G.R.A.C.E. Our Gospel Foundation - Pastor Ryan Perry

G.R.A.C.E. Our Gospel Foundation

Sunday, September 21^st, 2014

By Ryan Perry

Introduction:

Do you ever ask yourself the question, “Do I really understand the gospel?”  “Do I get it and really understand what it means?”  Do I truly understand what Jesus did on the cross and how it applies to me?”  “Can I effectively communicate the whole gospel to someone who is lost?”

I ask these questions of you because these are questions that we as your pastors and elders, first want to ask of ourselves, but then we also want to ask of each of you.  “Do our people truly understand the gospel?”  “Have we done the work to effectively and fully communicate the gospel, and are we doing that in all that we say, teach, and preach?” “Can our people rightly apply the gospel to their lives, and can they communicate it to those who are lost?”

With these questions in mind this morning we are going to be walking through the gospel.  To reinforce for you and for ourselves what God the Father did for us on the cross through His Son Jesus Christ.

Also, if you have been here over the past three weeks as Pastor Dan walked through Acts 26, you know that he talked about the importance of our testimony.  And often our testimony is what gets someone interested in knowing more about God, which then leads us to share the gospel with them. But if we don’t know the gospel then how are we going to be able to share the good news and how will they come to know and love Jesus Christ.

With that said I am going to be walking you through the gospel acronym G.R.A.C.E. this morning.  As an aside, this is going to be the cliff notes version of what the youth will be learning and studying over the next six weeks, so if you are a parent of a youth and you are wondering what your child will be learning this will be it.

So let’s pray and then we will jump right in.  Also it should be noted, that about half of what I have to say is scripture so you can follow along on the screen instead of trying to flip to each passage.  Let’s pray.

G…Stands for God:

And as we jump into this first letter this morning we are going to look at a few attributes of who God is and talk about the reason God created us as humans.

Also, know that it is important to start with God because if we do not understand who God is, then we will miss how great our sin is against Him, and it will cause us to minimize the significance of the cross.

God is Creator:

Genesis 1:1 says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

God is the one who created everything that we see and everything that we do not see.  And because he created everything, He is the one and only one who rules over it.  This means that we must see Him not just as the ruler and king over things like nature or the universe, but we must see Him as ruler and king over us.

God is Holy:

Revelation 4:8 says: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

We often say that God is Holy, but what does that really mean?  The word Holy literally means to be “set apart” or as the old saying goes “a cut above.”  But we must understand that God is set apart and above us in an infinite way.  This is more than Him just being sort of better than us.  God is infinitely better than we are.

God is perfect in every way and he is without any sort of flaw.  Because of His perfection, God is far different than you and me and he is far above what we could ever achieve.  God is “HOLY.”

God made us in His image to reflect His glory:

Genesis 1:27 says: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.”

We as humans are made in the image of the triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Now this has very little, if anything to do with our physical image, but in who we are and how we live we God has made us to look like Him.

This means that we as humans have a great responsibility on our shoulders to show the world around us what God is like.  And since He made us, he has the right to tell us exactly what we must do to wear His image and exactly what we must do to worship and glorify him.  This is why Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

So we are His image bearers created for His glory.  But instead of glorifying God as we should have from the beginning, something happened.

R…Stands for Rebellion:

I hope all of us here this morning understand that at one point or another we have stood in rebellion against God.  And I will burst your bubble even further to let you know that there are times where each of us still stands in rebellion against God.  Why?

God’s standard for us is Perfection:

Leviticus 19:2 says: “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”

Matthew 5:48 says: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

God is Holy and Perfect in all His ways and is incompatible with anything that is not as holy and perfect as Himself.  This reminds me of the flashlight illustration.  You walk into a dark room with a flashlight and when you turn it on light shines in the darkness, and wherever that light shines darkness does not exist because light and darkness cannot occupy the same space.

This makes light and darkness incompatible.

In the same way God is incompatible with anything that falls short of His perfection and holiness. So when Jesus says in the Matthew 5:48, you must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect, He means it.  But He is also letting us know that we cannot get to God on our own. 

And someone might then ask well why can’t I get to God on my own?

We are sinners both by nature and by choice and have fallen short of God’s perfection:

Romans 5:12 says: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”

Romans 3:23 says: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

So if you remember the story of Adam and Eve, God created Adam and gave him a command to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Then God created Eve and in the course of time the serpent (Satan) came into the garden and got Eve to believe a lie that eating this fruit and going her own way was better than God.

