By Pr. Larry Kirkpatrick. Price Seventh-Day Adventist Church. 22 April 2000
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
By Pr. Larry Kirkpatrick. Price Seventh-day Adventist Church. 22 April 2000
Organized by, Ally Mluge Jr
Introduction
Scripture Reading: Galatians 1:6-7
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ into another Gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. This morning, as we begin our talk about grace, we must purposefully make one fact in the background visible, so as to approach our main subject with the proper care. The fact is this: Satan can only win the great controversy by getting us to bite down onto the hook of a false version of grace. Was that clear? If we are going to talk about grace, we are going to attract his undivided attention, and that's why God needs your undivided attention. If Satan can spin God's message of grace between the time that it leaves the pages of the Bible and gets into your heart and mind, then he can plant his flag right there on the mountaintop of your soul.
Surely the devil isn't interested in grace." Oh, but he is. His very existence depends on it. He cannot afford to leave the topic alone. In fact, what better, more unexpected doctrine could be more ideal for him to weave his entangling, soul-destroying lies into? So, watch out. Be sober. Our foe goes about, roaring like a lion, trying to scare us (1 Peter 5:8), yet also goes about singing gently, to deceive us. He comes as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).
Especially is this true when our understanding of grace is on the table. I assure you -- real grace is mutually exclusive -- it rules out all false grace. What you are about to hear is either very wrong, or very right. But it's not in the middle somewhere. I do hope you are in the Word these days.
What is Grace?
What is grace? Let's go to our Bibles for an answer. Why not turn with me to Titus 2:11-14:
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Grace involves how we live, what we are changed from, and what we are changed to. Grace involves salvation. In Titus two, Paul is discussing behavior, and in the ninth verse he points out that it is because "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" that we will live differently. The very first thing that this grace teaches us is to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Revelation 21:27 assures us that nothing that defiles or makes a lie will enter into heaven. Nothing. Thus it is immediately made certain that no false gospel will enter heaven. A false gospel is a lie. The true gospel intimately impacts how we live.
Did you notice that the grace of God brings salvation? If I said "I'm bringing you five hundred dollars tomorrow in my wallet," would you want to make a difference between the wallet and the $500 that it carried? I would. The grace of God brings salvation. But it is not salvation. The grace of God is a quality of God, a description of the mercy of His character. It is sent out in search of us. We do not deserve it or merit it, but it has been sent out in search of us since God is trying to bring salvation to us. Grace is that quality of who our heavenly Father is that makes salvation available to us. It encompasses His mercy and a whole host of His attributes. But grace does not equal salvation. Salvation depends on the total application of grace to us.
Through grace God wants to bring us salvation. That salvation means that we will live differently. We will deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. There is a way that we should live under grace, and that is "soberly, righteously, and godly." People want to talk about God's "extravagant grace;" they want to emphasize the quantity of it; but He wants to emphasize the quality of it. And so He says that when, through grace, salvation is occurring in your life, your life will be one bearing the qualities of sobriety, righteousness, and godliness.
Think about those core qualities. Those are qualities of the actual grace that brings actual salvation. If you have grace, you will be awake and clear-headed. If you have grace, your life will be a vivacious orchestra of righteous actions. If you have grace, your life will be a pungent expression of godliness cutting its way through the darkness engulfing the world. These aren't cheap plastic substitutes for the real thing; they are the real thing.
A few years ago I was listening to a presentation about the gospel, and we were told that when it comes to the gospel, "performance always lags." But performance doesn't always lag. Enoch walked with God, and the Father took Him home to heaven. Was Enoch's experience lagging? Not at all. And of course, we would all agree that Jesus' experience was never lagging. We could come up with more examples, but it would be clear that experience does not always lag. If it did, that would make a lie of the passage in Titus. After all, when does our verse say that this sober, righteous, godly salvation experience is supposed to occur? "In this present world," or some translations have it, "in this present age." Performance does not always lag. We live this way, according to our text, looking for the soon return of Jesus and of God from heaven. Furthermore, we learn in the text that we were redeemed not so that our performance could lag, but "that He might redeem us from all iniquity." Now, iniquity is sin. Jesus has bought us back from sin. Sin doesn't own us anymore. He bought us back to "purify" a special kind of people to Himself, a people zealous for good works -- not a people without works or whose works lag. Grace -- real grace -- means real Christians, changed people, people moving away from sin at warp speed, people who moment-by-moment are living snapshots of purification.
Grace is not about all of this spiritual book-keeping that occurs outside of you, on the other side of the sky somewhere, where angels are dancing on the heads of pins and singing "God You are beautiful" to the sound of applause and raucious drumming. Grace is real. Grace brings salvation. Salvation is real. Salvation showcases grace.
What does your life showcase?
Oh, I know; I'm not supposed to ask that. You see, to ask that is (we are told), to "take our eyes off of Jesus," or to "major in minors," or to risk "interposing ourselves into the salvation transaction."
What a lie from hell.
Those who so piously say that are really saying, "take your eyes off the showcase -- don't look!" as if there were something offensive in there; some mysteriously contaminating peep-show hidden away. Why yes. That's the point! The grace of God that brings salvation is supposed to be on bold display in our lives. But our foe is nervous that we will catch hold of what grace means and then live it before a world in moral-meltdown and a universe filled to overflowing with curious, intelligent, pure, inquiring beings. Friends, angels are stretched across the sky bending down with inexpressible interest in what God is doing down here on this tiny planet, this lesson- book to the universe. He is showcasing His gospel of grace. It is the devil that doesn't want anyone to look!
"No, no, no," they say, "Keep your eyes on Jesus." But our text said that "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." This has happened. We have seen Jesus out there, but now we want to see Him in here. We want to behold Him and become changed, and as we behold Him, we will be changed. Grace means that we change. God's grace that brings salvation has appeared to us. But how do we lay hold upon that grace? How do we get grace?
We co-operate with God.
Yes, that's right. If you have already bought into that version of "the gospel," which Paul calls "another gospel, which is not another," then that was your cue to run screaming from this sanctuary. Satan, with his hypnotic singing, has convinced many Christians today that if we do anything at all, we are somehow adding to the salvation process, somehow being saved by our own works or a blending of our own works with God's perfect work. Man, it is said, can contribute nothing to the salvation process, or more commonly, that he can contribute nothing toward his own salvation. So any human co-operation with God is ruled-out by defining co- operation as "works-salvation."
That's how you make these subtle changes; redefine truth through tiny gradations until you've excluded it. Just shift the definitions. But why should we accept this revising? Who told us that we had to sit back gently while someone else spin-doctored the teaching of the Bible? We are free --free to rightly divide the Word of God! The Bible warned us about the traditions of man. But traditions are not just golden-oldies; they can be subtle-new-ies too. Christians, blankly consenting to be victims are still writing-off the commandments of God and replacing them with the traditions of men. If we really were Protestants, we might have a stronger sense of this. Why will we let this happen? Let's double-check, and make sure that we really are Bible Christians.
Divine-Human Co-operation
The best example of divine-human co-operation on record is Jesus. He was divine--He was God, but He came in the flesh of a man; the humanity that He took was identical to our own, with no special exemptions or exceptions. The gospels record numerous miracles done through Jesus. But they were done through Him, rather than by Him. He sometimes commanded the sea or the grave, and they always complied. Yet before He came here, He "emptied Himself" of His divine power (Philippians 2:7-8) and in His life relied upon the Father as we must rely upon Him in our life (John 5:19, 30). Because He walked so closely with the Father, His will harmonized with His Father's, and the miracles that were wrought came because of that intimate harmony -- that intimate co-operation. He owned the power to do all of those miracles -- He had, after all, made the worlds (Hebrews 1:2); but He set that power aside in order to validate the example of His living for us. He gave us the pattern, the example, of how to live (John 13:15; 1 Peter 2:21; John 17:19).
How to live by grace.
Jesus didn't need grace as we do. He was not guilty of sin, nor does guilt or condemnation reside in the mere nature of man. A hand is not guilty for stealing or a foot for kicking; such actions come from the brain; the extremities have no say in the matter. These actions result from minds unsubdued to the Spirit of God, and Jesus' mind was ever subdued to the Spirit of God. Jesus never developed the habit-patterns of sin that we have, for although tempted in all points like as we are, He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). Therefore He never had the propensities (in that sense) of sin.
