Amazing Grace

Study Guide, August 9, 2015 – Chapel by the Sea, Pastor Clay Olsen

Last week we looked at several pictures of some stars and galaxies in our Universe. We thought you would enjoy seeing some size comparisons of some of the planets and stars that are out there in space. Notice the Earth in comparison to Jupiter. Earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter and Jupiter is about 88,000 miles in diameter. But notice Jupiter in comparison to the star Sirius.  Sirius is about 1 million miles wide. Then look at Sirius compared to the star with the strange name ‘Betelgeuse’…and it’s pronounced ‘Beetle-juice’).  Now Betelgeuse can often be seen throughout the year in the Orion constellation.  And get this: it’s 20 times larger than the Sun, with an estimated diameter of 1 billion miles. But now, hold onto your seats, because notice Betelgeuse in comparison to what’s believed to be the largest star out there … VY Canis Majoris which is estimated to be 1.7 billion miles wide.

But even as amazing as these stars are, there’s something in this world of God’s that is even more amazing.  In fact, if this particular thing was a star it would make VY Canis Majoris seem like a grain of sand in comparison to it.  For this star is called “Grace”, God’s Grace; in particular, God’s saving grace.  We’ve been talking about digging out golden truths from the Bible, and God’s saving grace is as golden as it gets.  Let’s listen to several Bible Teachers trying to describe ‘Grace’.

Vance Havner said: “The grace of God transcends all our feeble efforts to describe it. It cannot be poured into any of our mental receptacles without running over.”

Oswald Chambers said: “Grace means the overflowing nature of God; we see it in Nature, we have no words to describe the lavishness of God. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the overflowing of God’s nature in entire and absolute forgiveness through His own sacrifice.”

Robert Savage recorded: “The truth of God’s grace humbles a man without degrading him, and exalts a man without inflating him.”

Billy Graham said: “Grace is not sought nor bought nor wrought. It is a free gift of Almighty God to needy mankind.”

Charles Spurgeon said: “We are accustomed to not only say ‘grace’, but ‘free grace’. It has long been remarked that this is a tautology. So it is, but a blessed one, for it makes the meaning doubly clear and leaves no room for mistake. We feel no compunction in ringing such a silver bell twice over-grace, free grace. Lest any should imagine that grace can be otherwise than free, we shall continue to say not only grace, but free grace, so long as we preach.”

And then one more from Charles Swindoll, with the joyful way he has of putting things: “Humpty Dumpty had an unsolvable problem. We have a problem too, but ours has a solution. Jesus Christ came to our wall, Jesus Christ died for our fall; So that regardless of death and in spite of our sin, Through grace, He might put us together again.”

So no wonder John Newton’s theme song was “Amazing Grace”.  He once was lost, but by grace became found.  He once was blind, but by grace he could now see.  He said, “Grace even saved a wretch like me.”  Grace was the focus on Newton’s joy and message for the rest of his life, as it should be with us.  For as the Apostle John said of Jesus, that when Jesus came, He came in ‘Grace’ and ‘Truth’. (Jn 1:14) Grace and Truth defined Jesus’ life, and God’s grace and God’s truth should now define ours as well.  But in relation to ‘Grace’ this means just like we can get caught up in the wonders of the stars in the Heavens we should be caught up with the wonders of God’s grace upon Earth.

One of the reasons that Christians need to continue to look deeper and longer into the wonders of God’s saving grace is because so many people continue to be confused and cloudy about it. We of all people on the planet, are to be ‘grace-thinkers’.  And yet even Christians, who have trusted in Christ and received His saving grace, often revert to non-grace thinking about their position in Christ or their relationship with Christ. In other words, I often hear some Christians, who even though they have been born again for many years still say things in connection with going to Heaven like; “Well, I hope I’ll make it there.”…or “I’m trying to get there.”…or “Well, I’ve got a ways to go, but I’m working on it.”…and so on.  No, that is where we, as Christians, not only have the privilege of having the assurance of our salvation because our salvation is a free gift to us from Christ, but we also are to make sure that we don’t get confused or confuse others by mixing works back into the picture of grace when it comes to what it means to be saved by God’s grace.

Concerning our salvation: As Theologians put it: Grace is the ‘causitory means’ of our salvation and faith is the ‘instrumental means’ of our salvation. Or, God’s grace is like the reservoir of God’s salvation and our faith is like the channel that lets God’s salvation flow into us.  One wonderful teaching God has given us that we often use to help depict salvation to people is from Rev. 3:20, with Christ knocking at the door of your heart, waiting for you to invite Him into your life.  That’s a great help in how people can understand their need to open up their heart and life to Jesus.  Well, there is another picture of salvation that Jesus gave us, and He put it in terms of Him being as living waters and us as the ones who thirst. John 7:37-38- “The last day of the festival came. It was the most important day. On that day Jesus stood up and said loudly, “Whoever is thirsty may come to Me and drink. If anyone believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow out from their heart.” ERV

