05-29-11 Amazing Grace

We are studying the 12^th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

With this 12^th chapter

Paul begins the section of his letter

in which he takes the truths he has given us in the first part of his letter

and shows us how they work themselves out in our lives

if we have understood them correctly.

What we are going to do this morning

may seem as if it is just a little off the subject,

but once we get back to Romans

I think it will have provided us

with some valuable preparation.

For years now I have noticed

that the basic religious nature within all of us

tends to make us more comfortable

with reading Paul’s letters backwards.

We are more comfortable starting with the end.

We come to the book of Colossians, for example,

and we find Paul saying,

COL 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

COL 3:6 For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come,

COL 3:7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

COL 3:8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth...

and there is a natural religious response within us

that thinks, “Ah yes! That’s what we need to hear.

That’s the message we need to get out!

That’s what I really need to do - try harder to be a better person.”

But what we don’t realize

is that Paul wrote those words

to give us a snapshot

of what our lives will look like

when we have correctly understood

the incredible truth he has revealed to us

in chapters 1 and 2,

the truth about the will of God being “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

It is not a complicated truth,

but it is a very difficult one for us to grasp

because it goes so directly against

all of our flesh-based efforts to try to do for Him

rather than discovering His willingness

and His ability to do in us what needs to be done.

And yet, if we have not understood chapters 1 and 2

there is no way chapter 3

will ever become a reality in our lives.

And once we have understood chapters 1 and 2

we will find that chapter 3 becomes

a reasonable, practical, accessible choice we can make.

Or we flip open Paul’s letter to the Ephesians

and our eyes fall on 4:1-3

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And we instantly think we understand what he’s saying -

we hear him telling us we should all try to be humble,

and gentle,

and patient,

and loving.

And what we don’t realize

is that those words follow three incredible chapters

in which Paul reveals to us

the amazing new identity we have been given,

and how we are, right now, seated with Christ in heavenly places,

and how God has now equipped us

to fulfill the most remarkable role ever given to any group of people in history.

In other words,

we cannot begin to walk in a manner worthy of our calling

until we have first understood

what that calling is.

Once a person truly understands

the nature of the grace of God

they find their life

and behavior

profoundly altered because of that understanding.

But any attempt to make significant changes in our behavior

without first coming to grips

with the true nature of the grace of God

will result ultimately

in either dismal failure

or an ugly religious facade

that hides unresolved issues

under a self-righteous legalism.

Our Lord Jesus Christ

is not concerned with trying to make us look good in the Christian community.

He is concerned with breaking the power

of those sins

that keep us in slavery

and rob us of the freedom He longs for us to know.

And there is only one way

that freedom will ever become a part

of the life of the child of God -

through an encounter with the grace of God

and the discovery of His love

that results from that encounter,

that then becomes the driving passion of our lives.

Do you know what Paul does

right between the first and the second half

of his letter to the Ephesians?

In the first half

he describes for us

who we were prior to our union with Christ,

telling us that we were... “dead in (our) trespasses and sins, in which (we) formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath...

From there he describes the remarkable redemptive work accomplished by God within us,

a work that transformed us at the deepest level of our being,

a work that elevated us

to both a high position

and a high calling in Christ,

a calling in which we now display to the entire created world

the manifold wisdom of God.

In the second half of his letter

he then describes in practical terms

how this high calling

is to be played out in our daily lives.

And right between those two

he drops to his knees

and prays that we... “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that (we) may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

He does that

because there is simply no other way

for us to fulfill the role assigned to us by God

except through a personal encounter with the love of God,

and there is no way to discover the love of God

except through a personal encounter with the grace of God.

Would you like a little test

of your own personal understanding of the grace of God?

I sometimes find these little tests

to be very helpful mirrors

in allowing us to see ourselves more clearly.

OK, here we go...

I want you to think of the person in your life

who has hurt you the most deeply,

the person who has caused you the most pain as a direct result of their sins against you.

Now, with many of you

a name just came to mind.

But if it didn’t,

then let me offer you an alternative.

I want you to think of the most morally offensive person you know.

It may be someone you know personally,

or it may be someone you simply know about,

someone that you consider to be

utterly morally offensive.

Now, here’s the test.

Do you feel the person you are thinking of

is even a little less deserving of the grace of God

than you are personally?

Let me put it another way.

Would you be disappointed if,

at the return of Christ,

you saw the Lord greet them with a big smile on His face,

and then hug them

and whole-heartedly welcome them into His kingdom?

Would you find yourself thinking,

“That isn’t fair! After all they did to me!

After all that person did to this world!

At the very least Jesus should have greeted them

with a scowl on His face,

and then taken them aside

and forced them to recognize

all of the pain they caused.

Somehow they should be made to pay for their sins.”

If you would answer “yes” to any of those questions,

then you are still only part way

in your pilgrimage into the discovery of the grace of God.

You see, if there is now or ever has been

any other person on this earth

whom you believe is less worthy of the grace of God than yourself

than you have not yet understood the grace of God.

You want to see something interesting?

At least I find it interesting.

