Justifying Grace
--Ephesians 2:8-9
Gentlemen, Good Afternoon! My name is David Reynolds, and the title of this talk is “Justifying Grace.” This morning Bob Baker shared with us the story of God’s Prevenient Grace. We heard the message that God loves us and offers us a personal relationship with Him. WE saw how the Holy Spirit, God’s “Hound of Heaven,” from the moment of our Conception, continues to pursue us in order to lead us into this person Father-son relationship with Him. Prevenient Grace is God’s “Courtship Phase” in our relationship, the dating period before the marriage. During this time the Holy Spirit uses other people, the Church, circumstances, and events to “woo” us into becoming His sons. He pursues us to bring us to the point where we say “yes” to God offer of this loving, family relationship with Him.
Justifying Grace takes the story one step further. It is the message of how you and I come to accept the relationship God offers. Justifying Graces moves us to accept in our hearts the gift of a living relationship with God as the number one priority in our lives. Justifying Grace “puts us right with God.” To be justified means to “be put right with God by grace through faith.”
Throughout the Old testament God invites us into a covenant relationship with Him, a relationship of mutual love. “By intent or default, we do not respond to the call of God to place our faith in Jesus Christ.” That is, we either intentionally refuse His offer or we keep procrastinating acceptance of His invitation.
But God keeps calling us. He is the prophet Hosea, and we are Hosea’s unfaithful wife Gomer. The Lord told Hosea: “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the Land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord” [--Hosea 1:2]. Gomer made wrong choices in her marriage relationship just as we do in our relationship with God. She was unfaithful to Hosea, breaking her marriage vows to seek the pleasure of other lovers. As a result of her choices she wound up in the chains of slavery. Just as God’s endless love does not give up on us, so Hosea did not give up on Gomer. In love he redeemed her from
Slavery and brought her back home to live a holy life.
From the beginning of His ministry our Lord called people to enter the Father-child relationship God offers us all. In His home synagogue of Nazareth Jesus read from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent
Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” [--Luke 4:16-22]. Applying this prophecy to His own ministry, Jesus launched the “Day of Grace” in which god’s forgiveness is offered to everyone.
God does not offer us things but a relationship with Him. This relationship is based upon agape love, love which is self sacrificial. John reminds us in I John 4 that He loves us so much that He sent Jesus in order that we might have eternal life through Him. Only when we have accepted God’s relationship of love can we really begin to truly love each other.
“What I devote my life to is my God.” Either Jesus is “My Lord and my God,” or I am my own Lord and God. Either I take charge of my life, set
individual, personal priorities, and direct my interests; or I yield control of my life to Jesus Christ and let Him set my priorities and direct my interests. Who is your God? You or Jesus Christ?
God initiates restoring our lost relationship with Him, but each one of us is faced with a personal decision to accept or reject His offer. Just like Joshua we must: “Choose this day whom we will serve. . .” [Joshua 24:15]. “Justifying Grace is that stage of grace operative in us deciding to accept the relationship God offers us.” It is the moment I say “yes” to God. “When we say “yes” to God, our lives begin anew in grace.”
The moment Justifying Grace comes into play is commonly called our conversion or the point in time we are “born again.” I first experienced Justifying Grace as a nine year old boy at the altar of my home Church Aldersgate Methodist in Marion, Illinois. It was during our Spring Revival of 1957. I already knew in my heart that Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:3 were true: “. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom.” Prevenient Grace had worked through my parents, pastors, Church, Sunday School and Bible School teachers to lead me to this point. I wanted to become a Christian, but I was scared, timid, and shy. I don’t think I had ever seen another nine year old go to the altar. So one night during the Invitation hymn, “I snuck up to the altar” with my Dad, who had gone to pray for the salvation of a friend. I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins, come into my heart, and be my Saviour. I was justified by grace and became a child of God.
Conversion is both instantaneous and progressive. It continues as God shows us new areas in our lives in which we must invite Jesus Christ to take charge and be our Lord. My walk with God at age 57 is not the same as my walk with God at age nine, because our walk with Him is not a once and for all experience but a joyous journey of growth. Step by step we come we come into a better understanding of ourselves and a more complete knowledge of the claims Christ places on our lives. Christianity is a life style we live by faith on a day-by-day, moment-by-moment basis.