He lived an un condemnable life, and could thus ask who could convict Him of sin (John 8:46). He was exactly what we needed in a Savior: "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). But notwithstanding all this, the Father "hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). He lived without sinning but took upon Himself the penalty of the sinner. He came to break sin in its lair, to conquer sin in the flesh that constitutes man's broken nature (Romans 8:3). He overcame by the power heaven, so that the grace that God would make available to us would have in it the power to condemn sin in our flesh as well.
Some would say that this isn't grace. But they would be wrong. Grace makes a difference. Grace is not license. Some people see grace as a license to sin (even though, they will say, you shouldn't do it). But Jesus bought us not the privilege of sinning, but the privilege of winning. He came not to give us a placebo, but to give us power. He came, not to please man, but to displease the devil, and to glorify the Father. Jesus came not with cheap prizes from "Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes," but to clear the house of religious cheapskates. He came to break the hold that sin has on you and on me, and His real grace exposes the charlatans and fakes and their teachings. The real gospel really cleanses the temple by combining divine strength with human effort. The result of this combination is a righteousness from God that fills the life of man with richness, growth, and moral beauty; a righteousness that we could properly say has in it not one thread of human devising; a righteousness that is all of God and thus contains no merit for man. Real grace means that God's power changes those who co-operate with it. We are discussing real grace for real need. And Jesus is our only Source. He came to bring real grace for real people.
Getting Grace into the Life of a Real Person
Jesus went up on the cross and died for us. And when He breathed His last, in triumph He offered up His life to the Father. They took down the body of our Lord of grace, and placed it in a tomb that Friday evening, just as the Sabbath was arriving. They placed His corpse in a sepulcher close-by, and by order of Pilate that tomb was sealed and guarded by soldiers.
Divinity waited through the night. But early in the morning, that wonderful resurrection morning, a blinding light split the sky as angels arrived in glory and stood outside the grave. An earthquake rocks the land. Effortlessly, the angel rolls away the stone, his voice splitting the darkness of the waning pre-dawn, loudly pronouncing, "Son of God, come forth; Thy Father calls Thee!" The guards stand shocked in the flashing light. There is a stirring in the tomb. And momentarily Jesus walks out of the grave. Because He lives, we can have grace. We can be free.
The resurrection of Jesus is our cue to turn to another key passage on grace: Romans chapter 6.
The same power that caused Jesus to rise from death, will empower you to live His way. When the time came, Jesus did walk out of the tomb; He had victory. He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). He has the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:18). He owns the grave. He did all this so that real grace could come to real people like you and me. He offers you the key. He calls you forth from the grave -- to real grace.
Real grace means release from bondage. We are to walk in newness of life. "If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection" says Romans 6:5. If we will do just as Jesus did -- if we will lay hold upon the power of the Father, of our own selves doing nothing (John 5:30), yet in fact doing what we see the Father do (John 5:19) empowered by grace, we will not serve sin any longer. We'll recognize, as we are shown in Romans 6:6 that "our old man is crucified with Him" when we lay hold of grace. The power of our fallen nature combined with our habit-patterns of sin -- the wicked characters that we have become-- will be broken and reshaped and renewed as we call to Him for power and stop serving sin.
Do you experience the reality of Romans 6:7-8? "He that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." If we take up our cross daily as Jesus commanded (Luke 9:23), we will die daily (1 Corinthians 15:31), and sin will not have dominion over us. We will "live with Him," not just in some vague heavenly scene in the distant future, but enter here and now.
Real grace is available for real people because we know "that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God" (Romans 6:9-10). The offering of Jesus to the Father in our behalf was entirely successful. The Father accepted that wonderful life represented by the blood of Jesus. The sacrifice accepted, He lives unto God and we live unto God by the power poured out from heaven, through co-operation with His grace. Jesus left the tomb -- left the place where death reigned, because sin no longer had dominion over Him and thus death no longer had dominion over Him. He took the keys of hell and death and went His way. And now if you plead with God for overcoming power through Jesus, you'll be released too.
Romans 6:11-13 applies real grace to real people. Listen to what it says:
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
We are to consider ourselves truly dead unto sin. Don't get the wrong idea about this verse. We hear the word "reckon" and we sometimes think of it as if we are going to "count" ourselves one way while the reality is actually something else. But that is not what this is saying at all. This text says count or considers ourselves as we actually are, not as we are not. "Likewise," that is, in the same way, we are to recognize that we are "dead to sin and alive to God." In the same way as it is true for Jesus (and it is so unquestionably true for Jesus!), it is just as certain and true for us. Remember, when we accept Him as our personal Savior, we are joined with Him -- joined in His death and joined in His resurrection. He was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The merit and the glory are all His; the shame and the demerit of the wickedness we have wrought are ours. He stepped between us and the knife, received our penalty, empowered us to live differently, and handed us His reward. He gets the credit. We get the salvation. And I have no objections!
Now you and I have been placed in control again. If we were not in control, then how could part of the fruit of the Spirit be self control, "temperance," (Galatians 5:23)? If Jesus did not give us power over the cravings of our broken nature, then how could He be fair in commanding us not to yield our members as to remote-controlled machines through which demons can work sin and woe? We are not to yield our "members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin," but to yield ourselves unto God, as those that are [that really actually are], alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."
Sin is surrender to remote-control. Righteousness is restoration of self-control. We are alive from the dead; our faculties are refilled with life through our active reception of the power of grace. God opens the door for us so that we walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). Our members become members of righteousness, not so that God remotely controls us, but remotely empowers us to "live soberly, righteously, and godly," (when did Titus say?) "in this present world." That's what the grace of God that bringeth salvation did when it appeared to all men in the life of our Example, Jesus (Titus 2:11).
Under Grace
And so Paul arrives in Romans 6:14-15 just where we knew he must be going, and where we must finish today. He pronounces the burning truth that we are not under the law, but under grace. Listen:
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Remember, the problem is not the law, it is the dominion of sin. Jesus came to save from sin (Matthew 1:21), not from the law. Law defines sin, and that's not the problem. If you take your car to the mechanic, and he puts it onto the diagnostic machine and then discovers what the problem is, is the diagnostic machine the problem? When he says "it's going to run you about $300.00 to fix this," is he referring to his diagnostic machine? No, he's referring to the problem with your motor! We are not under the law. Jesus does not leave Christians with a motor that is going to show up on the diagnostic machine as still being broken. We are under grace. Grace. Grace makes obedience to the law possible and real. So what shall we say then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Your sin problem and mine are no light matter. Our eternal existence is at stake. Jesus died so that we could live, and He lives so that we can die. We must die to the old crooked nature, and die now. Grace is not a license to sin, it is a license to be free of it. Grace is not some kind of giant, impenetrable bubble descending upon us from heaven and locking us into salvation. It does not immobilize our members, but makes it possible to yield our members to sober, righteous, godly living in the last days. We must co-operate with it, and we gladly give Him all the glory and all the credit. We are under grace. Oh how sweet it is.
Grace is not designed to numb our minds, to rip the devil off by saving us against our will, or to justify inaction and lifeless assurance. Grace makes us free. And if you receive the Son today, you can have this very grace. You can be free indeed (John 8:36).
Would you mind if I ask, are there any takers? Friends, this is not a one timer. But there ought to be a time when you make a clear connection with Jesus, very clear. Here now is an opportunity to do that. Is there anyone who will say today, "Pastor, that grace -- that grace as you've described it today from the Word of the living God -- that's the grace I want, and that's the grace I need. I want Jesus to give me that grace and that power. I want to be made free. Give me that grace, God O please." Is there anyone here who will receive that grace?
