Grace
Refcon 2020 • Sermon • Submitted
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95 Thesis “Grace” References:
95 Thesis “Grace” References:
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Thesis 34
34. For these “graces of pardon” concern only the penalties of sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Thesis 58
58. Nor are they the merits of Christ and the Saints, for even without the pope, these always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outward man.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Thesis 62
62. The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Thesis 67
67. The indulgences which the preachers cry as the “greatest graces” are known to be truly such, in so far as they promote gain.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Thesis 68
68. Yet they are in truth the very smallest graces compared with the grace of God and the piety of the Cross.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Thesis 77
77. It is said that even St. Peter, if he were now Pope, could not bestow greater graces; this is blasphemy against St. Peter and against the pope.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Thesis 78
78. We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and any pope at all, has greater graces at his disposal; to wit, the Gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written in I. Corinthians xii.
Grace is God’s disposition of pardon
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Inner problem of being Dead:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Paul makes it clear we make zero contribution to our salvation (how he breaks up v.5-6. Corpses cannot give life!
Grace raises us up from the dead, and we are given faith. Faith is the newborn quiver in the womb of a baby.
Our salvation is not a result of good works, but our salvation will result in good works.
Grace is a gift
Grace is not earned, merited, deserved, one-sided…we don’t add or take away.
Most often, mankind does not want to reconcile the fact that there is nothing good in us and all we have has been given. This false concept of depravity has been the undercurrent of numerous heresies today, and nothing connects more precisely to the fallen human condition stemming back to Adam.
The bible says our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), and that there is no one righteous, no not one; none that understand, non that seeks after God. (Romans 3:10-11).
The good news of the gospel is that while no one seeks after God, we know based upon the biblical doctrines of the reformation, that God seeks after man. (Luke 19:10).
We become who we are, BY God’s grace. All of our being is attributed to God’s grace. Grace is the only decisive cause of salvation
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
All our sufficiency is due to God’s grace. When you see a Christian, you find him doing good deeds, “abounding in every good work.”
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
Grace is based upon God’s election.
So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
God’s grace is the source of election.
We cannot grasp how amazing God’s grace in salvation is until we first grasp how sinful we truly are.
Possible Outline: Strength for Ministry (2 Tim. 2:1)
1. Saved by grace Eph. 2:8–9
2. Stand by grace Rom. 5:2
3. Serve through grace I Cor. 15:10 (illustration of wick and oil. If the oil runs out, the wick burns. As long as there is oil, the wick doesn’t burn. The question to ask: what’s burning?
4. Sustained by grace II Cor. 12:9
5. God can minister grace through my speech Eph. 4:29
6. God gives grace to grow II Peter 3:18
- (Colin Seitz)
Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002).
ILLUSTRATION - Unmerited Favor
When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award—yet receives such a gift anyway—that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God.
ILLUSTRATION - Grace Abuse
There is one “catch” to grace that I must now mention. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “St. Augustine says ‘God gives where He finds empty hands.’ A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift.” Grace, in other words, must be received. Lewis explains that what I have termed “grace abuse” stems from a confusion of condoning and forgiving: “To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.”…God took a great risk by announcing forgiveness in advance, and the scandal of grace involves a transfer of that risk to us.
Phillip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Zondervan, 1977, p. 180
Abraham Example of Grace
Chapter 12 we meet Abraham, but as we read, it seems like we missed a page or something. There is no detail as to WHY God chose Abraham of all the people (Genesis 12:1-3)
Some storybooks do just that with Genesis 12. Before God says anything, the narrator introduces us to Abraham. We might get details like: Abraham is a good man, or Abraham believes in God. Sounds harmless, right? This may be a nice way to set up the story, but when we read Genesis 12 like this we are in danger of missing what is so profound: Scripture never says why God chooses Abraham. There is no lost detail.
Genesis 12 helps us reflect on the principle of sola gratia, grace alone. Abraham receives undeserved favor. We are not told what distinguishes him from others members of his family. We know nothing about his character or belief. The story of Abraham does not begin with Abraham; it begins with God. God speaks first. God reveals his overwhelming desire to bless. To supply extra details would make the story less wonderful.
CR Piper:
By Grace alone, not by:
God’s electing work (choosing his people before creation) was based on God’s grace alone, NOT on any foreseen human acts of any kind (Rom. 11:5-6; 9:11-12).
God’s atoning work (propitiating his own wrath by the death of Christ) was based on God’s grace alone, NOT on any merit added to Christ (Rom. 3:24).
God’s regenerating work (raising us from spiritual dead) is by God’s sovereign, life-giving grace alone, NOT by any contribution of our own, since we were dead (Eph. 2:5-10).
God’s sanctifying work (transforming us into holy people) is based decisively on God’s sovereign, transforming grace alone, NOT on any of our efforts of holiness, which though indispensible, are all the gifts of grace (1 Cor. 15:10)
CR Piper - “By God’s grace alone; spiritually dead sinners, who are under the just and holy wrath of God, are redeemed by the death of Christ, and made alive in Christ, so that God is 100% for them and not against them —forever.”
