Portraits of Grace

The following is a rough transcript from a sermon I preached this morning, July 20′th at Golf Road Baptist Church. Rough sermon scripts never translate very well to writing but this will give you the gist of the message.

I want to tell you three stories this morning. Each of them is based on a true story. However, I have changed the names and the contexts for a few of them.

First, I want to tell you about Mo. Mo grew up in a tumultuous time. Caught up in the midst of all the tumult, Mo killed a man and became a fugitive of the law. Eventually God got a hold of Mo’s life, and Mo became an incredible leader. In fact God so transformed Mo’s life that Mo was looked up to by God’s people for years after his death.

Second, I want to tell you about “D”. D was a believer, and even as a young child God used him in an incredible ways. Eventually D became a Christian leader and did incredible things to lead God’s people. However, in the midst of his success, D suffered moral failure. An affair seemed to ruin his credibility yet God restored “D” and the grace which “D” had known in his past extended into his present.

Third, I want to tell you about Gina. Gina was saved as a child and she married a pastor. After a few years Gina’s affair threatened to ruin her marriage, but her husband who was both faithful and gracious continued to lovingly pursue her and restored their relationship. However, Gina had not sown her last wild oats and she again ran away with another man. Her husband, broken hearted, went about the task of again pursuing her, promising that he would bring her back again. And against all odds, he will do just that. He will again restore her and the grace that she has experienced all through her life she will most certainly experience again.

You see each of these people experienced the grace of God, each of them is a portrait of grace. However, we don’t have to stop with these stories, with just these three portraits of grace because as I look around this room I see any number of people who can add their own stories to this legacy. You see the grace of God extends to every person and to every era of life.

C. S. Lewis was once asked what is the most distinctive aspect of the Christian faith and his response was something like, “Oh that’s easy, it’s grace.” Grace is God giving us an undeserved and free gift. Grace is what lies at the heart of the gospel and it is this gospel of grace which extends to every era of our lives.

You see many of us think of the gospel as orientation to the Christian faith. It is merely the entrance exam, or perhaps the placement exam to living the Christian life. It is something quickly mastered that merely becomes “Four Laws” that remind us of how to be saved or that we already have been saved. Or perhaps they become a few simple propositions represented by colors which we rattle off without thinking about. The gospel is the message we give to unbelievers but that we, who are believers don’t really need or perhaps have already gone over.

But what I want to suggest to you today is that the gospel is not just orientation, it is not just a tract, and it is not a message just for unbelievers. What I want to tell you today is that the gospel is the essence of the Christian life. That it is more like the root of a tree, which supplies nutrients to the whole tree throughout its life. Or that it is like ivy which piece by piece covers an entire wall, reaching its tendrils out and expanding and growing covering a wall or a house until all that can be seen is ivy.

Jesus Himself compared the kingdom to a mustard seed and perhaps this mustard seed is good illustration of what the gospel is. All that is necessary for a giant mustard tree to grow is contained inside a seed. In fact all that the tree is in inside that seed and however tall the tree becomes, no matter how much fruit it bears, all that growth and all that fruit comes from that seed.

In this sense the gospel out to be viewed more as the DNA of the Christian life. Just as a person’s DNA determines all that that person is, so the gospel ought to determine all that a Christian should be.

The gospel is the story that consumes the pages of Scripture and it is the story which consumes our lives. The story begins in a garden with a man and a woman. Perfect relationship existed between God and man, and between man and woman and between man and all of God’s creation. Every relationship in this world was in harmony, was perfect. But a man and a woman chose to elevate self over God. And in that moment, when a man and a woman chose self, sin entered the world. Sin, choosing self over God, come into the world and sin brought with it death and disunity. Man’s relationship with God was broken, man’s relationship with man became distorted and man’s relationship with creation was fraught with trouble. Whereas before man had lived naked an unashamed before all, now he sought desperately to cover his own shame and nakedness. God’s perfect world, now became a place of pain, a place of death. Joy was now mingled with sorrow, pleasure with pain and no relationship was completely free from pain of separation and death, most of all the separation of man from God.