How wonderful it is, this grace in which we stand! Let's thank our Father together as we close in prayer. Let us pray that God will give to us real grace for real people. That is what Jesus died for. Real Grace for Real People
Episode 2
Real Grace in Romans 1-3
Scripture Reading: Romans 3:24
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that in Christ Jesus
Grace in Romans 1:5; 16:26
Grace -- one of the most misunderstood teachings in the Bible. Some suggest that Seventh-day Adventists don't understand grace; that we have an unbiblical understanding of it; that we place ourselves under the law instead of under grace. Is it true? Although grace is spoken of first in Genesis and finally in Revelation, the individual Bible writer saying the most about it is Paul. Therefore, we will walk through his writings verse by verse and see what they say about grace. Let's start in Romans 1:5.
Consider these first four verses of Romans chapter one. What do we learn in them? Paul is called an apostle; that he was separated to the gospel; that this gospel was promised in the time of the Hebrew Scriptures; that it concerns God's Son Jesus Christ, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; that He was declared to have power and rose from the dead. The passage next arrives at the fifth verse where we read:
By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His name: among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. Romans 1:5-6.
Hear the teaching of Paul: "By whom we have received grace and apostleship." From whom has grace and apostleship been received? From Jesus -- the Son of God with power, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Notice that "grace" has been received. What purpose was this grace received for? The following clause says "for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His name." Paul received grace and apostleship for the purpose of leading believers of every background into "obedience to the faith."
The same phrasing occurs in Romans 16:25-27:
Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.
The underlying Greek is the same phrase, literally, "obedience of faith" (hu-pa-koh-ayn pis-te- ohs). The noun "faith" here is a genitive of source. The phrase speaks of the obedience which has its source in faith. God sent Paul on His mission -- a mission to help all nations live the obedience which has its source in faith in God.
In the close of the epistle, Paul brings the idea to the forefront again. Like two covers on the front and back ends of the book of Romans, he iterates and reiterates the purpose of the gospel "promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures" (Romans 1:2). Breaking into doxology at the end of Romans, he again points "to Him that is of power to stablish you." The mystery of the incarnation has now been made manifest. Jesus has come. He has come "of the seed of David according to the flesh." The gospel is given that all nations may know of His coming and His condemning of sin "in the flesh" (Romans 8:3), that they themselves might personally experience the "obedience of faith." And all this is linked by Paul directly to grace.
We shouldn't forget that.
Grace in Romans 1:7
In Romans 1:7, Paul offers the customary greeting, "grace to you and peace," that launches so many of his epistles. But let's look again at this verse in Romans. What is it that Paul says there? "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ."
This is more than a hello. Paul is asking a blessing upon the Christians in Rome. Notice what is linked together here in this verse: (1) God loves His people, (2) God calls them to be saints, and (3) He gives grace and peace to them. You know that the underlying word for saints has the literal meaning, "holy ones." God loves people and calls them to holiness, and gives them grace. Holiness and grace and love go together! And what God hath joined together, let man not put asunder.
Grace is not here a blanket to wrap sinners in. It is a light that former-sinners live out. Grace inside empowers saintliness inside and out. God's love gives unto us "all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). And among all things necessary for godliness, is grace.
Empowering grace.
Grace in Romans 3:24
The next passage in the book of Romans where we find the word "grace" is in Romans 3:24, which reads:
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Some say here that because we are "being justified freely by His grace," obedience is no longer an issue for the Christian: that we are saved apart from obedience. But let's get some context, more of the surrounding passage (Romans 3:19-31):
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is He the God of the Jews only? is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Friends, now we have some context to work with. Let's work through the whole section, and see what is being said about grace.
The Role of the Law
Starting in verse 19, what is Paul presenting? He states that whatever the law is saying, it is saying to those who are under law. And why does it say what it says to those under law? "That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Interesting. Let me ask you a question now. Does the law condemn sinners, or non-sinners? The law condemns sinners. If you don't break the law, the law does not condemn you. Let's get this clear in our minds. The law represents a boundary line between good and evil. It is a divider between righteousness and sin. The law illuminates the fact that we live within the domain of God's moral values. We have been made in His image, granted the power of free choice. We -- by God's design -- have agency. In His law God sets before us "life and good, and death and evil" (Deuteronomy 30:15).
Although we have free choice, we lack the inward power to follow up on the choice of our mind. Thus, Paul says "with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Romans 7:25). That is, when the human mind is indwelt by the divine Spirit, we can obey. When we choose to follow the downward pull of our fallen nature, we place our lower nature in charge of our choices, resulting in moral failure. Adam and Eve sinned. They fell. Their nature was changed. Now, we cannot obey -- not apart from an empowering by God.
What does the law say to those under the law? That the world -- that each one of us -- is guilty. We all have chosen to follow our lower nature. We all have chosen to sin against God. The function of the law is not to save us, but to show us what is right and what is wrong. In fact, it is to show us what Jesus thinks about moral behavior. That's what the law is about. In the salvation process, we are a race of persons who "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
It is rather important that we understand this. So God gave a law. Not Ten Suggestions. Ten Commandments: what Jesus thinks about moral behavior.
To be "under the law" in this passage, means to be under its authority, under its condemnation. If you are, through the power of God obeying the law, then you are on the other side of the law. If you are letting God's Spirit dwell life-changingly inside of you, then His strength is given in response to your plea for help. He changes you through and through, both the more outwardly items and also the more inward issues. He changes your very motivations. He pours His love into your heart (Romans 5:5), and in God's love there is no hidden selfishness, no false motivation. He empowers full obedience. Can the sinful heart produce any healthy obedience on its own? No. But the sinful heart subdued by the Holy Spirit pours forth holy works. Do even those works save you? No. But they are works that are on the law's good side. They are works of faith. They glorify our Father in heaven. Such works are not produced "under the law;" they are produced "under grace." When Jesus points to His end-time people in the book of Revelation and announces "Here are they that keep the commandments of God," He isn't kidding. He's being completely lucid, completely sober. They are not a band of grim-faced people in bondage. They are a little flock of commandment-keepers by the power of Jesus, having great peace. After all, "Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them" (Psalm 119:165). Far from being under law, it is Seventh-day Adventists who would free people from being under law -- under the bondage of sin.
God's design for His people is that we would be freedom-bringers. What are you?
Verse twenty continues to clarify the role of the law: "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Paul here states that "the deeds of the law" do not justify -- they do not make one right with God.
Don't forget what Paul is dealing with. In Romans chapter one he points out the general wickedness of the non-Jews, and in Romans chapter two he points out the fallacy of people being saved by their Jewishness, particularly in light of their sinful behaviors. The people who are "justified" in the book of Romans are not the hearers of the law, but the doers (Romans 2:13). The Jews had been led to make the assumption that they had an easy-in on this salvation issue. Paul is trying to shake them away from it. He points out that their deeds--their deeds considered in an unqualified manner (apart from empowering by the Holy Spirit for example)-- cannot put them into a guiltless relationship with God.
Another Witness to God's Righteousness
Verse twenty-one then says "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." In verse 28 we read, "without the law" (kho-ris no-moo), literally perhaps better translated as "apart from law," is here given as how the righteousness of God is manifested. It is testified to "by the law and the prophets."
The law itself has been a witness to what the Father and what Jesus think about moral behavior from the beginning. It could define what God's requirements were by telling, but Jesus came to demonstrate what God's requirements were by showing. And He did. He lived out to the fullest expression in fallen flesh, what He had written by divine impression on tables of stone. He was the law enfleshed, just as the Ten Commandments are God's character concisely transcribed.
In this passage Paul shows the necessity of God having a living witness for what He thinks about moral behavior. Don't forget that the Jews had surrounded the law with layer after layer of tradition, greatly obscuring its real meaning. So God came to show it to them in action.
That's what Jesus did.
In verses 22-23 Paul shows that since all are condemned before God, His faith is necessary for both, Jew and gentile alike. All fall short. All are condemned by their own behavior. But through faith, God's righteousness is available "unto all and upon all them that believe" (Romans 3:22). Don't forget, the main issue at hand is our making sure that we have a biblical grip on what grace is. Notice here that grace involves not our own but God's righteousness being "unto all and upon all them that believe."