O, that our praise may rise forever
to the glory of the grace of God.
Introduction: Every 4 years, this Refcon falls just days before the climax of a political season. To some, this reality is bittersweet, to others, it is with great relief. Every candidate has their banners and sayings which help align their campaign with their conviction. (insert examples of watchwords).
A spiritual war was waged upon the Roman Catholic system of indulgences, pilgrimages, penances, fastings, purgatory, and Mariolatry.
Luther took aim at the foundation of this work-based system which considered either a FREE GRACE versus FREE WILL.
Grace appears 135 times in the ESV in 126 verses in the OT and NT, with over 200 variations of literary derivatives. (*i counted them all)
If you were to gather 100 pastors within the room to provide their definition of grace, you would probably get dozens of different variations of what the term represents. Most will define grace as “the unmerited favor of God.”
William Newton (19th century, Baptist Magazine) - “the free favour of God conferred upon the unworthy.”
The high view of Christianity is the idea of grace, pardon, amnesty, and the gift of eternal life. This view places man in an estranged relationship with God from birth, and an impossibility on man’s part to reenter into communion with God’s infinite holiness.
Mankind has been convinced for centuries leading back to the days of David, Judges, and the Exodus, that salvation is possible to be attained through man’s efforts. However, there is no question of such created principle of error and abuse. This fundamental error is what led to the reformation
Sola Gratia being one of the five solas that mark out the key issues of the Protestant Reformation. These key issues, as being derrived from the word of God, are then, transcendant throughout all time. Through these key issues bring about a divide of the biblical gospel that saves, and a false gospel that cannot save.
While some may scoff at commemorating a time such as the reformation, the very same truths are essential to the Christian faith and living today, this is because the word of God is active, so are the doctrine derrived therefrom.
Each of the Solas of the reformation are vital and are closely tied to one another. In other words, to deviate from one, would lead to error to another, resulting as a false gospel.
Sola gratia is revealed throughout the OT historical book, anticipated through the OT prophets, fullfilled in Christ at calvary, and guarded in the writings of the Apostles. This docrtine teaches that the essence of our salvation is a free gift of grace from God.
Today, we will be looking upon the Word of God through select passages to help us be deeply convicted in God’s free gift. My aim today is not only to convict us, but to encourage us to live in such a way that reflects recipients of God’s grace.
There is nothing that has the power of crushing our pride, than truly understanding God’s grace. It is through this understanding that we are grieved in our confession, and humbled in our thanksgiving.
At the heart of sinful man, pride makes us the hero! We want to be recognized as the subjects of salvation (not objects), the ones active in the process (not passive).
The doctrine which takes all mankind out of the center, is one of the most encouraging doctrines that exist…this is what we have with Sola Gratia.
Sola Gratia brings great assurance of salvation as sinners before a holy God. If all we do is sin, how can anyone be assured of their salvation? This dillemma of man, was the administered remedy of God, that remedy send a solution in form of man but fully God. This man, Jesus, lived a perfect life, died on the cross and rose from the dead in order to give new life to dead sinners, to deliver them from their sins and give them eternal life with Him.
Present Assurance - God’s Spirit provides power to live for Him and keep us in the love of God (Romans 8:37-39).
Future Assurance - Christ also give us eternal life (1 John 5:13).
Application: John 1:16, “grace for grace,” meaning that Grace is the continuation of movement in our lives, just as waves follow each other to the shore.
Modern Day Fallacy - Human decisions, crowd manipulations, and altar calls are not the means that produce genuine follower of Christ. Only the gospel of sovereign grace are sinners captured by the power of the Word and the Spirit of God.
The most heretical act that man can do is believe they have the central role of their salvation, and also the salvation of others.
ILLUSTRATION: John Newton testimony
ILLUSTRATION: God Ran Him Down
In his book Illustrations of Bible Truth, H. A. Ironside included the story of a new convert who gave his testimony during a church service. With a smile on his face and joy in his heart, the man related how he had been delivered from a life of sin. He gave the Lord all the glory, saying nothing about any of his own merits or what he had done to deserve the blessings of redemption.
The person in charge, who was very legalistic, didn’t fully appreciate the reality of salvation by grace through faith alone, apart from human works. So he responded to the young man’s comments by saying, “You seem to indicate that God did everything when He saved you. Didn’t you do your part before God did His?”
The new Christian jumped to his feet and said, “Oh yes, I did. For more than 30 years I ran away from God as fast as my sins could carry me. That was my part. But God took out after me and ran me down. That was His part.” Commenting on this testimony, Ironside wrote, “It was well put and tells a story that every redeemed sinner understands.” - R.W.D.
Our Daily Bread, December 10
Closing - Do we remember on a daily basis the riches we have received at Christ’s expense? Are we sons and daughters of God singing “Amazing Grace?”
Don’t play lip service to the gift of grace, but allow the richness of God’s grace transform our lives as the hymn sings,
“ Oh! to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be;
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee!
