The Grace of God

We’ve been studying the character of God over the past several weeks. Today we come to the end of our series, but hopefully this will be only the beginning of your desire to know God better and to develop a passion for God.

It’s impossible to think of any of God’s personal characteristics as being his “best” attribute. But the one we’re going to talk about today is certainly my favorite—so in that sense, I’ve been saving the best til last! We’re going to talk today about God’s amazing grace.

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A few years ago, my wife and I had a rather unusual experience. It happened on a Sunday after church. All of our boys were doing their own thing that afternoon, so we decided to sneak away for a quiet lunch at a restaurant.

There we were in the middle of our meal, enjoying the food and the conversation, when a waiter approached our table. He said “I have some good news for you. The couple who just left not only paid for their own meal, but they paid for yours as well. I guess this must be your lucky day.”

Carolyn and I just looked at each other with amazement. We were touched by that spontaneous act of generosity from people we barely knew. It was a living example of grace.

Grace is a word that is used hundreds of times in the Bible to refer to the way that God deals with us. Grace is an attribute of God—it is one of His character traits. Grace is the way that God shows favor, and goodness, and kindness, and love to people who haven’t done anything to deserve it.

In fact, grace goes even farther than that. Grace is about God showing love to people who have done everything not to deserve it. The grace of God operates in the absence of any merit or worthiness on the part of the recipient. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we do deserve. Grace is when God does give us what we don’t deserve.

Let’s develop this idea a little farther. Let’s go back to the restaurant for a moment. I want you to imagine that Carolyn and I are street people. Can you see us? We’re dressed in rags and we’re filthy—we smell bad because we haven’t had a bath in months.

Somehow, we manage to shamble into that nice restaurant carrying our shopping bags full of junk. We slip past the maitre d’ and plop ourselves down at a table in the middle of the room, wiping our filthy hands on the white linen tablecloth.

Then we begin talking and arguing loudly, spitting on the floor, and heaping insults and abuse on the other guests in the restaurant. (I know that it’s very hard for you to visualize Carolyn in this role, but you could probably see me doing it!)

As the tension rises, many of the other diners begin to get up and leave in disgust. Now suppose that in the middle of this ugly scene, the owner of the restaurant comes over to our table. Everyone is expecting him to throw us out. But instead of throwing us out, he offers us a menu.

And he says “Friends, I’m delighted that you have come to eat at my restaurant. And I want you to know that I personally am going to pay for your meal. Order whatever you like—this isn’t going to cost you a cent. And furthermore, when you’re finished eating, I’d like to take you home and let you have a bath, and give you some new clothes, and have you move in with me and my family.”

Can you picture that? Some people would say that that is shocking. That is inappropriate. That is scandalous. There’s something about that kind of response that runs counter to our grain. We find it objectionable. But that, my friends, is grace.

And that is exactly how God has treated us. Although we deserve God’s condemnation—although as sinners, we are odious in his sight—he cleans us up and invites us to come and live in his home with him forever—all at great cost to Himself. That is grace.

And that is how God is. Grace is one of God’s eternal characteristics. Our God is a God of grace!

And that’s what makes Christianity different from every other religion on the planet. Because none of the other religions has grace at its center. They all offer some version of a do-it-yourself salvation, where the motto is: The Lord helps those who help themselves. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Clean up your act. Work hard so that you can earn your way to heaven.

And that’s not grace—that’s merit. And that way appeals to us human beings because it says that we can do it ourselves. It appeals to our pride, to our independence, to our sense of self-reliance. But that is not the Bible’s view of salvation. The Bible says over and over again that…

2. Grace is the means of our salvation

Because God is a gracious God, the salvation that He has provided for us is rooted in His grace. Our salvation requires nothing from us—we do nothing in order to earn or merit our salvation. Consider the Scriptures…

Ephesians 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

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.

2 Timothy 1:9-10 (God) has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.

Romans 3:22-24 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Christmas will soon be upon us. The grace of God permeates the Christmas story. When Jesus Christ came to earth, he came as the embodiment of God’s grace.

The Apostle John “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. And from the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

So you see, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of grace. It is spelled G-R-A-C-E—God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. So we celebrate the grace of God.

The most beloved hymn in all of Christendom is “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” Our favorite verse—the one that practically every Christian knows by heart—is John 3:16, which talks about God’s love and his grace. When we pray, we talk about coming before the throne of grace. You see, in order to be a Christian, you have to believe in grace.

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That is why it so bewildering, and so tragic, that so many of us, having begun our spiritual journey by grace think that we are going to arrive at our destination by some other means.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about the fact that so many of us fall into the trap of thinking that now that we are saved, we are supposed to live the Christian life on the basis of our own works—our own merit—not God’s grace.

But just as grace is the means of our salvation…

2. Grace is to be the motive for our service

We so easily fall into a performance mentality when it comes to serving God and living the Christian life. It almost seems that we are incurably addicted to doing something to try to insure our right standing with God.

