The Christ Church Wednesday Bible Study Group is studying grace. The title of the study is "What's So Amazing about Grace"
Grace is the most important concept in the Bible, Christianity, and the world. It is most clearly expressed in the promises of God revealed in Scripture and embodied in Jesus Christ himself.
God’s love for you is unlimited and unconditional. It is because of God's grace and nothing else that we are saved. We think that we can get there and have the security of getting there (salvation) by doing all the religious things, giving our tithes and offerings and obeying the rules. These things are great, but they are useless in solving the biggest problem--and that is that our sinful hearts make us unfit for a relationship with a holy God. All the good we do can’t erase even one of our bad deeds.
There could have been no grace whatsoever for us but for the fact that God the Son volunteered to take our place and redeem us: Grace... came through Jesus Christ.
Grace will bring the freedom to want the highest good for and expect the highest good from one another. It will make us want to obey and prompt us to love each other.
The greatest thing about grace is that it is free to you, but it is certainly not cheap. Jesus paid for it with His life.
Any idea of the greatest heresy today? Read the notes to Session 3 of our study.
We will be using the books, "The Grace Awakening: Believing In Grace Is One Thing. Living it is Another", and "The Grace Awakening Workbook" by Charles E. Swindoll. You can study along with us by clicking the above links or the images after the notes.
Any idea of the greatest heresy today?
First, what is the definition of heresy?
A basic definition of heresy, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, is “adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma.” A second definition is “dissent or deviation from a dominant theory, opinion, or practice.”
In the opinion of Chuck Swindoll , whose book, The Grace Awakening, we are using for this study is humanism. Humanism is:
• A philosophy found in numerous self-help books, many poems, and most rags-to-riches biographies.
• It is a recurring theme in political speeches and commencement addresses. It flourishes in academia.
• It feeds our pride, it fuels our self-centered bent, it pleases our flesh.
The poem Invictus, many of us have heard throughout the years ends like this “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul”. That sounds good doesn’t it. Sounds like “God helps those who help themselves”, or you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. You can do whatever your heart desires. God helps those who help themselves is not in the Bible by-the-way.
That is what I said last week is a “grace killer” that discounts God completely. The Fact is, God helps the helpless, the undeserving, those who don’t measure up, those who fail to achieve His standard. That's grace and it is a gift completely free.
Most people see themselves as “masters” of their own fate, “captains” of their own souls. It’s an age-old philosophy deeply ingrained in the human heart.
Genesis 111:4 TLB At that time all mankind spoke a single language. 2 As the population grew and spread eastward, a plain was discovered in the land of Babylon and was soon thickly populated. 3-4 The people who lived there began to talk about building a great city, with a temple-tower reaching to the skies—a proud, eternal monument to themselves.
That, sounds really bizarre in that people could actually think that they could build something that could really reach heaven. If you go back to the original Hebrew verse 4 reads literally, “whose upper part is with the heavens.”
The little preposition “with” is a preposition of accompaniment or representation.
Somehow the topmost part of the tower was designed and constructed so that it would “represent” the heavens.
There was an extensive excavation of the land of Shinar decades ago. Not just one tower, but many of these ziggurats (cone-shaped structures built with a spiral road around them for journeying up and down) were constructed. And among all the cone-shaped dwellings in this particular area, one tower stood above all the rest. Chances are good that the tallest was the tower referred to in Genesis11. What is most interesting is that they discovered in that particular tower the signs of the zodiac etched into the stonework up toward its peak. Signs and symbols that represented the stellar spaces, which are commonly called “the heavens,” appeared at the top. It was like an ancient religious shrine up there . . . Just think of the fame that will come our way as we make a name for ourselves. God can’t help but bless us for all we have achieved.” It was humanism’s finest hour.
What was God’s response?
Genesis 11:5-9 KJV And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
So these ancient people did not find favor with God because their emphasis was not on what God can do for them but what they can do for God. When we exalt our own efforts and strive we insult His grace and steal the credit that belongs to Him alone. When it came to his being righteous before God, he had nothing in himself that earned God’s acceptance.
Let’s take a look at someone else who lived long ago. Who God shows favor to not because he accomplished anything but simply believed God.
Romans 4:1-3 NIV What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
There is no room for boasting before God. Not even a great man like Abraham could earn God’s favor and blessing.
