The Gospel of GRACE

Scripture Passage: Ephesians 2:8-9 and others

World War II has ended – the soldiers are coming home!

Woo hoo!  Now wait just a minute ...What’s wrong – this isn’t good news for you?  Of course not – it’s old news.  No one gets excited about sharing the news in last’s week’s paper much less something that happened over 50 years ago.  Or do they?

• It is reported that around 1,000 WWII veterans are passing away each day.  If you were a member of a veteran’s family, how would the news that WWII was over affect you? 
• You see, it depends on your perspective and how attached you are to the people involved.

The gospel of GRACE is news – the word “gospel” literally means “good news.”  And it is incredible, wonderful news to share with everyone in your life.  Now I’ve been known to encourage people to share their faith – in fact I teach that very subject on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm.  The reason I encourage people so much is that so many Christians do not share their faith regularly. 

Has the good news become old news to you?  I hope not … but if so, this message is for you.

This message is also for you if you are not quite sure how God could let you into Heaven.  The message of the world is a God who judges your life by good deeds and bad deeds and weighs them all at the end.  If you tilt the scale to the good side, you get in.  If you don’t, you hope God grades on a curve.  But that’s all you have is vain hope if you expect good deeds to get you to Heaven.

Thankfully, our God is a God of GRACE and His gospel – His good news – is a gospel of GRACE too.  I’m going to give you five easy to remember points that will show you just how incredibly, marvelously, wonderful His GRACE is for you.  And then it won’t be old news but great, great news for you to share with the world!

Main Point: 

God gives us grace to bring us into an eternal relationship with Him.

Outline:

1. What is this “GRACE”?
2. G is for Gracious
3. R is for Righteous
4. A is for Acceptance
5. C is for Certainty
6. E is for Eternal Life

I. What is this “GRACE”?

If you have your Bible, turn to Ephesians chapter 2.

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved….   (Ephesians 2:4-5, NIV)

So here’s what the Bible says:

• God is holy and righteous
• You and I are dead (spiritually dead) in our sins
• God loves us so He provided us grace to make us alive

Grace is when God gives you what you do not deserve – and gives you abundantly more than you could even imagine.

God is just – but if He were only just in His dealings with us, there would be no one around.  He would enact swift justice and we would all be gone – dead in our sins (v5).

God is merciful – but if He only showed us mercy, no one would ever change.  We would keep doing the stupid, selfish, sinful things our human nature wants to do.

God’s grace is the perfect blend of justice and mercy through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Through the work of Christ, you and I are made alive and redeemed from sin and brought into a beautiful love relationship with God.

You are dead because of your sin – but you are made alive in Christ (“by grace you have been saved”). 

Q: If you are spiritually dead, how could you do any amount of good deeds to bring life to yourself? 

• Dead is dead! 
• A dead person is incapable of doing anything, much less anything good!

Ravi Zacharias once said: “Jesus did not come to make bad people good but to give dead people life.” ¹
 
So grace is what gives dead people life.

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)

Note verse 8 – you are saved from the penalty of sin by grace alone!

Grace is the only way that a holy God can relate to you.  God is holy (1 Peter 1:1:16).  Unless He provided grace to forgive your sins, cleanse you, and make you new, you could never have a relationship with Him.

So Ephesians 2:8-9 tell us that it is God who does this work of grace – not you.  It is not a result of the good things you try to do – it is from God alone.

Either you will be saved by grace or by works – if it is by works, then you must be holy, absolutely perfect, and on a continual basis.  The moment you got out of line, you would no longer be holy and fit for a relationship with God.  This is, of course, impossible for any human being to achieve.

Never fret, be embarrassed, shy away, or back down from the truth that the grace of Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven!  Rather...

• Thank God He has given us dead people a way at all!

There are 5 things about this grace that are beyond fantastic and must be shared with others.  Look at your handout or mark your Bible as we go along.

 II. G is for Gracious

God is gracious toward us.

For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son [Jesus Christ] that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16, NIV)

Remember a few years ago, one of the fad items that came along was “pet rock.”  People would pay money for fancy packaging of a common, ordinary rock.  Do you think God has a “pet rock”?

When it says that God loved the world, it doesn’t mean that God has a pet rock.  Look at the verse – it says that “whoever believes in Him.”  That personal pronoun “whoever” tells us that God loves people.  God so loved the people in the world … that He gave.

HANDOUT: God loves you and everyone else in the world.

Q: Who does God love more – you or Osama Bin Laden?

• God will not love Osama less than He loves you.
• God cannot love you any more than He already does.

How wonderful is that?  Not only does that feel good – it changes you!  It has to change you to be loved like that.

This grace is expressed by His unchanging love for you – this frees you to love others in the same way!