However, Adam was right there and he was supposed to be the one to protect his wife and stop her from eating because he was the one who was given the command.  As a result of his disobedience, the world was plunged into sin which is why Romans 5:12 says that sin and death came into the world through one man.  As a result we are sinners by nature because this sin and death spread to all men.

But we are also sinners by choice because Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned.  This means that we have all willfully chosen to do what is wrong in God’s eyes and we have fallen short of His standard of perfection.  So we are sinners by nature and by choice.

Because God is holy, our sin separates us from Him and it carries with it tragic consequences:

Isaiah 59:2 says: “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear”

Now understand this separation from God is more than just “hey let’s sit in separate rooms because I am mad at you, but we can still live in the same house.”  No, there is an infinite separation between us and God, so much so that no amount of effort could ever get us to God.  And this infinite separation means that apart from the work of Christ on our behalf we are dead.

This is why Ephesians 2:1-3 says: And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

So not only are we dead apart from Christ but we are under the wrath of God which will lead us to an eternal punishment in hell.  And since God is an infinite God it follows that we deserve an infinite punishment, because there exists an infinite debt to pay, because our sin is against this infinitely perfect God.

Matthew 25:31-32, 46:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats….. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

So then the question remains: How can sinners ever become righteous in God’s sight?

A…Stands for Atonement:

Atonement means “to repair a broken relationship.”  God because of His great love for His creation sent His Son—Jesus—into the so that sinners may be reconciled or brought back to God.

John 3:16 says: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus then is the one who has made atonement for us and He did it through His life, death, and resurrection.

His Life:

Jesus came and perfectly displayed God’s glory.

John 1:14 says: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus, being God, came down to earth as a man and was able to do what we could not.  And though we fall short of God’s glory, He perfectly displayed God’s glory.  Not only did Jesus display God’s glory but he also never sinned.

Jesus lived a perfect sinless life:

Hebrews 4:15 says: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

He again, did what we never could do.  He lived a perfect live and never once sinned in anything that He did. And because Jesus was God, came to earth as a man and perfectly displayed God’s glory, and never sinned, He was uniquely qualified to die on the cross on our behalf.

Why is it important that Jesus never sinned?  If Jesus committed sin then He would need to pay the punishment and penalty for His own sin, but since He was sinless then He could stand in our place for our sins.

His Death:

Death on the cross is not something that Jesus deserved, but it is something that he freely did for us. Romans 5:8 says:

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And 1 Peter 2:24 says: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

So at the cross and amazing exchange happened.  Jesus’ perfection is traded for our sinfulness.  This means that because Jesus is God he could pay the infinite debt for our sin.  The infinite wrath of God was poured upon Jesus because our sin was upon Him, and in turn His perfect record or perfection and righteousness are applied to us so that we can be in God’s presence forever.

So Jesus becomes sinful in God’s sight and we become clean and perfect and righteous in God’s sight.  Isn’t that amazing? But we cannot stop there.

His Resurrection:

1 Peter 1:3 says: “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,”

We as Christians not only believe that Jesus died on the cross but we also believe because scripture tells us, that Jesus was resurrected three days later.  And His resurrection is the crucial capstone on our atonement.  It completed His work.  As Romans 4:23-25 says:

“But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

So Jesus being raised for our justification is the completion of our atonement.  Because if Jesus was not raised, then it would mean that He did not defeat death and then as Paul writes our hope would be in vain.

So because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, our sin and infinite debt are paid for. Because of this His righteousness and perfection are applied to us and we now have the hope of an eternity in His presence.

However, these truths only apply to those who believe and follow Him as their Savior and Lord.

C…Stands for Conversion:

We each must receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord, having faith in His atoning life, death, and resurrection and turning from sin to obey Him.

To Receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, We Must Trust in Him alone for salvation:

Acts 4:12 says: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

This seems like a very self-explanatory point, but the reality is that many people find this truth troubling.  To think that there is only one way and one mode of salvation and that is through Jesus Christ can seem so narrow and insensitive to people.  Yet, we need to stand firm on this truth as a bench mark of the Christian faith.  If there is salvation found somewhere else besides in Christ then His life, death, and resurrection mean nothing.