We are justified when we are put right with God—this happens over and over—conversion moments until it becomes a way of life!” Justifying Grace has continued to operate in my life as the Holy Spirit has made me aware at times that my relationship with the Lord has faltered. Like the Prodigal Son I have often strayed into the “far country” thinking I could take charge of my life and handle my struggles in my own strength and wisdom apart from God. Like the Prodigal’s Father, the Lord has always been waiting with open arms to welcome me home. Many times over the years I have slipped and sinned, but I praise God that His Justifying Grace has been there to pick me up one more time, for God has shown me that “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” [--I John 1:9]. Always when I confess, God forgives.
“To be justified means to be put right with God by grace through faith.” At the point I accept God’s offer by faith, he “justifies me,” treating me “Just as if I had never sinned!” We accept God’s relationship of love as an act of faith. We can do absolutely nothing to earn it. It is an unconditional, free gift. By a simple act of trust we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour and receive God’s love and forgiveness. I receive God’s offer on the basis of Ephesians 2:8-9, “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. The hymn writer expresses it so well when he sings:
“In my hand no price I bring;
Simply to thy cross I cling.”
[--August M. Toplady, “Rock of Ages,” 1776]
In inviting us to become God’s children the Holy Spirit appeals to our intellect; faith is reasonable, “it is not blind.” God’s desire is that “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God [--Ephesians 4:13]. Justifying Grace at the same time speaks to our mind and appeals to our emotions. God wants us to respond to Christ with enthusiasm but not to depend upon our feelings for the assurance of our salvation.
I appreciate the Campus Crusade for Christ illustration of the train in explaining faith. It makes clear that the Bible—not our feelings—provides us the assurance of our salvation. As a Christian I live by faith; that is, I trust the promises of God and His Word. This train has three cars—The engine; representing fact, God and His Word; the coal car, our trust in God and His Word; and the caboose, our feelings. The train will run with or without the caboose, “feelings,” but it would be folly to try to pull the train by the caboose. Christians do not depend on feelings or emotions, because they are like a roller coaster, up one minute, down the next. God’s Word, however, never changes. We trust God and depend upon the promises of His word that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
God does everything possible to lead us to accept His offer of love and forgiveness in Christ, but He does not dictate our response. We have a choice to make, to accept or reject Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord. The Lord Jesus personally invites each one of us as He did the Church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:20, “Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends (New Living Translation).” The door at which Jesus stands and knocks is the door of each one of our hearts. He will never force His entrance. There is only one latch on the door of your heart and mine, and that is on the inside. God leaves that choice solely in our hands. We each must personally decide, “What shall I do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?”
“A woman came up to an evangelist after hearing him preach and said that she could not understand salvation.
“The evangelist asked, ‘Mrs. Franklin, how long have you been Mrs. Franklin?’
“Why, ever since I was married,’ she replied. ‘And how did you become Mrs. Franklin?’ he asked.
“‘When the minister said, ‘Will you have this man to be your wedded husband,’ I just said, ‘Yes.’
“‘Didn’t you say, ‘I hope so,’ or ‘I’ll try to?’ asked the evangelist.
“‘No,’ she replied, ‘I said, ‘I will.’
“Then pointing her to God’s Word, he said, ‘God is asking you if you will receive His Son. What will you say to that?’
“Her face lit up, and she said, ‘Why, how simple that is! Isn’t it strange that I didn’t say, ‘Yes’ long ago?”
Ty Cobb, became a Christian sometime before his death on July 17, 1961. The all-time great baseball player played 3,033 games and for 12 years led the American League in batting averages. For four years, he batted over 400. His dying testimony for his family to share with his teammates were these, “You tell the boys I’m sorry it was the last part of the ninth that I came to know Christ. I wish it had taken place in the first half of the first.”
Justifying grace calls for you to say, “Yes,” and God will receive you as you come to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. , but if you have not done so already, please don’t wait until the “bottom of the ninth.” Say “yes” to God’s offer in Jesus Christ now, and He will Justify you, accepting you “just as if you had never sinned.”