• Your boss at work with an attitude – give him an attitude back (the mind of Christ)
• Your friend or your mate that is not very affectionate or lovable towards you – give him or her grace because you have an unlimited supply!

Grace from God means you never have to fear loving others who may not ever respond to you.  They may even take advantage of you.  Just extend the same grace that God gave to you.

The "G" in GRACE stands for Gracious.  What does that mean?

GROUP RESPONSE: God loves you and everyone else in the world.

III. R is for Righteous

 
God is righteous.  In fact, God could not love you without being righteous.

...There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:22-23, NIV)

For the wages of sin is death ... (Romans 6:23, NIV)

This is what you call the “honest truth” about you.  Don’t you just love it when people are honest with you?  I mean, you ask someone:

“Do you like this dress on me?” ---->  “Well, honestly, …”

Or you go to your boss with a great new idea, lay out all the facts and show him some snazzy PowerPoint slides and say, “What do you think?”  ---> “Well, honestly, …”

Or you go out on a great date with a really cool person.  At the end of the night, you say, “That was a lot of fun. You want to do it again?”  ---> “Well, honestly, …”

Maybe it’s not so nice when people are honest.  But then again, we need honesty because we need to know the truth.  We need to know where we stand.

Now what if you asked the question to God, “God, what do you think of me?” 

“Well, honestly…”

The word of God says very clearly:

...There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:22-23, NIV)

• All have sinned – past tense.
• All fall short of God’s glory – present tense

Pretty well wraps that up – we are sinners.  We are not sinners because we sin – we sin because we are sinners.  It is a reflection of our human nature.  I have yet to find anyone who has the audacity to say they are without sin.

And because we are sinners, good works will never fix the problem!  It is sin that separates you from God … not an insufficient amount of good works.

So, you may ask, where’s the grace in the “R” point?  Good question!

• Sin separates us from God – but His love unites us!

Look at the rest of Romans 6:23:

For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our LORD. (Romans 6:23, NIV)

HANDOUT: Though God is righteous and you are not, He is willing to give you eternal life.

There is the grace in God’s righteousness.  We deserve death (our paycheck for sin) BUT – the most wonderful grace-filled word in the Bible - But the gift of God is eternal life.

Sin leads to death – eternal death.  BUT Jesus grants us life – eternal life.

The "R" in GRACE stands for Righteous.  What does that mean?

GROUP RESPONSE: Though God is righteous and you are not, He is willing to give you eternal life.

IV. A is for Acceptance

God gives us acceptance through the work of Christ.

Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (1 Peter 3:18, NIV)

Sin keeps us from experiencing the love of God.  Christ died for our sins to pay the penalty on our behalf.  He was a “sin offering” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Which sins did He cover? 

• ALL OF THEM – PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

Why did He do this? 

• TO BRING YOU INTO A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

HANDOUT: Jesus Christ makes you acceptable to God by dying for all your sins.

That’s grace in all its glory:

• Grace that provides complete forgiveness for your sins.
• Grace that enables you to have a relationship with God.
• Grace that means your eternal destiny does not rely on what you do but on who you know.

This kind of grace frees you to forgive and reconcile with anyone!  Think about it:

• Could you honestly refuse to forgive someone even one sin when God has provided forgiveness for ALL your sins?
• Could you honestly withhold forgiveness because you are worried that this person might hurt you again when God has provided forgiveness for all your future sins too?

This kind of grace changes you … it has to.

The "A" in GRACE stands for Acceptance.  What does that mean?

GROUP RESPONSE: Jesus Christ makes you acceptable to God by dying for all your sins.

V. C is for Certainty

God gives us certainty through the work of Christ.

Jesus was handed over to die for our sins.  He was raise to life ... to make us right with God. (Romans 4:25, NIrV)

Justification is a big church word – don’t let it scare you.  It’s real simple – it means, “just as though you had never sinned.”  God does not want you to live in fear of judgment or to live with doubts and uncertainty:

• Did the cross really work for me?
• Did Jesus death really pay the price for me?
• Was Jesus really who He claimed to be?
• Is it all worth it?

HANDOUT: Jesus Christ rose from the dead so you can be sure you are forgiven.

Even the Jewish leaders confronted Jesus and demanded a sign from Him.  They wanted proof that His ministry was from God and that He was who He claimed to be.  You see, the religious leaders of Israel were also the political leaders – the ruling body.  They felt threatened because they enjoyed the power and prestige of their positions.  Jesus was turning their world upside down with His gospel of GRACE.

Jesus told them what THE sign would be that would authenticate everything He said and did.  That sign was His resurrection from the dead.

Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." (John 2:19, NIV)

His body was the temple He promised to raise up again.  Jesus staked His entire life, ministry, and teachings on this one fact:  His resurrection from the dead.

