AMAZING GRACE
Ephesians 2:8
Grace. A word used in a variety of ways. It is a word that has been used as an alternative term for prayer. It has been used to describe the way a person moves. It has also been used by many parents to name their daughters.
Still, none of these uses seem to catch the true nature of what Grace is. They fall short of the true meaning. They miss the purpose of it. This morning, I want to bring you closer to understanding the Grace of God, why it’s so amazing.
I enjoy playing computer games. One of the best is Microsoft’s Flight Simulator. You can choose a small Cesna or all the way up to a 747. You can also choose which of 180 airports around the country to take off from or to attempt a landing at. Only after acquiring landing skills after many hours of practice can you avoid crashing the plane and land safely. It’s all very realistic.
The greatest thing about Flight Simulator, though, is that the game always restores you. No matter what happens, you can start all over again. Whenever you crash and burn, fall apart, or splash into the ocean, the game always puts you back together and places you back on the runway in Chicago ready to take off again.
That’s the way it is with the Lord. He’s absolutely faithful to forgive us and to restore us when we mess up and to get us back into action, hopefully a little wiser after our failures and bad decisions.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 Peter writes, And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 1 Peter 5:10
So, what is Grace? It is often misunderstood and defining it at times has been difficult. Some of the most detailed theology textbooks do not offer any concise definition of the term. You may have heard of this acronym: GRACE, God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. That’s a good way to characterize grace. One of the best-known definitions of grace is only three words: God’s unmerited favor.
So, what’s so amazing about Grace? Let me explain it through stories from the Bible.
1. Grace is contrary to human logic
How can one man, one death, on one afternoon be so powerful as to change the course of history and humanity? How a great Savior can save a lausy sinner is a mystery best solved by putting aside human logic!
In school I remember when I heard the phrase New Math for the first time, I thought, What was wrong with the old!
Phillip Yancy calls grace God’s new math! He writes, Instead of earning wages, God dispenses gifts. It’s not according to merit or fairness, because if that were the case, we would all end up in hell.
It’s like the elderly widow dropped 2 small coins into the offering at the Temple collection. Jesus said her 2 coins were more valuable to God than all the religious leaders put in the offering together! Go figure!
Grace is not about finishing first or last, or totaling up all our good and bad. Grace is not about uncertain accounting before God, but our unconditional acceptance in Christ.
Jesus teaches that the 99 sheep are not the issue, but the one lost sheep that counts to God! Go figure! Which leads to my next point,
2. Grace seeks us out
There is a great story in 2 Samuel 9. David is king and he’s thinking about his good friend Jonathan. He wants to know if there is any of his family left that he can show kindness to.
When he finds out about Mephibosheth, he demonstrates God’s grace in how he treats this crippled young man. David’s gracious treatment of Bo, is a perfect picture of God’s gracious treatment of us.
Bo doesn’t seek out the king. The king took the initiative and sought out Mephibosheth. Does that sound familiar? This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10 God took the initiative in seeking us out.
David wants to bring Bo to the palace to live there with him. Only one problem, Bo won’t fit in, he’s crippled. When David asks where he’s living right now, he’s living in Lo Debar. That is a nice way of saying he’s living in poverty and desolation.
What a picture of the sinner outside of Christ! We are crippled by sin. We live in spiritual desolation and poverty! There is absolutely nothing in us that should make the King seek out us out, but he did!
I read this week about a man who started an orphanage, filled with children who had no parents, but very special children. Not those who were cute and adorable, but those who were disfigured, mangled, or crippled, the kids no one else wanted.
One day he heard about a little girl in his city whose parents had died in a fire. She had survived the fire, but was horribly disfigured and scarred. He went to see her and asked if she’d like to live in his orphanage. She said, You don’t want me. I’m ugly. Nobody wants me. He picked her up, and kissed her, and said, you are exactly the little girl that I want to be a part of my family!
That is what grace does! When we were crippled and scarred, Grace seeks us out and says, You are the kind of person I want to pour my love and favor on! You might be thinking, That may be true of others, but I wasn’t all that impoverished when I became a Christian. I was a pretty good person! See Romans 3:10-23 There is no one righteous, for all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.
Grace seeks us out when we are broken and impoverished!
3. Grace gives us the blessings of another.
None of this happened to Bo because he was handsome, or smart, or athletic. He was none of those. It happened because David loved his father, Jonathan, and he was willing to give to Bo the blessings that he would have given to Jonathan.
