WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE?
February 18, 2007 Jay Davis Robison ROMANS 7:24-8:4
How heavy are you today?
Brought instrument of torture scale will you step on?
Weight can be battle but today consider weight that is greater battle
What if we could step on scale that measured our spiritual baggage?
Many people are groaning under strain of the baggage in their spirits.
Weight called guilt. We all have it to but some in heavyweight div. Guilt is a cancer eating you up on inside, some have become numb
to pain & energy guilt causes. Gotten used to dragging guilt
around into every r-ship every challenge to try something new,
every chance to move forward Guilt holds you back.
A lot of guilt weight today, I know true because we’re human,
we all have done stuff to make us guilty.
Boy, aren’t you glad you came today to hear that?
Romans 7 is one of the most powerful statements about struggling
with sin and guilt. What makes it so powerful is, that it is Paul
providing us a glimpse into his own struggle.
At end of Ch 7 and beginning of chapter 8 about amazing grace
1. Grace FLOWING FROM GOD TO US
Some believe grace means, anything goes do whatever you want
Grace recognizes THE ANGUISH OF SIN
Look at Vs 24 NLT sound like our guilt? Oh, what a miserable
person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by
sin and death?
Grace of God we recognize deserved punishment & got forgiveness.
Vs 25 In my mind I really want to obey God’s law,
but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
Recognition that something in our lives dreadfully wrong
We ought to do better, we should do better but we can’t
On one hand, God loves us; on other hand behavior drives him away.
God yearns to see in people his own image reflected; at best he sees
Shattered fragments of that image. Still, God will not give up.
How do we find that forgiveness and release from weight
The doorway to grace is REPENTANCE
Not being perfect, or holy, but repentance recognizing we need help
We cannot find God unless we know we need him. Merton
Only when I turn to God for outside help for grace
do I learn that a holy God loves me despite my defects.
God’s Grace =EVERYTHING FOR NOTHING
TO THOSE WHO DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING
Grace baffles us, Heidelberg Catechism #60 "w\out my deserving it
at all, out of sheer grace, God grants & credits to me the perfect
satisfaction righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned or been a sinner, as If I had been perfectly obedient as
Christ was obedient for me."
So Vs 1 NIV Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Condemnation= “to declare guilty, to inflict a penalty upon,
to doom, to declare unfit for use.” Sin leaves us that way
There is a condition to receiving this forgiveness.
Those who are in Christ Jesus.”
See Vs 3 NLT The law of Moses was unable to save us because of
the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could
not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners
have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us
by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins Vs 3 NLT
Since God is perfect and holy, to have a right relationship w\God
We must be perfect and holy, "righteous requirements of the law."
God sent Jesus w\sinful body like ours & declared an end to sin’s control over us, Not by being perfect but because Jesus died on
the cross for us, unity with Christ. He fulfilled the Law perfectly
& those “in Christ” are considered to have fulfilled the Law also.
Grace means I deserved wrath and got love, deserved debtor’s prison
and got instead a clean credit history.
ADOPTED: Jesus made me a part of God’s family.
REDEEMED: Jesus purchased my salvation with his blood.
Greek word for redemption refers to slaves purchased in market.
Jesus purchased us out of slave market & set us free from sin.
2. Grace OVERFLOWING ON OTHERS
Few years ago, young lady just finished playing a basketball game.
She backed out of parking spot & heard a crunch as car stopped.
She had backed up into a Corvette & took a chunk out of bumper.
Almost any other car would have been better. $$
She called dad & they tried to find owner. We worried about cost
But when owner came out, she looked at the damage and said
"don’t worry about it. My husband has a body shop he was going
to fix up the car anyway". We were relieved.
Experienced this thing called grace.
Why does God put up with any of us?
Remember I was frustrated about someone who let me down
They had promised to do something for the church
To follow through on a project, and flat out didn’t do it
I wondered why then felt God remind me that someone
Could make the same charge against me. Humbling
Why does god put up with any of us? GRACE
Gil Hodges managing Washington Senators, discovered 4 players
broke curfew the previous night. He called a team meeting said,
"I know who you are but I do not wish to embarrass you. You know
the rules; you will each be fined $100. I have placed a cigar box on my desk. I expect the 4 of you who broke curfew to put your
money in the box by 3:00 p.m."
At end of day, Hodges found $700 in his cigar box! All guilty.
Grace overflowing means 2 Stops to share . .
STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP
Guilt keeps on giving. We make ourselves feel lousy.
We condemn ourselves, criticize and berate ourselves.
Psalms 38:4 My guilt has overwhelmed me; like a load
it weighs me down. (NCV) Beating self up doesn’t fix your pain. It just reopens wound. Through Christ, we find relief. Jesus was
nailed to a cross so you could stop nailing yourself to a cross.
STOP LETTING OTHERS BEAT YOU DOWN
Is there some 1 person in your life keeping you stuck in guilt?
It is probably someone close- chances are it’s a parent, a sibling,
a girlfriend or boyfriend, a spouse or ex-spouse.
You have the authority and the ability to end the misery.
They may never change what they say or do to you,
but you can change how you respond to them.
Only God can say what you’re worth, because He is your Creator,
and He says you are His own. He died for you.
Ask God to give you a new response.
Guilt only serves 1 good purpose, to drive us to repentance & growth
After that, nothing else good can come of it.
It’s not about what you’ve done; it’s about what God’s done.
God made 1st move, & God waits for you to respond to His love.
No 1 deserves to be declared not guilty! In Christ no condemnation.
We have a new perspective on life
Obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires. Vs 4 CEV
We live now looking with a spiritual eye, Ch 8
Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more,
and nothing we can do to make God love us less.
Christ accepts us as we are, but when we accept him,
we cannot remain as we are.
Like what someone wrote
God in heaven holds each of us by a string. When we cut the string,
God ties it again making a knot and drawing us closer.
Philip Yancey: "Grace comes free of charge to people who do not
deserve it and I am one of those people. I think back to whom I was
resentful, wound tight w\anger, a single hardened link in a long
chain of "un-grace" learned from family & church.
I yearn for the church to become a nourishing culture of that grace".
How are you nourishing a culture of grace?
How are we allowing grace to overflow us onto others
There are a group of people who feel they have missed God
because they broke the rules. They never heard message of grace
What carries greater cost, forgiveness or unforgiveness?
W\out forgiveness, we cannot free ourselves from the grip of past
Grace is not a license to sin, anything goes
Grace involves repentance, and grace is so wonderful
Includes a call to sacrificial service in Jesus’ name
Micki reminded me yesterday when God looks at us
Sees our sin, but does not look like this (arms crossed mad)
Jesus Christ reaches out with nailed scarred hands
Opening up to an embrace, has taken first move
We must move to him
WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE?
February 18, 2007 Jay Davis Robison ROMANS 7:24-8:4
How heavy are you today?
1. Grace
Grace recognizes
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Vs 24 NLT
The doorway to grace is
Grace =
Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus Vs 1 NIV
The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins Vs 3 NLT
2. Grace
Why does God put up with any of us?
2 Stops to share . .
Obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires. Vs 4 CEV
Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and nothing we can do to make God love us less.
How are you nourishing a culture of grace?