And Jesus was raised to life on the 3rd day after He was tortured to death on a cross. 

• In ancient history, this is by far the most well documented fact.

How do you know that?

• We have eye witness accounts written in the same time period as the event from Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, Paul, James…

But, you may protest, is this not circular logic – using the Bible to prove a Bible claim?

• Not at all circular – the Bible is not one book but 66 different books written by some 40 human authors (God superintending it) over a period of 1,600 years.
• Each book testifies to the same God and His plan of redemption.
• Also we have historians from the era who also note that Jesus was a real person and give an account of His resurrection.
• We also have the early church fathers of that day who also give account of the resurrection.

And thinking logically, the resurrection of Jesus is the only explanation for what turned a scared, hopeless bunch of disciples into bold, confident witnesses of the living Christ.

Through His resurrection, Jesus gives us certainty:

• That He is LORD
• That He does forgive our sins
• That we have eternal life.

The grace of certainty gives you confidence to live for Christ and confidence to share your faith in Christ with others.

The "C" in GRACE stands for Certainty.  What does that mean?
 
GROUP RESPONSE: Jesus Christ rose from the dead so you can be sure you are forgiven.

VI. E is for Eternal Life

God gives us eternal life through the work of Christ.  Jesus said:

Whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned. (John 5:24, NIV)

There is no greater grace than for God to grant you eternal life.

If you simply turn from your sins – that is going your own way – and believe in the LORD Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life.

Eternal life is not some wispy existence sitting on a cloud, strumming a harp with your angel wings - that is a cartoon idea of Heaven.  Jesus describes eternal life clearly:

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3, NIV)

You see - eternal life is a relationship with God.  And it is a forever relationship.

Also note – John 5:24 says whoever hears and believes “has” eternal life. This is a present tense word.   When you choose to put your faith and trust in the LORD Jesus, you are granted eternal life.  Not "may have" or "will have" in the future, but “has” eternal life. 

You possess eternal life the moment you hear and respond personally to the gospel of GRACE.

HANDOUT: Eternal life is a forever relationship with God that starts the moment you choose to believe.

• Eternal life = eternal relationship with God

Eternal life is yours by the grace of God alone – there is no other way to enter into a relationship with a holy God.

The "E" in GRACE stands for Eternal Life.  What does that mean?

GROUP RESPONSE: Eternal life is a forever relationship with God that starts the moment you choose to believe.

VII. Conclusion:

There was an article in TIME magazine recently that revealed insights on Mother Theresa:  “The Secret Life of Mother Theresa.”  The information was in her personal letters and confessions.  Here was a woman who spent the better part of her life ministering to the diseased and outcasts of Indian society.  Yet just as she was beginning her ministry to the lepers in the streets of Calcutta, she went through a very dark time – she no longer sensed the presence of God.  For 50 years, she wrote of the darkness, her fears, and her doubts about God.

I do not presume to judge her in this – she accomplished tremendous things in her life. No doubt about that.  She carried on her work despite her fears and doubts.  But I have to wonder:

• Did she really understand the grace of the LORD Jesus as we have seen in the Bible?
• Or was she living a life of good works thinking they would make her acceptable to God and get her into Heaven?

I wonder.  Trying to be good enough for a righteous and holy God is a terrible burden.  Fear and depression are understandable reactions to a life weighed down by an impossible task.

But this I know - God gives us grace to bring us into an eternal relationship with Him.  God gave us grace because there was nothing and is nothing we can do to become acceptable to Him.  Because of His great love, He sent His Son, Jesus.

Are you sure about your relationship with God and that Heaven is a certainty for you?  Have you embraced this grace?  It is a personal decision you need to make and today is the day.  God brought you here today to hear this message.  Let’s bow our heads and pray – let me lead you in a prayer you can pray to accept the grace of the LORD Jesus:

Dear LORD Jesus: Though I’m a sinner, You are gracious. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. I believe in You and will follow you as my LORD and Savior. Amen!

So all of us now have a fresh batch of grace – the most wonderful good news to share with everyone.  Turn your handout to the other side.

• For the next 30 days, make a list of the people in your life that you know need the grace of the LORD Jesus.
• Pray for them daily that they would hear and believe in the LORD Jesus.
• Ask God for the strength and opportunity to share the gospel of GRACE with them this month.
• Be bold and confident and write down the date you shared grace with each person on your list.

Handout:  The Gospel of Grace Handout

Web Page:  The Gospel of Grace Presentation

End Notes

1  Zacharias, Ravi. There is None Good But God. RZIM.org. Retrieved 7/16/2009 from http://www.rzim.org/USA/Resources/Read/ASliceofInfinity/TodaysSlice.aspx?aid=9036

Copyright 2007, Randy Lariscy.