We think that by doing certain things we can perhaps earn more of God’s favor, or somehow confirm his decision to save us. We think that there must be a way that through our own efforts we can somehow deserve, or become worthy of, all these blessings that God has for us. It’s almost that we suspect that God couldn’t possibly base his relationship with us solely on grace—there must a place for some merit in there somewhere.

So we set ourselves to the task of trying to earn merit in God’s eyes. And when we embark upon that understanding of the Christian life, we are headed for trouble.

There once was a woman who was a missionary. She gave herself so completely to the Lord’s work that she never married. She never had any children of her own. She remained single all her life. She never had much money and she lived in a very harsh, primitive environment on the mission field in Africa.

Eventually, she retired and returned to the United States. And she contracted cancer and died within a year. And at her funeral, one of her nephews, who was a believer, stood beside her casket and was heard to say “Surely, after all she did for God, she deserved better than this?”

That’s the performance mentality. That’s the attitude that says “God, you owe me. I deserve better.” And that is a toxic poison that can seep into your system and ruin your Christian life if you let it. Because it strangles your appreciation for the grace of God.

At the very root of this attitude is pride. Pride in our own achievement. Pride in our own accomplishment. Pride in our own effort.

And that pride is quick to rear its ugly head when we feel that our own accomplishments haven’t been properly recognized. That is what makes us shake a resentful fist in God’s face and say “You haven’t treated me fairly. I deserved better than this.”

“I’ve been a good mother / father all these years, so why are you letting my children give me all this trouble and heartache?”

“I’ve been a faithful supporter of Your church for over fifty years, God, and now the church has gone and done something that I don’t agree with, so I’m leaving.”

Pride turns us into ugly Christians. We become resentful. We become scorekeepers.

Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15? The father in that story had two sons. The older son was good, the younger son was bad. At the end of the story the father, in his grace, forgave his wayward son, and welcomed him back into his home. He even threw a party for him. But the older brother—the one who had been good all along—wouldn’t come in to the party. He wouldn’t celebrate his brother’s return.

You know why? Because he had this prideful, grace-less mentality. He had been keeping score. He was saying in his heart “My brother doesn’t deserve this. If anyone deserves a party, it’s me. I’ve been the one who has been faithful. I was the one who was doing the chores for my father while my brother was off in a far country throwing his life away. I’m the one my father should love more. This party isn’t fair.

Jesus told another parable about some farm workers who were going home from a long day in the vineyard. Each of them was holding a pay envelope in his hand. Some of the workers were smiling, but some of them were scowling. The ones who were scowling were walking along the dusty road just smouldering with resentment.

“Imagine the nerve of that landowner. We’ve worked in this vineyard all day since 6 a.m. in the hot sun. And then these other fellows come along and work for just the last hour of the day, and he has the nerve to pay them the same as us. That’s not fair! Who does he think he is, anyway?”

Can you sense that grace-less, performance-based mentality?

If anything will rob you of your joy as a Christian, it’s when you try to live the Christian life on the performance scale. It’ll turn you into a scorekeeper and a comparison-maker. And it’ll squeeze all the joy and freedom and grace right out of your Christian life.

How is the Christian life supposed to be lived? It is to be lived the same way that it begins—on the basis of God’s grace.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10 “By the grace of God I am what I am.” The fact that I am a Christian is due to the grace of God. There wasn’t one thing I did to deserve it. In fact, I did everything NOT to. But God made me part of his family anyway.

And now, He wants me to live as His child in light of that grace. He’s not going to put me on a performance scale, because He loves me. And he wants me to obey Him simply because I love him, not because I’m trying to impress him.

In Galatians 2:20–21, Paul said “In the way that I live the Christian life, I do not set aside the grace of God.”

There’s nothing that we could ever do to make God love us more. And likewise, there’s nothing we could ever do to make God love us less. Because God’s grace is perfect.

So we need to confess with the hymnwriter: “Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee.”

Grace is not only the means of our salvation, it is the motive for our service. Finally…

Grace is the mark of our spiritual maturity

To the extent that I understand grace and live grace, I will extend that grace to others.

You probably remember the name Jim Bakker. Ten years ago, his name was much in the news as the PTL scandal rocked the Christian world. Jim lost his ministry, he lost his marriage, he lost his money, he lost his reputation, for a time he lost his health, and he lost his freedom because he was sent to jail.

And many of us Christians sat back with our arms folded in smug superiority and said, “He got what he deserved.” Not many prayed for him. Not many wrote to him in jail. Not many wept for him. And in his autobiography, Jim describes without bitterness what it felt like to be abandoned by the Christian community.

But he also tells a beautiful story of something that happened to him when he was released from prison. He was very fragile emotionally at the time, and very conscious of the fact that he was an outcast among the Christian community. What church would want to have him around?

But during the first week of his release, he got a phone call. It was from Ruth Graham, the wife of Billy Graham. She had phoned to invite him to come to church that Sunday—her church. So he did. And when he got there, he went to take a seat in the back pew, but Ruth saw him back there. She went and got him and brought him up to sit with the Graham family near the front of the sanctuary.

That’s grace!

Ephesians 4:32ff Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Grace is when we treat people with the same love and kindness that God treated us, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. And when we love that way, we become like him.