God’s grace means that we are blessed and honored for the sake of another! His name is Jesus!
Some time ago I visited a church I had never been to before. I had been invited to speak. They honored me like I was something really special. I didn’t understand why, until the pastor introduced me. He said, I would not be here today if it wasn’t for Dan’s mother. She was my professor in Bible School. I could hardly read when I arrived, but she helped learn and do it quickly. Besides, she thought I was smart. No one else had ever said that to me.
I received honor that night that was not mine, it was my mother’s. I received her blessings. But it doesn’t stop there. Paul writes, The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Romans 8:16-17
Everything that Jesus earned by his death, burial and resurrection, I get to share in, as if I had earned it! Grace doesn’t give me the blessings I deserve. Grace gives me the blessings Jesus deserves!
4. Grace makes family out of enemies.
When a new king ascended to the throne, it was customary to kill all of the old king’s descendants. It was commonly understood that the descendants of the old king would be your sworn enemy, and if possible, they would make their own claim to the throne.
When the king sent for Bo, he thought that he was going to his execution. The king wanted to say a few words, maybe assemble a crowd so that others would be warned, and then cut off his head. Instead, David said, I’m going to treat you like one of my family. You are going to eat at my table and enjoy my blessing, just like you would if you were my own son.
That’s what Grace does for us. The bible says we were the enemies of God. Romans 5:8-10. Yet because of grace, God has forgiven us and adopted us into his family.
Some time ago I had the privilege of sharing a meal with Steve Elliot. His dad was killed by the Indians in Ecuador in the early 50’s. (Book, through Gates of Splendor) What an ordeal. At the time I saw him he was in Ecuador to visit family. You see, the man that killed his father had become like his adopted father.
I was sitting with a living example of how grace makes family out of enemies.
5. Grace gives us the courage to face our past and be free from it!
...count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11
It was around 1760 when John Newton wrote Amazing Grace – out of the haunting of his sins. He said when he wrote those words, he was perpetually haunted by the 20,000 African ghosts of his past. At the age of 11 he set sail for the first time and for over 30 years he sold and traded slaves from Africa to the West Indies.
When his ship would set sail from Africa it would start out with over 600 slaves. By the time it reached it’s destination, there were normally 200 slaves survived the trip. The smell of death was so powerful that this ship was docked far from the rest of the ships.
In March of 1748, John Newton found himself in the most desperate situation of his life. During the voyage the crew had repeatedly heard his boasting of being a freethinker who did not believe in God. He had even lashed himself to a mast during a storm and dared God to strike him dead, in order to prove himself real.
On this particular trip, the ship was leaking badly, in danger of being overwhelmed beneath one of the waves of a powerful storm. In a moment of weakness and terror, he uttered the words: Lord, have mercy on us. This was the first time he had prayed since childhood, and it shook him to think that he had stooped to ask God for help.
By the time the storm ended, most of the rigging had been blown away, making navigation almost impossible. After 7 days of drifting with no land in sight, the crew was practically without hope. One man had already died when the captain came to challenge John Newton. The captain had decided that Newton was like Jonah, A curse to the ship. The crew had even discussed throwing him overboard, but in the end, didn’t.
As Newton returned to work, he recalled a Bible verse that he had learned as a child. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Luke 11:13
Finally brought to the end of himself, Newton prayed, God, if you’re true, you’ll make good your Word. Cleanse my vile heart.
Four weeks later, the crippled ship made port in Ireland, and there he went to a church and made public his faith. He became a powerful preacher, and song writer: Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
He died in London December 21, 1807 - he wrote his own epitaph. It reads on his tombstone, John Newton, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.
Grace gives us the courage to face our past so we can be free! Are you free?
6. Grace gives us cause for celebration.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. Ephesians 1:7
...having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:7
Why is this such a cause for celebration? Forgiveness of sin, abundant life now, and eternal life.
All this because of grace! What a day that will be, when I see Jesus face to face!
John Newton was so excited and confident about living life with Christ forever that he wrote a song called Faith’s Review And Expectation (Amazing Grace). I love one of the less known verses that we sing,
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, who called me here below
Will be forever mine
One day soon we’ll get to be with our heavenly Father forever. It is not far off. Before that happens, though, he has given us grace. Grace that is greater than all our sins.
Have you received his Grace?