In the final analysis, it was not the result of Abraham’s hard work that caused him to find favor with God; it was the result of God’s great grace.
Apart from anything Abraham owned or earned, bought or achieved, God declared the man righteous. He “justified” Abraham:
Sharing something written by Donald Grey Barnhouse, in Romans, Man’s Ruin,
“The day came when, in the accounting of God, ungodly Abraham was suddenly declared righteous. There was nothing in Abraham that caused the action; it began in God and went out to the man in sovereign grace. Upon a sinner the righteousness of God was placed. In the accounting the very righteousness of God was reckoned, credited, imputed. The Lord God Himself, by an act of grace moved by His sovereign love, stooped to the record and blotted out everything that was against Abraham, and then wrote down on the record that He, God, . . .credited . . . this man Abraham to be perfect even at a moment when Abraham was ungodly in himself. That is justification”
Notice that this guy said that Abraham was ungodly. Well let’s look at Abraham so that you can better understand God’s grace.
Joshua 24:2 NIV Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.
He had been reared by an idolater. He had married a woman who had come from the same region of idolatry. He was by birth, by nature, and by choice a sinner. However, God in sovereign grace penetrated through all of that. And when He heard Abraham say, “I believe,” God, in grace, credited perfect righteousness to the man’s account.
We’ve said this before but justification is the sovereign act of God whereby He declares righteous the believing sinner—while he is still in a sinning state. God heard Abraham when he said, “I believe . . . I believe in You.” And God credited divine righteousness to his account. This occurred even though Abraham was still in a sinning state. But never again would the man have to worry about where he stood before his God. He was, once and for all, declared righteous. He received what he did not deserve and could never earn.
I want to inform you and emphasize that Abraham is not unique because nobody can earn God’s justification; it must be received through God’s grace.
Romans 4:4-8 NIV Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
Look at
Romans 5:1-2 NIV Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Study those words carefully. We, being justified by faith, not works, get the one thing we’ve longed for—peace with God. Is it through our merits?
Not at all. The verse states we’ve been justified by faith. It is through Jesus Christ our Lord who paid the absolute, final payment for sin when He died in our place at the Cross.
Once we accept the fact that we have nothing to give God or impress God with that will prompt Him to credit righteousness to our account, we will be ready to take His free gift.
However there is one problem we still have and that is very troublesome to most people, we still have to deal with the fact that we are still contaminated with sin.
Romans 5:12 NIV Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
with God. The same sin that Adam introduced has polluted the entire human race. No one is immune to the sin disease. And no human accomplishment can erase the internal stain that separates us from God. Because Adam sinned, all have sinned. This leads to one conclusion: We all need help. We need forgiveness. We need a Savior.
So . . . how do we get out of this mess?
Romans 5:18-19 NIV Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
That is grace.
Salvation is offered by divine grace, not by human works.
Luke 23:39-43 NIV One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
“Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” . Those are words of faith, the simple statement of a man who has been an unbeliever all of his life. Suddenly, with his last sigh (unable to do one religious deed . . . he couldn’t even be baptized!), he turns to Christ, hanging helplessly on a cross, and he believes.
He states his faith in Christ: “Lord . . . remember me.” And Jesus answers with this promise: “Truly . . . today you shall be with Me in Paradise”. The man’s faith without works, without conditions, was rewarded with Jesus’ grace.
EXPLAINING: GRACE
Ephesians 2:2-10 NIV in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Remember last week I mentioned “grace killers” They hardly look threatening. They often carry Bibles, lead ministries, and sing in the choir. But their small view of God keeps them chained to rules and regulations they think will keep them and you in right standing with Him. Grace killers use shame, fear, and intimidation to drive themselves and others to please God. We often call grace killers hypocrites. A hypocrite is often right in their theology but wrong in its application.
When grace is our only claim, who gets the glory? The One who went to the Cross.
Can you understand why the grace killers would attack this great truth? It cuts the heart out of do-it-yourself-and-get-the-glory religion.
The name of Jesus is the only name that will take you from earth to heaven when you die. And it won’t be your achievements or your fame or your fortune that will get you there. You will be granted entrance because you accepted the free gift of eternal life—nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
There is one and only one password for entering heaven: grace.
Why am I taking all this time talking about God’s grace to and for us? It’s because until we understand God’s grace to and for us we can’t really offer real legitimate grace to others.
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