Now we finally come back to Romans 3:24. All who have sinned but return to God in belief are, this verse says, "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
"Freely" tells how we are justified. Literally, as a "gift." "Being justified as a gift," or "being made right with God as a gift" by His grace. But let us not confuse this with the cost of redemption. We are purchased with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), a very steep one indeed. Jesus died on the cross for us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). "Freely" here is not in reference to the cost of salvation. It was the most expensive thing ever purchased. That's why no grace that's cheap is valid. Grace is costly.
"Freely" here is in reference to whether we contribute to the cost, whether we add any of our feeble merits to the perfect merits of Christ. To that, the answer is resounding.
No.
But here comes the monkey-wrench. Turn to James 2:24:
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
James had noticed how some were saying they were made right with God apart from obedience to Him and He pointed out what? Yes, that's right. That "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). And I say to you that while it is true that God doesn't add our deeds into the purchase price of our salvation (for He has wrought that out freely for us), still it is true that "faith without works is dead." Still it is true that "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." That is, there is a co-operative part we play in the salvation process, although not a meritorious part.
Don't misunderstand me now. What does the Scripture say? It calls this "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;" not the redemption that is in me or you. There is no redemption in us. It is in Christ. But he wants to put His righteousness "unto all and upon all that believe."
Let's keep moving. Let's make sure that Paul and James agree. Romans 3:25-27:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
Christ our Propitiation
Jesus is set forth to be a propitiation--a penalty-payment. His life given in our place, His sacrifice received by faith in His blood, faith in the life He lived-out and offered up, is set forth to declare His righteousness. The declaration of His righteousness is at the same time a declaration of the fairness and appropriateness of His forgiving, literally "passing over" sins.
But God didn't pass over any sins at all. Payment for every sin has been exacted through the sacrifice of Christ. The penalty has been met in the Penalizer. The written law defined what sin was. The living-Law showed what righteousness can do. He can save. The written law gave no life for the sins of the world. The living-Law did. Because of His life offered up for man, God passed over the sins of men, waiting for the arrival of Christ to carry out the penalty for our sins upon the sinless One. This was a part of grace.
But consider the next line: "To declare I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." The end result of all this isn't that God just forgives us while covering over our sins like rust under primer. Nay. It is so much more! Grace as biblically operative is such that through it, "He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." That is, He can be absolutely fair -- He can legitimately operate under the same principles as all His creatures do, continuing to think what He thinks about moral behavior, and at the same time He can justify the person who believes in Him. Authentic Bible grace covers both bases: God's justice andHis mercy. Neither principle suffers at the expense of the other. Grace isn't a cheap cover-up. It's an expensive restoration. And it is operational now.
Jude's Timely Warning
Does grace destroy the law? Cheap grace does. Jude warned about the cheap-grace proponents who would present their destructive rationalizations in his and finally in our closing age. What was his warning? Hear Jude 4: "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."
When we put grace on sale, we cheapen it. Contemporary theology on grace differs little from the old Roman Catholic lie of the "indulgence." Christians today are being sold a version of grace that is the very thing Jude warns us of. It turns the grace of our God into lasciviousness, into an obscenity--a justification for lustful behaviors. It turns grace into a license for disobedience.
What did Paul think? He closed out this section of Scripture with the following words.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is He the God of the Jews only? is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Paul says we can't boast. We have nothing to boast of under grace. Grace gives us no license to sin. We are not to boast. We are not to claim that we can sin lightly and He will lightly forgive us. Weare to conclude that we are justified by faith, and that "the deeds of the law" play no salvific role for us. Our merits cannot save us, only condemn. All are justified through faith. Do we then make void--make empty--the law through faith?
God forbid.
We, after all, establish the law. How do we establish the law? Through faith. How do we operate under faith? Believing in Christ, we permit Him to put the righteousness of God "unto all and upon all that believe." That means co-operating with Him, permitting Him to put His righteousness into me and upon me. He justifies me by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Awesome. Biblical. Authentic grace. Historically Adventist.
Conclusion
Some people suggest that the much of the current thinking on grace in the Seventh-day Adventist church is different than that of the Adventist pioneers. They are correct.
Some suggest that the Adventism of our spiritual pioneers was lacking in grace. They are incorrect. There is no disagreement between what has been above presented and that which Ellen White, A. T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, or other pioneer Adventists believed. So what is the difference?
The pioneer understanding of grace saw that the ark of the covenant was opened in Revelation 11:19. God's law was exposed. That was His plan, too. He purposed that His last generation of believers would be persons who through His empowering grace kept the commandments of God and the faith if Jesus. But today Adventists are confused. Many of our teachers are discovering that the law is an enemy, but only because their concept of grace makes it such.
Seventh-day Adventists need to recover their understanding of grace. They need to see the value of the law. They need to see the blending of God's glory. They need to keep in mind what Romans 1:7 showed us. That His love, His holiness being put upon His people, and His grace all fit together perfectly well. If obedience is today being pushed entirely out of the salvation experience, it is because we are drifting into theological friendship with those who historically rejected our understanding of Scripture for the very same reason. They couldn't see a harmonization between what they thought grace was, and the remainder of the Scripture.
They left their first love and were declared fallen by heaven.
Friend, there is enough grace to give you victory. You needn't fall. Look and live. Look and love. Look at Jesus. Receive His power. Go on to glory. There will never be a better time than now, to study out from the Scriptures what grace is, and let it be in you all that God would have it to be. Seventh-day Adventists are not under the law. We are freedom-bringers. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, because we've been annointed to preach the gospel to the poor. We are sent to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind. We are called to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18.
Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Real Grace for Real people
Episode 3
Real Grace in Romans Four
Introduction
From time to time we have to go back and dig carefully, and make certain we haven't swallowed something beyond what we meant to. Words like "salvation," and "grace," and "faith," and "justification" are not exempt from tampering. In fact, they attract the lint of error like Velcro.
"Grace" the word, comes up only twice in this chapter (in the fourth and sixteenth verses). Let's work through and see what it tells us about grace. Turn to Romans 4:1-3: What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
In Romans 3:28 Paul has already concluded that we are justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. But look at Romans 2:13: "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified."
In Romans three Paul had argued that all -- not just non-Jews -- are condemned for disobedience to God's will. Having come to view themselves as God's especially favored people, having lost sight of the radical wickedness of all humanity, the mere outward participation in the forms and traditions of Judaism to many seemed the sum of religiosity.
Poisonous Thinking
The true religious system of God had by then been overlaid with a vast structure of unsound ideas and reasonings -- self-deceiving sophistry excusing disobeying while saying you were obeying. Paul made this clear back in Romans 2:23: "Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?" In other words, "you who claim to be living within God's will are actually breaking it and thus dishonoring Him!"
As long as this kind of thinking among the early Jewish converts remained, the church would never be safe. Reliance on the fact of their Jewishness betrayed their very narrow conception of salvation. As long as faith in Christ was supplemented by their self-assured racial pride, they would be incapable of experiencing the inward circumcision wrought through the gospel. Paul sought to disabuse them of this misconception. Again and again he returns to the issue, pressing to their spiritually parched lips the plea to have faith in Christ; a faith taking nothing away from the law.
God doesn't owe anyone anything for their being Jewish or white or black or any color or ethnic group. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Hear the next verses: "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:4- 5).
We want to notice something in these verses. Look closely. What do we want to have? We want to believe; we want to have faith. Now what don't we want to have? Well, that's not hard either. We don't want to be working for salvation without faith. We are plainly told that if we try to live the Christian life by earning our salvation, then it would not be "of grace." And if it's not of grace, then its not that salvation that comes from God. For the Scriptures tell us that it is "by grace" that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8).
The statement in Romans 4:3, "but to him that worketh not" needs to be understood, for James tells us that works are there. "By works was faith made perfect" (James 2:22). Indeed, James says so very plainly, "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James 2:24). It is clear that Paul in Romans is saying that faith/belief is the critical component. If you are working for your salvation, and trying to do so without relying on Christ, then you are working out your own salvation without God working in you, because only you are working in you. The only terms of salvation you have then are terms of debt. Because you've done the work, you suppose the debt of salvation is owed you.
But the salvation that is true is a lively salvation. It is the situation in which faith is working by love (Galatians 5:6). It is a faith that is not dead or alone, as James warns of (James 2:17).
