The Grace of God

If you think your good deeds will get you into heaven, then you need to hear this...

Here is my edited transcript of the sermon preached by The Very Rev Sandy Grant.

Grace Alone is one of the great reformation slogans. It stands alongside Bible Alone, Christ Alone and Faith Alone.With Grace Alone, the question is… Where does the initiative lie? Where does all the effort lie?

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

.And grace engages this question. How we can be saved. How we can at last go to heaven.

And most believers, of course, do agree that in a large part it is down to God's grace. But...

• don't we have to contribute something?
• Don't we have to cooperate?
• Don’t our good deeds, our religious activities play some part in fixing things with God? It could be you've got to go to the sacraments. Baptism, the Holy Communion, and so on.

Outside the Christian religion many people think the five pillars of Islam. Reciting their creed, praying five times a day, giving alms to the poor, fasting for the month of Ramadan and taking a pilgrimage to Mecca.  Others will say it's walking the noble eight-fold path of Buddhism to Nirvana you must do. And for many Aussie’s, I think it's probably as simple as give to the salvos, do a bit of volunteering and keep your nose clean. For us - have you done enough prayer and Bible reading?

The Bibles clear answer is we are saved by grace alone.

You couldn't say it any more clearly than here in Ephesians 2.  Verse 8. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves. It's the gift of God not by works so that no one can boast.”

We need to understand grace by the words Paul links to it in this passage. From verse 4...

“But because of his great love for us God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we're dead in transgressions. It is by grace have been saved.”

God's grace is linked to his love and to his rich mercy. And then in verse 7, the incomparable riches of his grace is expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. So, God's grace is all about his mercy his kindness his generosity.

God’s grace is his undeserved favour.

Grace is seen in so many ways. The very air we breathe, the world's natural beauty and the resources. The families we so often enjoy. All, all of that comes as God's gift. We didn't do anything to create them or earn then.

But in the Bible, Grace has a focus point. Back in verse seven again.

The incomparable riches of God's grace are expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  

Now there is a whole echo going on here from chapter one I think. Verses 5 to 7 that say in love God predestined us for adoption to son-ship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace which is freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

Do you to see that drum beat? God's rich Grace leads to redemption. And redemption there means the forgiveness of sins. And how does Verse seven in Chapter one say redemption comes to us? By his blood. By Jesus dying for us on the cross.And so back in our chapter 2...

Grace therefore is all about God's gift of salvation through Christ.

Now by contrast, I’m speaking about the official document, the Roman Catholic catechism. Not about individual Catholic people. But it sumarises… no one can merit the initial grace and forgiveness and justification at the beginning of conversion but by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others that grace needed for our sanctification for the increase of grace and charity and for the attainment of eternal life.  The catechism, the Catholic Church, says we can merit that.

This merit language complicates and compromises the simplicity of Paul statement in Ephesians 2 that it's by grace you’ve been saved.

Now this was one of the key disputes of the Reformation 500 years ago. So, to clarify the situation we'd better see exactly what Paul means by this salvation.  If you go to the context, beginning of Chapter 2 Verse one, you'll see it means being saved from our sins.  

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.”

Now transgressions is the breaking of God's law, which breaks your relationship with him. And sin, well that literally meant to fall short of the target. The standards of love and goodness which God set for us.

Like Verse three says at the end such sin and transgression makes God angry with us. Like the end of verse three “we were by nature deserving of wrath.

Let’s pause to imagine for a moment only knowing God's wrath. God's anger at your sin. Forever. That's what we are saved from.

But positively, what are we saved for? What does salvation bring? Verse 5 “The dead in transgressions are made alive in Chris. Verse six says what a joy to know.

We've been raised like Jesus. See there God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. From the pits of despair you've been taken to the highest heights by Jesus. It doesn't say so you might be raised, you could be seated one day. Or you will be saved, It says you have been saved. It's already happened, past tense. What a privilege that is. What a joy to know.

To be seated is the posture of rest. I’m doing the work right now, and you’re sitting. Listening. You go to a wedding, and you’re told “please be seated” and you know that’s the time to relax and enjoy the occasion. The host has laid on all the food and drinks and music and there’s really nothing for you to do. Except enjoy the meal and celebrate the marriage. Now of course we don’t see that in all its glory yet, but we believe what God says is true by faith.

And so, the salvation Paul speaks of here means our place your place in heaven is already secure if you just trust this word. You’ve been redeemed, forgiven by Jesus blood. And so, you can be sure you're joining him in heaven.

Let me ask you this – does it sound like there's anything uncertain about the salvation? Does it sound like there’s anything left for us to achieve? Well no ,it's guaranteed. We've been saved by grace alone. That's why there's no boasting about it in Verses 8-9. Paul says salvation is the gift of God. That even our faith comes from God. It's all his doing he says, it's got nothing to do with our works. And why is that?  So no one can boast.