So you could think of Jesus as like this river, or the head waters of the river, or this reservoir of water and with you as a spiritually dry river bed below.  Sin, of course, is what cut off your river bed from the head waters and made your spirit dead and dry. But like that door of your heart in Rev. 3:20, faith is like opening the gate between God’s reservoir and your dry river bed.  And once you do, once you open the gate of your life up to receive Christ, the living waters of Christ then flow into the river bed of your life until the head waters above are connected with the waters below.  Now, the water all belongs to Christ, but now its flowing in you, too.  And, as we have pointed out, God’s gifts are irrevocable.  Or, God’s gift of His waters of eternal life can never reverse and run out from your life.  And neither will they dry up from your life, because by definition, these waters of salvation are eternal; they are rivers of eternal living waters flowing in you.  And these eternal living waters of Christ in us never dry up, because the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

So now when Christian’s say things about going to Heaven like, “Well, I hope I’ll get there”, we can remind them that the eternal living waters of Christ’s salvation in us never dry up.  But now, that doesn’t mean that Christians still wont’ get mixed up about it.  What do we mean?  It’s like Solomon said about there being nothing new under the sun, for even today many Christians are still committing the same error in their thinking that the Galatian Christians reverted to.  In fact, it’s called ‘The Galatian Error’.  Basically it’s moving from ‘grace thinking’ to non-grace thinking.  It is also called ‘works-righteousness’ thinking, but it’s basically just ‘non-grace thinking’.

Let’s review the situation and then we’ll do some more ‘gold digging’. In Gal 3:2-3 Paul says to them: “Tell me this one thing: How did you receive the Spirit? Did you receive the Spirit by following the law? No, you received the Spirit because you heard the message about Jesus and believed it. You began your life in Christ with the Spirit. Now do you try to complete it by your own power? That is foolish.” ERV

As Merrill F. Unger in his New Unger’s Bible Dictionary stated: “Galatians has been called the “Magna Carta of Christian liberty” and the “Christian’s Declaration of Independence.”  The difficulty that produced this important epistle was caused by Jewish believers who proclaimed a mixture of Judaism and Christianity.  Paul had proclaimed the free grace of God for all men through the death of Christ.  The legalizers contended that Christianity could only work within the sphere of the Mosaic law.”  So basically, Paul’s question to them was like, “Did you receive spiritual life by receiving Christ into your life, but now you are telling Him “I’ll take it from here!”?

Actually, when it comes to the natural thinking of the natural man, there are basically two historical problems.  The first one is that legalism is the natural default in the mind of the natural man.  One look at the world’s religions are enough to show that this is so; since the world’s religions all default to thinking that a relationship with God or with some Spirit or Spirits is based upon human merit.  When we visited the massive temple complex of Buddhism in Bangkok, Thailand, one of the central stations in the complex was the ‘merit making pavilion’.  This is where you could really get some extra credit on your way to some really good karma for your next cycle of life, which they hope will be better than this one, based upon how much merit they acquired in this cycle.  The point is again; the basic thinking of mankind is ‘legalistic’ or ‘works-righteousness’ thinking, or simply ‘backwards thinking’.

Most people think that establishing a relationship with God is based upon behavior.  But Christ comes along and gives a unique proclamation about how a human establishes a relationship with God.  The message of Christ turns the backwards thinking of man around and puts first things first, as in; John 3:3- “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” NASU Jesus makes it clear that salvation, a relationship with God, is based first upon birth, not behavior.  Now is behavior important?  Well, ask any parent to answer that question?  Of course, behavior in their children is important.  But until there was first the ‘birth’ into their family, the behavior was not even possible.  Until their was the creation of a new life in the family there was not a live person who could then behave as that family member ought to behave.

But again, throughout history, the natural man has focused on ‘works-righteousness’ as their way to establish a relationship with God.  Even many of the Jewish people got mixed up about it, and they had even been given the very oracles of God to know better.  Do you remember what Paul said about that? Rom 10:1-3- “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” NASU

Do you see what Paul is warning here?  A person can either try to establish a righteousness of his own through their own works or merit or they can accept the righteousness of God which is given to them by grace through their faith.  But like Paul was warning the Galatians, you can’t do both.  Works-righteousness and Grace-righteousness are not only directly opposite ways of salvation, they also cancel each other out.  That’s what Paul said in Rom 11:6- “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” NASU And the Amplified Version puts it like this: “But if it is by grace (His unmerited favor and graciousness), it is no longer conditioned on works or anything men have done. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace [it would be meaningless].”

Salvation by grace and salvation by works are two opposite systems, and only one brings salvation to a sinner.  And it is what we read in our verse of the week: And once again, let’s look at it from the Amplified Version to make it even more clear: Eph 2:8-9- “For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law’s demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]”

Remember something very important:  Our salvation is a free gift of God’s grace. Salvation is God’s unmerited favor to us, because the Son of God merited all the favor we need to be saved by His sinless and completely obedient righteous life and by His complete sacrifice to pay the debt of our sin.  And that’s what Paul was talking about when he said: Phil 3:9- “..and (that I) may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith…” NASU And we’re going to amplify this, too, one more time Phil 3:9- “And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith.” AMP

The point again: We do not and cannot merit our salvation, but our salvation has to be merited in order for us to be genuinely righteousness before God and saved from our sin.  And this is why we have a Savior, who lived a sinless and righteous life for us and died in our place to remove our sin penalty from us.  And this is why we can be sure of our salvation, because our salvation is God’s doing. It’s is Christ’s gift to us. It is GRACE: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  And this is just one more reason we call it ‘Amazing’; ‘Amazing Grace’.

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