Nor miss you this fact: the belief that we find in Romans 4:5 is the belief of one in a God who "justifieth the ungodly. See, it is a belief in which there is a real recognition of human lostness and human sinfulness and deep, bottomless human need. It is not a faith in which man is practically unaffected by the fall and just a kind of confused being wandering around in search of a little guidance. Our predicament is so much worse than that! We must see our need, or we won't seeWho we need.
I tell you this: he who sees his need and turns to his Maker, of that person the Scripture says, "hisfaith is counted for righteousness."
Justification: Not What We've Been Told
Now with this "counted," we've bumped into an important word, and we need to pause for a moment and try to understand it. A great misconception has its ground right here. The word in the underlying Greek is logidzomai. This word logidzomai means to count something, to estimate, to consider something, to attribute to it, to weigh something as being equivalent to something else. It shows up in the Bible about 30 times, most of them in the New Testament in the writings of Paul. This word has been translated to English most often with the words "reckon," "impute," and "count." In Romans chapter four, this word occurs no less than 11 times (Romans 4:3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 24).
This word has often been presented in an unbiblical sense and given a mistaken sense. It has been construed to mean to count what is not as though what is. That is, this word has been presented as a convenient tag white-washing fact with legal fiction. Paul has, in fact, as some have justly charged, been widely misunderstood.
Just how is this word (logidzomai) used in this chapter?
In Romans 4:3 Abraham believes and is "counted" righteous. In Romans 4:4, one who works for salvation would be rewarded through debt, not "reckoned" as being of grace. Romans 4:5 however points out that if one believes, his faith is "counted" for righteousness. In Romans 4:6 we are reminded that to the repentant, God "imputeth" righteousness apart from works. Romans 4:8 says that one is blessed to whom God will not "impute" sin. In Romans 4:9 we see that faith was "reckoned" to Abraham for righteousness. In Romans 4:10 Paul points out that this was done before Abraham was circumcised. Romans 4:11 highlights that to us as unto Abraham righteousness is to be "reckoned" also.
Who is "The Blessed Man"?
What's interesting is that in every case where we come up to this word, faith is linked with righteousness, and works done without faith -- without God's help -- are linked with sin. Of particular interest is Romans 4:8. This verse talks about God imputing sin. Now let me ask you, is sin an actual thing? Oh yes. And blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin. But to whom is sin not imputed/counted/reckoned? To one who has truly repented, who has truly sought for pardon. And God truly pardons. The man to whom sin is not imputed is the man from whom sin has been removed. And only God can remove sin. Notice in verse seven that the one is blessed "whose iniquities are forgiven." That word "forgiven" literally means to leave-off completely. In fact, in Romans 1:27 this same word is translated "leaving." So the Scripture is saying "blessed is the man whose sins have been left behind." The same word is used in 1 Corinthians 7:11, 12, and 13where it is translated "let not the husband put away his wife." So Scripture says, "blessed is the man whose sins have been put away." And let me ask you, which is more blessed -- to have your sins counted as if put away, or to have experienced their truly having been put away?
Hebrew often expresses itself in parallel, saying the same thing in different ways. And so this verse says, "blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven [that is, put away, entirely left behind], and whose sins are covered." What does this word "covered" mean? Well, this is a quotation straight from Psalm 32:1-2. Let's look at that together.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
O.K. then. Who is the blessed man? Yes, the man "whose transgression is forgiven;" yes, the man "whose sin is covered;" yes, "the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." Everyone here will agree to those lines. But will you go all the way with God and admit that the next specification is equally true? That the blessed man to whom the Lord no longer imputes sin is the man "in whose spirit there is no guile"? That's what the Bible says. And how well this agrees with Proverbs 28:13: "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." The person trying to cover his own sins is trying not only to keep them hidden, but to keep them. But he who confesses and what? And forsakes, that is, who puts away, who leaves behind, he is the one who is blessed, that experiences the mercy of forgiveness.
Put very simply, just as real as the sin is, is the real removal of sin. The sin does not remain -- it is not covered up, but it is completely dealt with. It is removed. In the heart of this person "is no guile." Can you begin to see that the "imputing," the "counting," and the "reckoning" we are talking about here is far from a white-wash. We speak here not of legal fictions, but of actualities, of realities. What a gospel this is! Oh, how God is against sin. Oh, how dangerous it is! Don't play with it, it will destroy you. God pleads with His children, "remove yourself from these things," He says, "turn and live."
Friends, we are staring a theological forgery right in the face at this point. Justification is nowhere limited to an external blanket white-washing sin, a velvety and cozy comforter in transgression. Justification is the creation, in actuality, of a just person. God's changes are real; they punctuate reality, not paper. God reaches in and makes a change as we've asked Him to. He rips out the sin completely, in accordance with our willingness to let Him.
But …………
If we don't really want the sin removed, then He doesn't remove it. You can't fool God. God looks on the heart. He can't be conned.
No Baggage on the Blessed Path
Back in Romans four Paul continues in verses 9-11 showing that this blessing of sin removal is not only for Jewish folk, but for non-Jews as well. Just as Abraham did not have his sins removed because he was circumcised but rather because he had faith in God, a non-Jewish person can become free of sin on the very same terms -- faith in God. Consider verses 11 and 12:
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
He "received the sign of circumcision" because it was the outward sign of a walk that was both outward and inward. See how Paul speaks of those "who walk also in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised." Abraham was walking, he was spiritually on the move. His faith was active; it worked by love (Galatians 5:6) to the purification of the soul (1 John 3:3).
"For the promise," says Paul, "that he [Abraham] should be heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith" (Romans 4:13). The law plays a wonderful role, but it never saves. It is a revealer, not a savior. Faith comes down to us from God and empowers our actions; it fills them with a goodness that otherwise could never fill them. And then our works don't save us, but accompany us. James says of Abraham that faith worked with his works, that by works his faith was brought to perfection (James 2:22). The Bible doesn't talk about a big "sha-zam" that comes rolling out of the sky and rewrites our brain. Salvation doesn't occur like the metallic click of a staple-gun. Salvation, much more than being a strange supernatural moment, is an extended supernatural walking. It is a journey during which what we really are becomes so lucidly real that we cry out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me!" And we continue to move on the pilgrimage.
Are you camped here -- here on earth? Are you planning on staying? Then you will be destroyed. We need to prepare for lift-off. We are not staying. In our Father's house are many mansions. Not a shelter for homeless sinners, but a palace for changed sinners. The Bible, speaking not idly, calls God's people His saints. They have in their mouth no guile (Revelation 14:5). They walk in the steps of the faith of father Abraham. They are not fakes. They are actual. They are not the moving dots on a charged computer screen, electronic pips fooling the eye; they are real people, flesh and blood. Saints of flesh and blood. They are journeyers on the simple path of faith.
The Faithful Seed
In Romans 4:14-15 Paul explains that salvation cannot come to fallen man through the law, because it would nullify God's promise that salvation would come through faith. We now come to Romans 4:16, the other place in this chapter where we find the word "grace." And Paul now ties faith in with grace.
Therefore, it is of faith that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.
It has to be by faith so that it can be by grace. Otherwise the promise could not be fulfilled to "all the seed," all the children of faith. Everyone who says, "God, salvation through faith may not be the terms I had in mind, but it is salvation on Your terms. I submit to Your plan. I am willing to be saved Your way," -- everyone who will say that and live that, is of the seed of Abraham. And God's grace-- His real grace -- is for His seed. And His seed are those who are of faith.
The next several verses reprise Abraham's experience and speak of his growth in grace. He may have staggered at God's promises at the first, but came to the place where he was fully persuaded that what our heavenly Father had promised He was completely willing and able to perform. Then Romans 4:22 says "and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." Was he counted as if believing when he was unbelieving? Not at all. He was not just barely persuaded that God could deliver, but the Bible says he was "fully persuaded" that God would deliver (Romans 4:21). His faith, a very real faith, was the outcome of a righteousness that was a very real righteousness. Not righteousness generated by being a Jew, or by doing some good thing, but a righteousness in which works and faith were thoroughly connected.