Why then does this talk of merit start to creep in? Well, I suspect because it's a blow to our pride to admit we’re helpless. We really do like to think we can do our bit, we can play our part, even a little bit, in our salvation.

But the message of Ephesians 2 is completely the opposite.

Salvation is nothing to do with our power or initiative.

Notice how we are described at the start of the chapter. Remember this. We are dead in our sins, our transgressions. Not just sick, not just weekened. Sin leaves us spiritually dead. Like those valley of dry bones, as Israel was described in the first reading from Ezekiel.

The type of thinking that diagnoses the human problem as weakness underplays it and  implies we can do our bit to help ourself. Yes, we might need someone else to prescribe the medicine but we can take it, we can we can fix ourselves with the right treatment, the right counselor, the right meditation or medication, the right fitness regime, the better education guiding us.

Friends, if you’re dead. you can't take any medicine for yourself at all! And verses two and three underline that when we live in sin we are not free. It refers to sins in which we used to live when we followed the ways of the world and the ruler of the Kingdom of the air. The spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. And all of us have lived  at one time gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  

Verse two is saying we are subject to Satan’s hidden influence over us and verse 3 says when you sin, really in the end, you are a slave to your passions, to your sinful desires.  Whether it's totally addicted to grog or gossip or greed or gambling or as many of us are, to our own ego.

Often, I hear people insist that I've got free will, you know. But here by contrast the Bible says we’ve got dead will, corrupt will and enslaved will.  So once again salvation could have nothing to do with our initiative.  My wife did the first aid training course yesterday, helpful when you're the Sunday school leader in case something goes wrong. One of things you learn is you can't do CPR on yourself. You can't resuscitate yourself.

So let's ban all talk of effort, our effort, somehow earning or meriting salvation even in the slightest way.

Verse nine.  It's not my work so no one can boast.  And it's not just putting us in our place but verse seven. God’s whole plan in raising us with Christ wasn’t to show how good or loved we really are deep down. It was so he might show the incomparable riches of his grace.

And incomparable means nothing should be compared with him. We should not speak about our efforts in the same breath as God’s grace.  Even speaking of God's people, the great prophet Isaiah, 500 years earlier, made this humbling comment. “That all our righteous acts like filthy rags.”

And to imply there's any room for human merits in our salvation is simply to diminish the incomparable riches of God's grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

And that's even true of the good work that we do as believers. I'm not against doing good works, no true Christian would be. And they’re mentioned right here, at the end of our section in verse 10...

“For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

You notice that verse 10 begins with a conjunction. Under the English teachers -  those little connecting words. It's “for”. In other words, verse 10 is built on or extends the idea of verse 9 And verse nine says that with grace there’s to be no  boasting. And so verse 10 goes on to show that we don't even have a reason to boast after God has raised us from spiritual death.  Why?

Because as new creations in Christ, we're not our own workmanship but God's handiwork so any good works we managed to do, were in fact were prepared in advance for us by God.

And so not even in what has traditionally been called our sanctification, that process of growth in godliness and maturity. Not even with sanctification should we be talking of merit.

So in conclusion I'm saying for grace to be grace, it's got to be alone.  

We’re forgiven, we’re saved, we’re destined for heaven, by God’s grace alone, through what Jesus has done for us.

And all and any talk of human contribution denies the seriousness of sin and compromises the glory due to God for his incomparable grace.

And friends, this dispute over Grace is no small matter. Blood was shed over it, and I mentioned some of the reformers died back in the 1500’s. The council of Trent was the official Roman response and that council of Trent’s teachings are enforced to this day. It anathematise’s us, which is an old fashioned word for condemns. It condemns us who say God's grace is simply the favour of God. Instead Trent claims we must cooperate with God to obtain the grace of justification. And it insists that our good works can truly merit an increase of grace even, it says, assisting in the obtainment of eternal life.

But the Bible says we saved by grace alone. No talk of merit. and that's why, hopefully in a measured and polite way...

I will continue to be critical of any religion, whether Catholic or I dare say Anglican or Buddhist or Muslim, that insists that we offer our works for salvation, alongside God's grace.

I want people to have the relief that comes from experiencing Grace. I will never forget the day my close relative listened to the Parable of the Prodigal son, after being a churchgoer for years. And as we walked back to the car said “I  never realised before I didn't have to do anything to be acceptable back to God”

God's Amazing Grace is all about prodigal sons and daughters experiencing the unconditional welcome from the heavenly father. There was no condition put on the prodigal son, no good behaviour bond, no suspended sentence, no repayment of debts required. Just a great big hug and the rejoicing at a lost son found.

 Amazing Grace. Let it equip you this reformation Sunday. For we are saved by grace alone.