However, just as God reached out to that man and woman in the garden and provided coverings for their shame and nakedness so God has reached out to all men and women in the person of Jesus Christ. A perfect God demanded a perfect people, and just as He is completely right so we were wrong. And so a perfect substitute or sacrifice was demanded. And what we could not do for ourselves God did for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And on the cross all your sin and shame, all your filth, all your pretense of goodness, all your reviling and lies, and idolatry, all our affairs, all our secret sins, all your words and actions aimed at hurting those closest to you in your family; all those things were placed on Christ. And so your sin was taken from you and in place you were given the perfection of Christ. Though your sins were as scarlet they are now white as snow. Though we lived and were small and mean in our sin, yet God has transformed us and given us a new nature. For just as Christ died and was crucified and then raised so we also experience the same thing when we come to Him in faith and repentance. Our sinful selves are crucified, put away, destroyed, done away with, and we are given a new life, a new nature, a new way of being human. This is the essence of the gospel. It is not merely news that we are no longer in debt, it is that Christ has canceled the debt, paid the bills, and then also moved us from trash heap to the mansion.

So why do I draw your attention to something which you may already know, which you have undoubtedly heard? It is because we don’t live this story, friends! It is because some of you still live in sin, some of you still prefer wallowing in trash, rather than living in the palace of a king. We sin because we do not understand and have not applied the gospel to our lives. If the gospel is true then every person here, who has trusted Christ as Savior is a new person! Let me suggest a few practical applications that come from understanding the gospel as bringing about a change in our very nature.

First, when we understand and apply the gospel, we no longer need to continue in sin. Imagine a man who in the midst of serving a life sentence in prison was acquitted of all crimes. Now imagine that judge not only acquitted him, but even changed his name, imagine if the judge erased any record of any wrongdoing ever by that man. Imagine that now the man was not only completely free but was also given a new identity, a wonderful place to live, a network of friends and family, and everything else a man could ever need. Now imagine how ludicrous it would be if that man woke up each and every day and went out and rather than driving to his new job, given him by the merciful judge. He instead drove to the prison, put on his prison outfit, strapped shackles and chains around his hands and feet and then step-by-step walked to his cell shut and locked the door, threw the key out of reach and lay down on his cot and lived in that cell. Such a man is a living contradiction, he is living a completely useless life, he is frankly clinically insane! Yet, how many believers, how many of us, do the very same thing. Having been saved by grace and given all that we need we continue, daily to wake up and lock ourselves in a miserable dark cell wallow there. Some of you are lifestyle liars. You claim the name of Christ but are dishonest employees. Some of you have experienced the gospel of grace but you are cruel and mean to your spouse or children. Some of you have freely experienced the grace and provision of God but have now become so consumed with yourself that you have placed your personal or professional goals far above those of honoring Christ. Friends, the gospel is not just the good news that all your past sins have been forgiven, the gospel is the good news that all our sins in the present have also been forgiven, paid for and that we have been so changed that sin is now foreign to our nature. Sin has no power over you because the gospel of grace is not just good news for the past; it is good news for today. God’s grace has been extended into your own life and you, yourself are a portrait of God’s grace.

Second, because the gospel has changed our nature and we are new people we no longer need to work to earn God’s favor. If we understand the gospel the second thing about our lives that will change is that our growth will no longer depend solely upon ourselves. The gospel frees us from constantly having to judge ourselves and others. It frees us from a rigid legalism which demands exterior conformity while never touching the heart. You see the gospel first changes our hearts and then as our hearts are changed, comes a change in our lives. Exterior actions are only valuable if they are a reflection of an inward reality. A group of Christians in the first century didn’t realize this. The church of Galatia after receiving the gospel was led astray and began to get caught up in following exterior rules. Paul’s question to them is question many of you need to hear, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” The grace which saved us, is the grace which carries us. Some of us need to be reminded of this. Some of us need to be reminded that God’s grace extends into your life right now. That you do not need to strive to meet His approval, because Christ has already garnered for you His approval. Some of you think that to keep God’s love (and his blessing) you must always be doing something to impress Him. I’m not saying slack off and sin (Paul vehemently condemns that in Romans 6), I am saying that you grow, you obey and you serve not out of compulsion because you must but because that is what you do out of your new nature. Understand that God’s grace has changed you, that His grace is changing you, that His grace will continue to transform you, and then serve from that enabling power.

