Thursday, August 01, 2013

The Many Facets of God’s Amazing Grace


For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Eph 2:8-10
What a gracious God we serve! Like a perfectly-cut diamond, the grace of God has many angles, sides, or facets. The colors of his mercy, power, and love shine clearly and brightly, as through a prism. In fact 1 Pet 4:10 speaks of God’s varied, manifold, or multifaceted grace. We must not focus only on one element of grace, to the exclusion of others. Let’s write a sentence sermon that connects these aspects as we find them in Scripture.
Grace is …
… God’s free gift …
Rom 5:15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Grace cannot be earned, achieved, or repaid. It consists of the forgiveness of our sins, a right relationship with God, and eternal life in Christ. Because He paid for it, we do not.
… which is available to all …
Tit 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people …
2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Grace is not limited to the few whom God preselected before the world began. God loves the whole world and wants no one to perish.
… which was purchased by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ …
Rom 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 Cor 1:29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The cost of grace was the blood of Christ.
… which can be resisted …
Luke 7:29 When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.
Matt 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!
Acts 7:51 You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
2 Cor 6:1 And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain—
The common conception of “sovereign, irresistible grace” is not found in Scripture. Rather, grace is offered to all. One may resist that grace and continue to be lost.
… which must be received through faith …
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ro 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Heb 4:2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
God does not force faith on anyone; we have a choice we must make. We are responsible for putting our faith in Christ and for putting that faith into action.
… when one repents and is baptized …
Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 22:16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
1 Pet 3:21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
One repents and is baptized in order to claim the free gift of God’s grace. It’s like endorsing a gift check and depositing it. That check is still a free gift from a generous donor.
Nowhere in Scripture is the so-called “sinner’s prayer” to be found. Instead, lost people who believed the gospel repented of sin and were baptized – to be saved.
… which results in and empowers a radically different life …
1 Cor 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Grace does not make one complacent or idle. Grace does not cause one to say, “Now I can relax!” Instead it compels and energizes its recipient to lead a Christ-centered, Christ-honoring life, which includes active service in the Lord’s church.
… instructing us to turn from sin …
Tit 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age …
God’s grace is a teacher, directing us to reject sin wholeheartedly and be godly and holy. One who is not learning from God’s grace is not filled with that grace.
… leaving us with no license or excuse to sin …
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Jud 1:4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
One saved by grace is free from sin, not free to sin. Grace is not a permit, allowing continual sin without consequences. When one receives God’s grace in baptism, one dies to sin and must refuse to go back to it.
… insisting that we continue in this grace …
Acts 13:43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard …
 Heb 3:14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
1 Pet 5:12 … I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!
Since we receive the grace of God by faith, we continue in His grace by faith. The implication is that, if we abandon the faith and return to sin, we no longer continue in that grace.
… because it can be forfeited by unbelief and disobedience.
Heb 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
Heb 6:4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
Heb 12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
Gal 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Heb 10:29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
Christians – once saved by grace – can yet develop an evil, unbelieving heart. As a result we fall away from the living God. It is God’s grace that saves, but it is we who continue in that grace through faith.
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Cory Collins
http://corycollins.net/

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