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love—
Take my heart, oh, take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above!
GS - Is mankind truly unworthy? If the question you ask tries to make light of the weight of man’s sin, it is not grace you believe, but tolerance.
Not only are the receiptients of God’s grace helpless undeserving sinners, we are actually hostile and rebllious towards God with corrupt hearts and pasts.
There is nothing that we can do to obligate God’s grace towards sinners. Sinners deserve hell.
BT - Grace is something in God, not in man. (Genesis 6:8).
It is by grace that God looked upon sinful man, and it is also the grace of God that he sent Jesus Christ to pay the debt of our sin.
CR Luther - Martin Luther sums up what instruments God uses to reveal His grace:
God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preaching in the whole world. This is the particular office of the Gospel. Second, through Baptism. Third through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth, through the Power of the Keys. Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren
A watchword conveys the heart of one’s beliefs. God grant that this watchword be proclaimed for all to hear, printed for all to see, and take deep root in our hearts as we celebrate the Reformation.
By grace! On this I’ll rest when dying;
In Jesus’ promise I rejoice;
For though I know my heart’s condition,
I also know my Savior’s voice.
My heart is glad, all grief has flown.
Since I am saved by grace alone.[3]
It is out of God’s grace and mercy that His love is revealed in His saving of us.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
To the sinner, there is pardon as God reveals His grace. This is saving grace. Elective grace. Sovereign grace. That no matter the length of record, God turns toward the sinner and freely bestows the benefits of faith. Life to the dead.
Those who have received and experienced God’s astounding grace in this way can really attest to what I am saying. God saves us in light of His good pleasure of sovereign choice.
Paul makes it clear that God’s grace made both the Jew and Gentile co-heirs of God’s kingdom with faithful Abraham:
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
Grace establishes peace between God and sinners who are enemies:
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Grace is the means by which Christians not only benefit, but bestow and reciprocate grace towards others:
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Grace Calls us
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
Grace Regenerates us
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Grace Justifies us
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Grace Sanctifies us
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Grace preserves us
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
COMMON GRACE VS SPECIAL GRACE
Lexham Survey of Theology The Spirit and Common Grace
Common grace is the grace by which God cares for creation and fallen humanity by upholding and providentially guiding creation despite the devastating effects of the fall. Left to itself, sin would have destroyed and decimated creation. But God did not leave creation or humanity alone and allow sin to wreak complete havoc. Thus, after the fall, by the work of the Holy Spirit, God sustains creation by interposing his grace. In distinction from special grace, by which God renews and redeems his people, common grace restrains sin, maintains human life and culture, and bestows gifts to all people indiscriminately. This common favor is not salvific. It cannot renew or redeem; it can only restrain and compel. But it is, nonetheless, an aspect of God’s providence and is rightly considered grace because it refers to the unmerited, gracious upholding of the created order by God and the general benevolence of God to humanity after the fall.
February 5: Why Does God Punish People?
Exodus 11–13; John 2:13–3:25; Song of Solomon 2:1–3
In regard to why a good God would punish people, I recently heard one homeless man wisely tell another, “You wouldn’t want to live in a world where God didn’t punish injustices and just freely forgave sin—without any request for someone to choose the salvation He offers back. Imagine a place where injustice was never punished and people never recognized their sin and need for salvation. That would be terrible and painful.”
We all want justice to reign. For a good God to be truly good, injustice must be punished. This is why it makes complete sense that Jesus had to die. There must be a payment for the evil we inflict on the world and one another. Jesus’ death epitomizes God’s mercy and justice—and it all happened in one act.
This also makes sense out of the Passover event (Exod 12:1–31). I usually hear this preached about as a saving act, which indeed it was, but it was also brutal: God kills firstborn sons in an act of justice against the people of Egypt for the suffering they inflicted on an innocent people. (It’s important to note that the plagues that came before Passover gave Pharaoh more than ample warning.)
Following this, evil finally loosens its grip, and God’s people are freed (Exod 12:33–40). None of us truly wants to have justice fall upon us because we know that true justice would cost us our very lives. We have all done wrong against a good God, bringing evil into the world. Thus, we all deserve to be wiped out. Instead, God offers grace. But He does so only after the wages of our sin are paid with Jesus’ life. Jesus makes this incredibly clear: “For God did not send his Son into the world in order that he should judge the world, but in order that the world should be saved through him” (John 3:17).
Jesus goes on to explain that salvation requires choosing God back: “The one who believes in him is not judged, but the one who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God” (John 3:18). Before we believe, we’re judged—we are regarded to be dead in our sin. After we believe, we escape that judgment. God’s faithfulness, shown in Jesus’ death and resurrection, allows for that. I want to live in a world of people freed in Christ through His mercy and grace; I’m sure you want to as well. Thus, we should no longer ask, “Why judgment?” but instead, “Why not?”
In what ways are you misjudging God’s motives? How can you change that perspective?
JOHN D. BARRY