Sin, Not Law, the Problem
Now as this chapter so helpful in understanding real grace closes, our eyes are turned to Jesus. But we again need to clarify something. Our Father's commandments are good. His law is full of wonderful things, not bad things. But it isn't there to save. God is not against His own law, He is against sin. Salvation is not salvation from God's law, but from our sin. We're not saved by God's character becoming as fallen man's character, but fallen man's character needs to become like our holy God.
The Bible speaks of a stumbling stone -- one that the Jews stumbled at. But read the text carefully. What is this stumbling stone? Consider Romans 9:30-33:
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.
The Jews stumbled at that stumbling stone, and that stumbling stone was not the law -- it was Christ. It was not obedience in the narrow, done through our own strength; it was obedience made full through Christ. It was not a willingness to be "counted" right (in their case because they were Jewish), but what most offended was the submission of all to Christ.
Christ the Stumbling Stone
How uncommon today is that willingness to accept Jesus in His humanity, in the completeness of it. How uncommon to hear a passage like Hebrews 2:16-18:
For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.
Jesus came and He came too-human for the Jews' taste. So they rejected Him. Today Christ's divinity is emphasized while His humanity so often is negated. But look at God's Word. It says that Jesus became as human as we are, that we might become as obedient as He is. Such is an impossibility if we cannot live as He lived. 1 John 3:8 says that Jesus was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. And I tell you that He was not merely manifested in some vague way, but the most specific way. He was manifested in human flesh. Romans 8:3-4 says that "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh" -- that is, what the law could not do for a man because his fallen nature rendered him incapable of obeying in his own strength -- "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."
Jesus was sent in human flesh -- even our own flesh. Not "in the unlikeness" but "in the likeness" of sinful flesh. Why? "For sin." And what did He do in that so very human flesh? He "condemned sin" in it. He showed that in the power of God, man can obey Him. He can, through faith, keep the commandments.
No Atonement Without Christ
And how important also the divinity of Christ -- that point which the Jews so opposed accepting. His divinity testified that the higher life, the spiritual life, even the life ordained by God, was also the life ordained for man. The value of the sacrifice must be sufficient to atone for all the sin of all men for all time. Such a life no ordinary human character could bring to the cross. Yes, a man could die, a thousand times ten thousands of men could die; but in their lives would not be sufficient merit to atone for anyone's life. And what if they could? What if a thousand people were found who were able somehow to die bearing some measure of merit for salvation? If a thousand could die and make atonement for themselves, then the sacrifice of Christ would be shown to be unnecessary. Yet what of the billions and billions who've lived and died having sinned? All but the tiniest fraction of them would be lost.
No; even if a thousand could die and have some merit in themselves, would they have the power to resurrect themselves? Never! All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). There are no candidates; there are no one thousand self-atoners. All are unjust. Only Christ has lived in this flesh yet never sinning. The Just must die for the unjust (1 Peter 3:18). And all have made themselves unjust but Christ.
Only His divine character was of sufficient moral value to pay the penalty for the sin of the world. The value of all the paper money of the United States of America is (at least supposed to be) assured because the nation has vaults filled with gold bullion scattered here and there about the country insuring its value. But if you could pile up all of the precious metals owned by our country for this purpose, and write a check for an amount greater than that, no one could cash it. Beyond a certain finite point the check would bounce; there wouldn't be enough reserve value to cover the check. Only Christ, a divine character (yet coming in human flesh), is who He is. Only He has in Himself sufficient value of character to pay the penalty for everyone's sin for all time.
Only He is Jesus.
And He paid this penalty. Yet not so we might run around continually sinning and indifferent to morality, not because we somehow thought that justification was a VISA card to buy sin having no expiration date. Look at Romans 8:4. Yes, there was a divine goal in the atonement of Christ: "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." He died so that we might truly live a life ceased from sin. He died so that in our lives sin might be utterly cut-off, stopped, chopped, ended. He died that we might work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, not so that we might live out a riot of sin in high-handed indifference.
When we let Him work in us, He will work in us. He will justify us. He will not justify our sinning, but He will justify us -- He will make us actually right inside.
What did Abraham find about trying to help God fulfill His promises? He found that God didn't need any help, and that even could he have contributed something, it would have been spiritually unhealthy for Abraham to have helped out. If Abraham had sought for justification -- not just an external declaration of, but an actual experience of being internally made right with God -- through his own strength done without God's strength, he'd have something that self could take pride in. No. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Abraham believed God and that opened the door for God to work in fullness in his life. God's strength to empower obedience was poured out to Abraham, not because of some random sparkle of goodness lurking in Abraham's bosom, but because Jesus had promised the Father that He would die for fallen man. Abraham trusted God instead of the flesh. That was righteousness.
Man is not God, and God is not man. We must never say that Jesus did not become as human as we are, or that He is not as divine -- truly divine -- as He is. If His humanity is stripped away, He is not one with us and cannot condemn sin in our flesh; He cannot destroy the works of the devil. If He is not God then His character carries no more weight to atone for sin than yours or mine. And that's not enough. For God so loved the world that He died to make possible the salvation of "whosoever" would believe on Him (John 3:16). A whole world needs Jesus as Savior. He must be God in the maximum sense or the world lacks a Savior. A good man, nay, the best of men, if, when all pretensions are stripped away, is nothing more than a very good man -- is no Savior.
Conclusion
Grace that is ungrace is not grace. And justification that is unjust is not justification.
Hear the last lines of Romans four:
Now it was not written for his [Abraham's] sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:23-25).
Hear this very clearly: real grace is here to change us. It is made available to us by our Lord Jesus, who was delivered for our offences, who was raised again for our justification. Not a paper justification or a fairytale, but a biblical justification. Not for heavenly lawyer-stuff, but to produce a living people who are worshippers of a living God. Heaven is not silent. God is not dead. Our future is not our past but our present. And our present is where the rubber meets the spiritual road. May we purpose ourselves to walk in the steps of faith of our father Abraham, to whom none of this was any easier than it is for us, but who made the journey that was possible only through real grace given by a real Savior. Accept no cheap substitutes, for ye are bought with a price. When you are "counted,""reckoned," or "imputed," as just, it will be because you cooperated with Jesus in His efforts to change you. The merits all flow from Him, the mercy all flows to us, and the glory all goes to God. Real Grace for Real People
Episode 4
Real Grace in Romans Five
Introduction
We'll take another chapter today in our look at grace. Recall that the reason for this series is the current emphasis on "grace" within Adventism -- something that we would gladly applaud were it only matched by a sound exposition of what grace is and means. Today we sometimes hear a very cheap version of grace, one in which obedience is bad. Where did we get this? Any such portrayal of grace should be sickening to the Bible Christian. Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). How then could the grace coming from the same source as the commandments be so antagonistic to God's law? Remember His law He calls "My commandments," just as in speaking of His grace He says, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
When we began this process, we decided we would chase Paul's use of the word "grace" through the book of Romans, and see where that took us.
Remember our findings from the previous messages. In Real Grace For Real People, we saw that actual grace leads us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. in Real Grace in Romans 1-3 we saw something of what is actually the very, very great expense of grace and that at the end of time teachers would come attempting to turn it into a license to sin. In Real Grace in Romans Four we took a closer look at what it means to "impute," and caught some folks with their hand in the theological cookie-jar. The "blessed man" is not the fellow who's been forgiven but left a slave of sin; he's the man who through God's empowerment has consented to let His heavenly Father take his sins away. With those ideas in mind, let's continue our study now in Romans chapter five.
This Grace Wherein We Stand (Romans 5:2)
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Romans 5:1-5).
Our chapter here begins in speaking of those who are justified by faith, who have peace with God. All of this, of course, comes to us only through Jesus Christ. Now we consider carefully as Paul links this with grace: "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Literally, "access" here is to "bring forward." Three times this word comes in our New Testament, all by Paul. In Ephesians 2:18, we find that "For through Him [Jesus] we both [Jews and non-Jews] have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Ephesians 3:12 is the other, "In whom [i.e. Jesus] we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him [Jesus]."
