. Notice
verse 10 says that we created for good works and that we should walk in them. Again
this describes action our part something that we must do.
Let me give you an
example lets say that I have 20 dollar bill and tell you that is a free gift
but that you have to walk up here to get it. Even though the gift is free and
you did not earn or deserve it you still have you part because you have to get
up and walk up here to receive the 20 dollars.
This is same principle
that God has always had. We have several examples of where God offers a free
gift but then demands an obedient faith. For instances notice the story of
Joshua and the city of
Joshua 6:1 Now
Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out,
and none came in. 2 And the
LORD said to Joshua: "See! I have given
Here we see God grace or
God free gift. He has given the city of
3 "You shall march around the
city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This
you shall do six days. 4
"And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the
ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the
priests shall blow the trumpets. 5
"It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's
horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people
shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat.
And the people shall go up every man straight before him."
You God did his part by
providing the gift but the children of
2 Kings 5:9 Then
Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's
house. 10 And Elisha sent a
messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the
Here we see that Naaman
was a many who was little bit prideful. I suppose he thought because he was so
successful as a commander that he deserved to healed and that the Elisha should
have came out to him but instead we see that Elisha simply sends a messenger to
him to go dip in the
2 Kings 5:13 And his
servants came near and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the
prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?
How much more then, when he says to you, '
So Naaman does the right
thing and has obedient faith and goes and dips 7 times in the
The same thing is true
today we do not receive Gods free gift
of grace until we obey his commands. The apostles understood this concept well.
Romans 1:5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship
for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name,
Now lets take a look at
what Paul says about grace in
Titus 2:11 For the
grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
If we are saved by grace
alone and since grace has appeared to everyone than that would mean that
every single person no matter what the
do would be saved but we know that not true. In fact Paul goes on tell us what
Grace teaches us.
12
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope
and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that
He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own
special people, zealous for good works.
Paul is clearly teaching
us that Gods grace and our obedient faith goes hand and hand. Now one thing
that I want to make very clear is that when we obey Gods word and do things he has
asked to do we are in no way earning or meriting our salvation because
there is nothing we can do as humans to every earn or deserve our salvation.
Whenever we do what God has asked us to do we do so because we love him. I
think Jesus explains this best in the story he tells his disciples in:
Luke 17:7
"And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to
him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to
eat'? 8 "But will he not
rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and
serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and
drink'? 9 "Does he thank
that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think
not. 10 "So likewise
you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are
unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.' "
Whenever we become
Christians and we accept Gods grace we become his servants and we are merely doing
our duty when we obey Gods word. We should never get to the point in our
Christian lives where we think God owes us something for the work we do in his
kingdom. No, instead we should always say, we are unprofitable servants we have
done what was or duty to do.
Some in the religious
world would teach that Gods grace cannot be misused or exhausted but the Bible teaches us differently. For
instance:
Gal 2:21 indicates that we can frustrate or
nullify the grace of God.
2 Corinthians 6:1 We
then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not
to receive the grace of God in vain.
Jude 1:4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who
long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace
of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Galatians 5:4 You have
become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law;
you have fallen from grace.
We can clearly see from
the passages that God’s Grace can be
exhausted and abused. So let us never think otherwise. That is why Peter tells us 2 Peter 3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we grow Gods grace we learn that we can
stand (Rom 5:1-2 and be strong in Gods grace 2 Tim 2:1.
Many in the religious
world today try to view Gods Grace as something that takes care of every sin
without effort on their part but Paul teaches us that Grace is not a license to
sin.
Romans 6:1 What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who
died to sin live any longer in it?
One of the great things
about Gods amazing grace is that when we do sin his grace can and will over our
sins and we are told exactly how in:
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the
light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanses us from all sin. 8
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us. 9 If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
Notice the action word
walk. A Christian that is walking in the light is one that is striving to serve
God on a continual basis. When a Christians remains faithful to God and confesses
their sins to him they continually be cleansed of their sins by blood of
Jesus Christ.
A great question to ask
right is, when does a person began to walk in the light or when do they begin
enjoying the grace of God? Paul gives us the answer in
Romans 6:1-What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who
died to sin live any longer in it? 3
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death? 4
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life.
There is nothing
confusing about what Paul has just taught us. It is very easy to see that when
a person is baptized into Christ they baptized into his death and just as Christ was raised from the dead
when we are raised from the watery grave of baptism we begin or walk in newness
of life. This is when accept God saving grace through our obedient faith in the
working of God.
Now that we have
learned when a person begins there walk
let us take look at some scriptures that
tell how we are to walk.
1 John 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself
also to walk just as He walked.
Hebrews 5:8 though
He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He
suffered. 9 And having been
perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
2 John 1:6 This is love, that we walk according to His
commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the
beginning, you should walk in it.
Ephesians 5:15 See
then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the
days are evil.
The last point I want to make about Gods amazing grace this morning is that we can
know that we are saved. Sometimes
Christians do not give Grace enough credit and they go though their whole lives
wondering if they are saved. But this should not be the case because the word
of God makes its very clear that we can know that we are saved and we can take
great confidence in that.
1 John 5: 13
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe
in the name of the Son of God.
1 John 2:5 But
whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we
know that we are in Him
Romans 8:1 There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do
not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 Timothy 4: 6
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my
departure is at hand. 7 I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the
faith. 8 Finally, there is
laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved
His appearing.
I hope this lesson has shed some light upon this topic of Grace and has shown you that the we are not now saved by Grace alone. We have also learned the Grace is Gods part and accepting that grace through and obedient faith is our part. We have learned that Grace and be abused and we can fall from grace and we even learned that you must obey Gods commands including being baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins before you access to God Grace and finally we learned that we can be confident in Gods grace and our salvation.