God is gracious. What does that mean? That God has good manners? That He’s courteous? No. "God’s grace is His free and unmerited favor". Let’s examine that. God’s grace is "unmerited". It is undeserved. It is unearned. It is purely a gift. We receive good things from God, not in response to anything good we have done, but only because of His free choice to set His love on us. We aren’t accepted by God because we are worthy of his love. In fact, it’s just the opposite. God loves and accepts us in spite of our unworthiness.
Now, most Christians recognize that we cannot earn our salvation. We understand that forgiveness of sins and eternal life are not earned.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
Nothing we did, or could do, would ever merit salvation. But Jesus Christ did it for us. He lived a perfect, sinless life in our place. His death on the cross paid for our sins. It’s not something we could earn, it’s something we can only receive as a free gift through faith in Christ. That’s fundamental.
But what I want to focus on this morning is not our initial entry into the faith. What I want to focus on is our continued relationship with God.
· Let me ask you a question: How does God feel about you right now, today, this morning? What’s His attitude toward you? As you imagine Him looking down at you, what expression does He have on His face? Is he smiling? Frowning?
· Here’s the second question: Why? If God’s attitude toward you is positive; if He’s smiling, why is that? Is it because you came to church today? Because you put a check in the offering basket? Because you read the Bible this morning? Or, if you feel that God is frowning, why is that? Because you lied to your boss this week and called in sick? Because you can’t remember the last time you prayed? Because you yelled at the kids in the car on the way to church?
God’s love is unconditional
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, if you feel that God’s attitude toward you is influenced by your behavior, then I have good news for you. God’s attitude toward you is positive. And His acceptance of you is not influenced at all by our behavior - good, bad, or indifferent. His love is unconditional.
Is that a surprise to you? It shouldn’t be. We freely acknowledge that God’s love is unconditional when we’re talking about how someone first comes to faith. We understand that good behavior doesn’t help, because no one is good enough to earn salvation. And we understand that bad behavior doesn’t matter, because Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was sufficient to cover any sin, no matter how sinful. But somehow, when it comes to our relationship with God after conversion, we live as if the rules have changed. Many Christians live as though God’s love, and approval on a day-by-day basis depends on how good they are, how religious they are, how well they keep the rules. They live as if God’s initial acceptance of them was by grace, but that his continued acceptance of them has to be earned. Friends, this is absolutely false. God’s goodness toward us is just as much a gift every day of our lives after we come to faith as it is on the day when we first believe.
"You foolish Galatians! . . . I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" - Galatians 3:1-3 (NIV)
God’s attitude toward you does not fluctuate on an hourly basis, depending on how you are behaving at that particular moment. His love for you does not increase or decrease according to how much time you spend in prayer or how much you read the Bible. He doesn’t love you more when you are good, or less when you are bad. His approval, and affection, and love are constant. Why? Because they are based on Christ’s merit, not yours. God’s love, every day of your life, is a gift; it doesn’t depend on you being worthy to receive it.
We have a hard time accepting God’s unconditional love
We have a hard time with this idea. Deep down we still suspect that God likes us more when we are good. Why is this? Well, one reason is that every other relationship we are familiar with works that way. Husbands, wives, parents, children, friends, church members - we love one another imperfectly. People being what they are, there is usually a very clear connection between how we treat someone, and how that person feels about us.
· The husband who criticizes and tears down his wife will find that her affection for him is diminished.
· The rebellious teenager who scorns his parents may eventually find them distancing themselves from him, even throwing him out of the house.
· The wife who neglects her husbands need for affection will find that his love for her, in turn, grows cold.
Our love for one another, at least in some degree, is conditional on the other behaving in a way that pleases us. If we mess up bad enough, the relationship will be damaged or even broken.
We can all think of times when people close to us have disappointed us, sometimes very deeply, and we have drawn back, our love grown cold. Likewise, we can all remember times when we have offended someone close to us and experienced that pain of them distancing themselves from us. It happens all the time; it’s human nature. It’s a product of living in a world in which relationships are tainted by sin. But God isn’t like us. That’s why we have such a hard time comprehending how He relates to us. He doesn’t love us more or less, depending on whether we please Him. He always loves us utterly, completely, unconditionally.
Consider this: God’s love and acceptance of us weren’t motivated by our good qualities in the first place, so our failure can’t cause Him to withdraw His love and acceptance. In fact, when God chose to set His love and affection on us, when Christ died for us on the cross, the Bible says that we were His enemies. Not just indifferent, or neutral, but actually enemies. We weren’t looking for Him, we wanted nothing to do with Him. And yet, he sought us and loved us and wooed us and won us.