The grace by which we stand -- by which we live victoriously over evil -- only comes to us through Jesus' empowerment of our faith. Remember, apart from God's intervention, our faith would be ineffectual and inoperative, essentially non-existent. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross opens the door. It grants heaven not license to cheat in the great controversy, but the means of going forward. The Holy Spirit in olden days was given on credit so to speak -- Jesus' sacrificial death upon the cross in humankind's place was then yet future. But now that He's followed through, the penalty of the law has been met in its Author, in its origin-point. Justice has been met. Now God can apply the benefits of His atonement, not in forgiving only, but in restoring.
To forgive us but not to change us would be a cruel trick. It would support the devil's charge that God's law really is unfair. It would call into question His (God's) character. Instead of Deliverer He would be a supreme Placebo-pusher, an arbitrary punisher of the helpless; just as our adversary wishes us to think of our Maker.
But Jesus brings us forward -- He grants us access by one Spirit to the Father, His forgiveness and His power. Remember, in our last study we found that to be justified was more than merely to be counted right. It means to be literally, actually, effectually "made right" with God. he is at peace with God who has pled for change and let Him make him internally right with Yahweh. He stands boldly, obediently. The Spirit of God makes a difference. He works from the inside out, working more than a token work. Never forget that our access to grace comes through Jesus and by means of faith. Faith includes our cooperative involvement. He gives the strength, we make the decision, and because God has worked we lay hold of His power living out the decision to obey. This is where we stand in grace.
Nor should we forget that our passage speaks of the development of Christian character. "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience, and experience, hope, etc." How does heaven go about the process of developing that in God's people? By the Holy Spirit who is poured out into our hearts, the "one Spirit" by whom we enjoy access to the Father. Thus heaven produces a victorious people. The Gift by Grace (Romans 5:15)
Let's take this in its pieces. Consider Romans 5:12-14:
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come.
Romans 5:12-21 outlines the reign of sin versus the reign of grace. Verses 13 and 14 are parenthetical. Notice in Romans 5:12 that we learn sin entered this world and death by sin through one man -- Adam. The passage now makes a persistent comparison of Adam with Christ. By implication, if sin entered through Adam, and death through sin, then sin's opposite, righteousness, enters through Christ, and life through righteousness. As sin enters through Adam, so it leaves through Christ, who came to destroy the works of the devil, chief of which is the mystery of iniquity, the mysterious and unjustified existence of sin. Through His ministry Christ ends all sin and all death. Adam had the dubious distinction of contaminating the world through his actions, but Christ has the noble distinction of decontaminating the world through His actions.
Adam's descendents inherited a broken up, twisted up, weakened nature, but all who accept Christ by faith receive "the gift by grace" (Romans 5:15), "the gift of righteousness" (Romans 5:17), the reign of grace "through righteousness unto eternal life" (Romans 5:21).
Before Adam's sin, nothing on earth had died. All that had been created had lived. Satan was injected into the garden after having been cast down out of heaven in his rebellion. But still no one had died. It was only in Adam and Eve's disobedience to God that sin entered and death through sin. And two deaths entered at that point: the penalty death (second death), directly linked with morality, and the mere physical death (first death), to which the creation in general became subject. Because Jesus was willing at the moment that Adam sinned to promise to give His life in humanity's place, Scripture calls Him "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). As soon as death cast its palling shadow across the doorway of humanity, Jesus stuck His foot in the door. He promised to give His life in place of ours, unilaterally intervening, granting opportunity to receive salvation.
Adam and Christ
We pick up the contrast in Romans 5:15:
But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Through the offense of one, this verse views many as dead. Romans 5:12 stated clearly that "death passed upon all men for that all have sinned." The Bible everywhere makes clear that our own sins condemn us, not the sins of our ancestors or descendants. We are born with weakness (Romans 5:6), but not with guilt or in guilt. Weakened through Adam, all since have made their own choice to follow the inclinations of that fatal revision of human nature, to sin, and thus it is as if all are standing in line waiting to receive their chosen fate -- eternal destruction. But along that pathway stands One pleading with everyone passing over it. Jesus offers to take the place of everyone who has sinned, to release them from that single-file procession of death.
"Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many." Everyone can step aside from that line and enter life eternal. But they must accept the one Man, Jesus Christ and all that that acceptance means. Whereas sin reigned unto death through Adam, the reign of grace through righteousness comes through Jesus Christ. Next isRomans 5:16):
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
Through Adam, judgment and condemnation have settled over guilty humanity as a vulture upon the carrion. By that departure of Adam and Eve from the right the whole race was turned into a band of cutthroats. Naturally we now cleave to the evil; it is our nature. "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Corinthians 15:57). The gift of Christ is not like the offense of Adam. By Adam's moral failure, the race was ruined. By Christ's moral victory -- and that gained in the fallen flesh of Adam -- "the free gift is of many offenses unto justification." That is, the gift is comprehensive. It covers our entire need. We have committed many offences, and so we need a full-featured form of justification.
Obedience Goes to the Cross
Adam sinned once and led the race to ruin. But Jesus lived without sinning even one day of His life for 33 years, took that obedience to the cross, signed-off there on the penalty for sin, and with His much more abounding flourish, granted us release from bondage; even the power to live righteous lives putting His life in our place. He went to heaven, into the heavenly sanctuary from whence He now transmits the effectual power of His atonement not only to forgive but to heal; not only to pardon, but to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
The free gift is "of many offenses unto justification." It is sufficient to heal all the open wounds of sin we've compiled into our experience, and go beyond to make us actually right with God. It is not an outward white-wash, but an inward washing-white. When David repented He asked God not merely to forgive him, but to "create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).
Now Romans 5:17:
For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ.
Death reigned by one. Adam bought us all an involuntary ticket to the morgue. Whether we receive the penalty of eternal death or not, we do all at least go down into the first death, the sleep death. But see, "much more they which receive" go into the reign of grace. Indeed, this verse even puts it that they themselves reign "by One, Jesus Christ."
Abundance Waiting for those Willing to receive It
How do we get to that? By receiving abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. Notice that the reign of grace doesn't come through a simplistic, narrow, or convenient slice of translucent forgiveness hacked off the edge of the gospel. Forgiveness is only part of a package deal. God forgives and He cleanses. He's not content to give us just the table-scraps of grace, halfway solutions. He gives us "abundance" of grace. That's just the kind of God our God is. The smallest portion He gives is more than we can make change for. Thus salvation is all of God, and has in it not one thread of human devising -- not one fragment or figment of saving credit goes to us, but still we cooperate. Still the "much more" of the gospel is for "they which receive." And all can receive. If they're willing.
Are you willing?
See, what this means is more than many have heard of. When you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, and take you, and be your personal Savior, it means that you are saying, "Jesus, I am willing to go so far as even to receive the gift of righteousness." Are you willing to let God make you right?
All of this is available through the gospel. Look with wide eyes at Romans 5:18:
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Through Adam's sin, a race was lost. Through Christ's obedience, a race is saved (if we are willing to be saved). Notice ultimately, "for that all have sinned," judgment came upon all men unto condemnation." How many are excepted here? None! "All men" stand condemned and needing salvation. But just as all stand in need, so through our Lord Jesus Christ all have received something. Read it again: "Even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."
By what Jesus did, "the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Listen, how many people did Jesus taste death for? The Bible says for "every man" (Hebrews 2:9). The free gift is for everyone who will receive it.
Jesus in the Pathway
O friends! Jesus stands alongside that single-file line of death. He urges everyone living to receive His precious O so precious free gift. He has tasted death for you and for me. See, everyone has to go past Christ if he would confirm his fealty to sin. Everyone has to say, "excuse me Jesus, but I'm on my way to destruction, please step aside," in order to be lost. Everyone at some point is confronted with the cross in their pathway. Jesus has wrought out "justification of life" for every man. Friends, whatever we may have acquired through Adam, is cancelled out by what Jesus has done. And it's a gift, so there is no merit from us in it. It is given to all. The gift has landed at every doorstep. UPS has come. The precious package has been delivered. But some will refuse to open it. How sad that is, for how available God's grace is. For Romans 5:19 tells us that " For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
One man's disobedience led the race to ruin. All chose to follow their weakened inclinations to the dust of death. But "by the obedience of One" our Lord would make "many" what? Come now, say it: "righteous." Not only the limited expectation of being "counted" righteous, but here we have it --no question about it -- "made" righteous.