Third, when we understand and apply the gospel we are free to bring all of life before God. There is no distinction between your life at work, your life at home and your life at church. All of it has been brought to Christ in the gospel. How you spend your money, how you spend your time, how you relate to your spouse and children, how you work, how you manage your sexuality, all of it is changed by the gospel. A person who has been changed by the gospel no longer asks how he or she should spend their money but how God would have them spend their money. A person who has been changed by the gospel no longer asks how they can get their spouse or children to do what they want, they ask how can I help my mate and my children, whom God has graciously given to me, how can I help them become more like Christ? A person who has been brought face to face with the gospel realizes that how they manage their sexuality is important to God, because like all things it can be used for good or for harm. When we understand the gospel, we understand that God has saved all of us, and that He wants every single facet of our lives to be changed. There ought not to be any doors which remain locked, which we do not let Him into. And this is both frightening and comforting. The resistance on our part is pointless for He already knows, He stands ready to forgive whatever sins we try to hide and block off from Him, we need only to repent and place them before Him. He already knows the hurts, the scars inflicted by others on us, and those too He wants to heal. All you who have been victims of abuse of any kind. All you who are struggling with illness or with grief and loss. When we realize that the gospel impacts every area of our lives then we can give it all to Him because He has already given everything for us. Andy Stanley poses the question so well. God saying, “I died for you. Don’t you trust me?”

Fourth, when we understand and apply the gospel we are moved to reach out into the family of God with us and the community around us. Such love and grace demands to be shared and indeed cannot remain contained solely within these walls. If your life has been so impacted by the grace of God then all of life now becomes about living out that new life and imparting that same grace to others. Suddenly relationships with those in the church are less about gaining honor and looking good and more about actually building up others. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:32, that the basis of our forgiving one another and of our being kind to one another is because Christ has offered kindness and forgiveness to each one of us.

But the witness love and grace cannot stop among us who believe but must also extend out into the world. Christ, hours before going to a cross told his disciples that their best apologetic and defense of the Christian faith would be their love for one another. Are you a person whose love for other followers of Christ is so evident that those in your school or place of work can tell that there is something distinct about you? Are you willing to even go one step further and love your neighbor as Christ commands? Are we willing to allow the love of God and grace of God to impact our casual relationships at work? To stop by the cubicle of that co-worker who has just gone through divorce and offer him or her a kind word or hug? To reach out to the other soccer moms as they sit around at practice? Are you willing to love that pesky neighbor across the street and bring them a meal, even though all they have ever done to you is scowl when your yard seems the worst on the block?

And this is the message of the gospel. That God’s grace has changed our lives so that we 1) no longer continue in sin, 2) we no longer strive in our own strength for righteousness and 3) that we allow Him full access into our lives even our deepest and darkest pains, shames and fears.

I told you three stories at the beginning of our time together. Now let me tell you who those people are and why they are important. The first man represents the gospel in our past, at the time of our trusting Christ as Savior. Many of you can point to that time where you first trusted Christ and became a Christian. The story, as some of you may have guessed is the story of Moses. However, many today could tell a similar story including the influential Christian leader, Chuck Colson who after being involved in the Watergate Scandal went on to become an incredible statesman for Christianity. The gospel is story of our past.

The second man represents the gospel in our present. Here we see God’s continuing grace in our lives, after our initial trust. That grace that continues into our lives today. This is the grace we experience as day-by-day walk with Him. The story is that of king David, who despite his adultery and its consequences was restored by God. This story could be paralleled today in the story of a well known minister from Massachusetts who fell into moral failure before being restored by God some years later. This is the gospel in our present lives, cleansing us from all sin now.

The third story represents the yet future and final extension of grace which will occur when Christ takes us to be with Him forever. The story is that of Gomer in the Old Testament who though she marries a prophet, Hosea, she runs around on him continually. Her story is that of the people of Israel, who God promises He will restore. Some of us need to be reminded that our future is secure solely because of the gospel. That we will in the end triumph over all sin and death because Christ has already guaranteed victory. Paul bases much of his instruction to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians on this idea that because our future is secure in Christ we can live boldly and obediently today. This is the gospel in our future guaranteeing tomorrow thus making today possible.