We must turn form our sins (repent) and turn to Him in love and obedience:

Luke 13:3 says: No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

John 14:15 says: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

So we must believe that salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone, but we must also repent and turn away from our sin to obedience to Christ.  It astounds me how common it is for people to say that they believe in Jesus and are saved, yet they don’t do anything that God’s word commands them to do.

The reality is that they want all of the benefits that Christ gives but they don’t want Christ.  But Jesus made it clear in the Luke passage that we must turn away from our sin, and turn to Christ in obedience or we will perish (Again this gets back to the eternal separation that we talked about).

So we must trust in Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation, but we must also repent or turn away from our sin to obedience to Christ.

When we turn to Jesus in faith we receive salvation and become His children:

John 1:12 says: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”

The important thing here is that through Christ we are given a new identity.  Whereas we were at one time Children of wrath we are now Children of the living God.  As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

We are clean and new in God’s eyes because of Christ.  This is good news for Christians no matter where you are in your walk.  But even though we are called to turn to God in obedience so that we can become His children, there is another crucial point that we need to understand.

We must always remember that salvation is a free gift of God and it is not of man:

Ephesians 2:8-9 says: “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.”

Ephesians 1:3-5 says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

Philippians 2:12-13 says: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

I have read these three scriptures because I know this can be a hard truth for people to grasp or believe.  Salvation is something that is a free gift of God.  He chose to save us before the foundation of the world, and He is the one who is working to carry out His will in our lives and through our lives.

Now as I said before, we still need to receive Christ.  This means that we need to believe in Him and we need turn away from our sin and turn to Christ in obedience.  That is an act of our wills in this life, however, when you place that against the back drop of these verses and against the back drop of all that scripture has to say about salvation, a profound truth emerges.

That even our choosing to follow Christ is something that God predestined from the beginning of time.  This means that it is something that God planned and we only made a decision to follow Christ because God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, brought us to a place where we were willing to receive Him.

So from beginning to end all the glory for our salvation is God’s and God’s alone.  We were saved by God alone for God alone.

Now you may not share all this with a none believer when sharing the gospel, but we as believers need to grasp this so that we never get prideful about our salvation as if we were good enough to get to God on our own.  Also, when we remember that salvation is from God we will be more confident to share the gospel knowing that the results are in His hands and not in ours.

E…Stands for Eternal Life:  

Jesus brings eternal life to all who place their faith in Him:

John 5:24 says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

When we place our trust in Jesus Christ and we follow Him we are called His children and we are given new homes.  When we were children of wrath we were destined for an eternity in hell, but now because of Christ we have a home in the eternal presence of God.

This will be a place where sin and war shall cease and there shall be nothing but pure joy and peace as we spend our eternity worshipping the one and only Triune God.

And even though our lives today can be hard, and we question how we are going to make it through this life until we are with Christ, we have a promise from scripture that lets us know that God will always be with us and be for us.

Nothing in this universe can separate us from the love of God:

Romans 8:38-39 says: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This means that if you are hear this morning and you are a believer your eternity is fixed because God makes it known that nothing can separate you from Him and from His love.

Conclusion:

This is G.R.A.C.E. God, Rebellion, Atonement, Conversion, and Eternal Life.

Now I realize that for some of you this may feel like just a review of the gospel and in a lot of ways that’s what it is.  But understand that these are truths that we do not grow beyond in our Christian walks. 

Each part of the gospel has implications for our lives, and we need to ask questions like, “How should my life be different knowing that all my sins, past, present, and future are paid.”  or “How should my life be different knowing that salvation is a free gift of God and had nothing to do with my effort?”

These things should affect the way we think and live and they should be truths that we always remind ourselves of and truths on which we should meditate.

Or, maybe your here this morning and you are being confronted with the true gospel for the first time.  I want you to know that Jesus is calling to you and if these words are making sense to you He is starting the work of drawing you to Himself.

I would encourage you to come up and talk with myself or one of the elders after service to learn more about what it looks like to follow Jesus.

Finally, understand that this gospel is not just for us in this church, but it is also for those who are lost outside these walls, and my hope is that you now have a better grasp of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that you can go and share your testimony, and the truths of the gospel in a way that gives people a real and gripping understanding of what Christ has done or them if they turn to Him in faith.

Let’s pray.