"And Isaiah boldly says, ’I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.’" - Romans 10:20 (NIV)
"For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" - Romans 5:10 (NIV)
Here’s an example. If a woman thought that her husband had married her for her looks, and she were in a car accident that caused her to be disfigured, she might have cause to worry about his affections. Or a husband might have caused to worry about his wife’s affections if she married him for his money and he lost his job. But God didn’t choose us because we were attractive, or wealthy, or good, or reliable. In fact, just the opposite. He chose us in spite of who we were, not because of it. Our "goodness" wasn’t what caused Him to love us in the first place, and so our goodness isn’t what causes Him to keep loving us now. [That may be especially difficult to accept if you’ve ever had someone walk out on you or abandon you. But Jesus Christ will never leave us or forsake us.]
Or look at it this way: Nothing you do is a surprise to God. Sometimes you’ll hear of a husband or wife seeking divorce and saying something like this, "I never imagined he (or she) would do something like this." But God is never surprised. He knows the past, present and future. At the time of your conversion, all your sins were future. He knew in advance all the ways in which you would sin, and fail, and fall. Yet He chose to love you in spite of it all. Nothing you do can changes His attitude toward you, because He knew it all from the beginning.
Another reason we have a hard time with this concept is that, deep down, we still believe that we can earn God’s approval. We’re not convinced that we’re spiritually bankrupt, we don’t completely accept the idea that we’re unable to earn God’s favor. It goes against our pride to admit that we can offer nothing to God to induce Him to love us. We want to earn God’s blessings. We want to pay our own way. We don’t like the idea of being dependent on spiritual "welfare" from God.
In some contexts this kind of self-reliant attitude would be admirable, but in our relationship with God it’s deadly. Why? Because we can’t do it. We can’t please God by our own efforts. We can’t meet his standard of perfect holiness and righteousness. The only way we can possibly be acceptable to God is to receive the gift He offers, the perfect righteousness of Christ.
Do you still think you can earn God’s favor? Listen to this:
"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, `Come along now and sit down to eat’? … Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, `We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’" - Luke 17:7-10 (NIV)
In other words, even if you could do everything God required - not only avoiding all sin, but also doing every good deed that you were capable of, following every one of God’s commands from morning to evening, every day of your life - you still wouldn’t merit God’s love and approval. You would only be doing the minimum required. You would be an "unworthy servant." That’s a poke in the eye, isn’t it? But Jesus’ purpose is not to discourage, but to encourage. The "bad news" is that we can’t earn God’s favor, but the good news is that we don’t have to.
How should we respond?
So what do we do? We abandon all attempts to curry favor with God by our own works, and we throw ourselves on His mercy, every day.
"’Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get." ’But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." ’I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’ " - Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)
· When you come before God, are you like the Pharisee? Is your attitude, "Lord, please accept me. I work so hard. I read the Bible and hardly ever miss church. I teach Sunday School. I pray. I volunteer for lots of committees. I’m faithful to my spouse and take good care of my children."
· Or do you say, God thank you for loving me in spite of my unworthiness. Thank you for answering my prayers, even though I don’t deserve it. Please forgive me my sins and bless me for Christ’s sake. Amen." Which one of those prayers will be answered?
Objections
Some might object to this teaching. "If I believed that, I’d lose all my motivation for serving the Lord." "What’s to keep someone from just doing whatever they wanted, and sinning up a storm, if they know God will love them no matter what?" The answer is "love". I’m not saying we should stop serving, and obeying, and sacrificing for God. Nor am I saying we should just do whatever we want. What I’m saying is that our motivation shouldn’t be a fear of losing God’s love, or a desire to somehow gain God’s approval. Our motivation should be love, and gratitude, and thanksgiving for what God has already given us. We should be serving out of joy for what He has given it to us.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I’d like to speak directly to those who see themsleves in this message, who are caught on this endless treadmill of trying to be good enough, trying to do enough, to somehow earn God’s love. You’re frustrated. You’re angry at God for demanding more than you can possibly accomplish. You’re obsessed with rule-making and rule-keeping, your vocabulary is filled with words like "ought" and "should" and "must". Your service to God brings you no joy. In fact, the more you do, the more frustrated you get, because in your mind you can never do enough to please God. What I want to say to you this morning is that it’s time to get off the treadmill. You don’t have to earn God’s love. It’s been yours all the time.
What difference will this make?
· First of all, it will revolutionize your walk with God. Instead of the Christian life consisting of a grim succession of duties and responsibilities, it will be a life of freedom, serving God out of love rather than fear.
· Second, if this truth takes hold, it can transform your relationships with others. The more we live in the knowledge that God’s love and acceptance of us is not dependent on our performance, the more we will extend grace to others.
Remember, "My daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ, and not my own performance."
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