If you had to select one person in history

who has done more for the cause of Jesus Christ

than any other person who has ever lived

who would you pick?

I would choose the Apostle Paul.

His understanding of the grace of God

poured out upon us through Jesus Christ

is the foundation upon which

the whole framework of true Christianity is built.

He was used by God

to literally change the course of the human race forever.

Now, listen to his own description of himself.

This is a couple of lines

from a letter he wrote

to his close friend, Timothy.

It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:15-16)

Was Paul truly

the greatest sinner

who had ever walked on this earth up to that time?

I don’t know.

But I do know he believed he was,

and I know, too,

that it was that belief

that provided him with the basis

for God being able to then grant to him

the most profound grasp of the grace of God

any human being has ever known.

Shall I try one more time?

OK.

The only truly effective communication of the Grace of God

from one person to another

is this:

“My friend, this one thing I know -

if God could forgive me

then He will have no problem forgiving you.”

Nearly every Sunday

for the past 28 years

I have stood up in front of you

and told you once again that God really does love you,

and His grace,

and His kindness,

and His forgiveness and compassion

are more than adequate for whatever sins,

or failures,

or fears,

or personal agonies

are tearing your life apart right now.

I tell you those things

on the basis of the authority of the Word of God.

But do you know what really makes

my communication of that message believable?

It’s because I have found it to be true in my own life.

I am not sharing with you

something I learned out of a text book.

I can share with you

the truth about the grace of God

because, wonder of wonders,

my God really does love ME,

and His grace,

and His kindness,

and His forgiveness and compassion

are more than adequate for my sins,

and for my needs.

A number of years ago

the local PBS station

ran a two hour special

on the song Amazing Grace.

Throughout the program

the interviewer talked with dozens of people

as he tried to find out why that song

has found such universal power and appeal.

For some reason

no one thought to interview me,

but if they would have,

I believe I could have given them the answer they were looking for.

I think it is because,

in just a handful of words,

that song allows each of us to sing in the 1^st person

the one truth our spirits long to hear

more than any other truth.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

It creates for us

a mental image

of the God

we so desperately long for -

a God who, when we bring our inner wretchedness out into the open,

immediately responds to that wretchedness

not by skewering us

with bolts of lightening flashing from His eyes,

or with His clenched fists reaching in rage to the heavens,

but rather

by flooding our wretchedness with His grace,

pouring out on us

a compassion we do not deserve

and a kindness we could never earn.

Hiding from God takes so much effort.

It requires us to frantically grasp

at anything we think will help to cover our shame,

like Adam and Eve

scrounging in the bushes

looking for leaves big enough to hide their nakedness.

“Look God! Look! Here is my church involvement,

and here are some good deeds I have done.”

In the end, though,

it all ends up being rather tense and awkward,

and it never give us

the kind of peace and security with God we long for.

But here is the amazing thing

about the grace of God -

it creates a union between us and Him

in which we never have to hide again,

a union in which He responds to our need with His supply,

to our failure with His forgiveness,

to our weakness with His understanding and love.

Just a few weeks prior to His death,

as He began His final great teaching tour throughout the Nation of Israel,

the tour that would culminate

in what we now know as His triumphal entry into Jerusalem,

Jesus publicly summarized the heart of the message He came to bring to the world with these words:

MAT 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

MAT 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.

That is the offer of the grace of God.

And now, having completely lost track

of anything I originally started out to teach this morning,

I can’t leave this without asking and attempting to answer one more question.

How do we go about experiencing the grace of God?

We enter into the grace of God

through the doorway God has built into each of our lives.

You didn’t know there was a doorway, did you?

You thought perhaps it was a doctrine that could be learned,

a series of verses that could be memorized,

six pages of sermon notes to be read

and then reread several times.

It doesn’t happen that way.

It can’t.

The true discovery of the grace of God

involves a total reshaping at the spirit level

of our understanding of our Creator.

It is not something

that one human being can give to another.

It is something that can only come to us from God Himself.

And with each of us

there is a doorway

into that communication with God.

I cannot tell you what it is

because it is different with each of us,

but I can tell you where to look for it.

Begin by looking at what you fear most about yourself.

Look at that failure,

or that fear,

or that weakness that dominates your life.

Look at those things

you are powerless to change

and terrified to face.

It is in those areas where you will find your doorway

because it is in those areas

where most of us gain our first access

to the most basic truth of human existence -

we are created beings

in desperate need of the healing,

and forgiveness,

and the recreative work of our Creator.

The only way into the discovery

of the amazing grace of God

is through allowing His Spirit

to show us our own wretchedness

apart from that grace.

If the words to the song had been written,

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a fine fellow like me...

it would never have had the power

to communicate what we most need to hear.

And so, here it is -

we can only discover the love of God

by first discovering the grace of God,

and we can only discover the grace of God

by taking that which we dislike most about ourselves

and bringing it into His presence

and discovering He responds to our sin,

and our weakness,

and our helplessness

with forgiveness,

and kindness,

and compassion,

and the healing that only He can bring.

Next time we’re together

I’ll try once again

to find our way back into the book of Romans.