That's what grace does. Grace makes righteous.
What real people need is not the phony kind of grace limited to forgiveness and hopeless living in the fallen humanity we're all born with. What we need is the kind of grace that makes righteous. Again, that's real grace for real people. So practical. So lovely. So desirable.
Real Grace Makes a Difference
The chapter closes with Romans 5:20-21:
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
One quality about grace we can be sure of, it "much more" abounds. Sin reigned unto death. It entered through poor Adam. But Jesus had mercy on the race. As soon as there was sin there was a Savior. He stuck His foot in the door as soon as sin entered. He said, "Here I shall intervene. The reign of sin was put on notice from day one. Jesus would come. Jesus would bring real grace. And real grace would make a difference on this planet of pain, and reign through non- fictional righteousness unto eternal life.
Hear now these lines in closing, from none other than E. J. Waggoner speaking to this verse over a century ago: The Bible does not teach us that God calls us righteous simply because Jesus of Nazareth was righteous eighteen hundred years ago. It says that by His obedience we are made righteous. Notice that it is present, actual righteousness. The trouble with those who object to the righteousness of Christ being imputed to believers is that they do not take into consideration the fact that Jesus lives. He is alive today, as much as when He was in Judea. "He ever liveth," and He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." His life is as perfectly in harmony with the law now as it was then. And He lives in the hearts of those who believe on Him. Therefore it is Christ's present obedience in believers that makes them righteous. They can of themselves do nothing, and so God in His love does it in them . . . . People are not simply counted righteous, but actually made righteous, by the obedience of Christ, who is as righteous as He ever was, and who lives today in those who yield to Him. His ability to live in any human being is shown in the fact that He took human flesh eighteen hundred years ago. What God did in the person of the Carpenter of Nazareth, He is willing and anxious to do in every man that believes. (Waggoner on Romans, p. 101-102).
Friends, there is real grace for us in Romans Five. Our lives are to be changed by this real gospel --this real grace. Throw out the old version if it doesn't match these Scriptures. God stands ready through the One who went up to the cross to raise you up with Christ in newness of life.
In this hour we've come to, nothing less will get us through. Cling to our Jesus brothers and sisters. O cling to Him. He ever liveth to restore real people. And to that may we all say: amen. Real Grace for Real People
Episode 5
Real Grace in Romans 6-8
This presentation doesn't deal exhaustively with Romans six, which you will find some discussion of in Real Grace for Real People.
Introduction
We live in a society based on the "excuse" plan. That is, instead of being responsible people, we tend to discover, search for, invent, and subscribe to excuses. So often we look for the answer to our problems outside of ourself. "I'm not the problem." Ever heard anyone say that? Haven't we all said it at one time or another? And probably there have been occasions where we weren't the main part of the problem. But more often than not, the truth be told, we manage, if nothing else, to contribute to the problem. But this is a church and this is a Sabbath morning worship service, and we are Christians. Somehow Christians are exempt from this, right? No. Christians have often been coaxed into viewing God's plan of salvation as a universal patch-it kit. Whatever we don't get fixed in our life before it closes--before heaven makes a determination whether we really let Jesus be our personal Savior in the way He had in mind or not--whatever is left is supposed to be filled in, covered over, patched-up, by God's "grace." Thus we are saved.
Well, a solid look into the Bible is going to lead us to revise that kind of thinking. But instead of taking on the whole thing, let's, on this Sabbath morning, look into one of the common excuses current among Christians. The one I am thinking of runs more or less like this: "I have a fallen nature, and so everything I do is tainted with sin anyway. So God doesn't really expect me to overcome, but just to try real hard and then He'll make up the difference. I am so glad for grace."
Let's work on this. Let's take a spiritual look today at what the Bible says about real grace and our situation. Romans chapters six through eight speak of the situation we are in as regarding our body. For example, Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Romans 7:24 states "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
And Romans 8:10 records "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." So, some say that because of our fallen nature we have an excuse to sin. Perhaps to some it may look that way for the moment. Don't plan on God leaving us there though. Let's try to get a handle on some of these statements. What is this "body of sin"?
An Excuse for Failure to Overcome?
Whatever it is, notice carefully what verse six says about it: "Our old man is crucified with Him." The result? The destruction or at least the rendering inoperative of the "old man," with the result that after that "we should not serve sin." Now let's realize something. The body of sin is something that can be overcome through the power of heaven applied to the life. Romans 6:12 says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." Yes, the body pulls on us from the inside, it urges us, because our natures are fallen, to indulge ourselves in selfishness at whatever cost. Sin wants to reign in our mortal body. But does a Christian permit it to reign? The fallen nature must never rule the Christian. The mortal body is a broken body. We should not obey the impulse to sin arising from our mortal body. But without God's help we are powerless to overcome our nature. From time to time in its own best interest, our nature might make a change. We've heard of unconverted, non-Christian people getting victory over smoking or other self-destructive vices. But even some who are controlled by their fallen nature can readily see that it is in their own best, selfish interest to make such a change.
But in Christianity, a person living under grace is not living so as to perpetually offer excuses for those animalistic pulls from his nature toward selfish indulgence; instead he lives under the reign of grace where the Spirit of God is at work to change what we are into what God knows we want to be. God's Spirit is a Workman deeply desiring to remake us in His image.
But what about the experience of Paul? Why does he say in Romans seven that he can't do what he wants to do? Is this all that we can hope for in a Christian experience? Is that grace? Why does he finally cry out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).
I mean, it sounds as if he has an excuse for failing to overcome. He has a body just like you and I, and appears here to call it "the body of this death." Isn't that what you and I have? Don't we know by experience the "O wretched man that I am" feeling? Yes, we darkly do. But consider Paul's next words: not an excuse, but an explanation.
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Romans 7:25). Paul is not saying that he can't obey God's law, but rather that he can obey it when he makes the right choice. "So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God." Nor is it his mind on its own apart from God's supernatural power. He wants to obey God, but he has not the power within himself. So he turns to God to provide it.
Will Worship?
To some this may sound like "will-worship" (Colossians 2:23). But the will is a crucial part of the image of God in man. It is no exaggeration to say that everything depends upon the right action of the will. Paul's complaint about the Colossian's "will-worship" is not difficult ot understand. They added numerous rules and regulations "after the commandments and doctrines of men" (Colossians 2:22). Obeying the commandments and doctrines of God is not will worship but God worship. "If you love Me," said Jesus, "Keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Mindless asceticism -- being hard on your body as some kind of payment to a God who is hard on your soul -- is not heaven's plan. But what God asks is only our "reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). Woe to those misguided Christians who chip away at what God requires by teaching even the breaking of the least of His commandments.
Do you recall what Jesus said in Matthew 18:3? It goes like this: "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Some count it as the highest achievement when the Christian begins to question everything. Now God doesn't mind our questions, but He urges us to have faith more than doubt, humility more than self-conceited intellectualism. Little children obey more and ask questions less. Our service is not to be unthinking, but is to be unwavering. We are to cultivate faith and obedience rather than the other.
Legalism and the Psychological War
Some would have us think our having a burning desire to obey God is a form of legalism. Well, such "legalism" is a fantasy they have dreamed up to satisfy their own inward sophistries. All we like sheep have gone astray. We all have, buried deep within ourselves, the seed of self- destruction. But it will be determined by the trend of our own personality whether we water the seed with justifications for sin leading to pride, or sin leading to dissipation and self-hate.
Satan's deceptions take many forms. To the spiritually "advanced," nose-in-the-air, "I'm so spiritual that I've gone beyond obedience" crowd, Satan offers a form of Christianity in which all borderlines of truth are muted. Lacking such definition, the self-declared spiritually elite can meander through the fields of his own sins, selectively indulging while all the while telling himself that he is a servant of God. Perhaps even thinking himself to be one whom God would have press forward in helping the deluded "fundamentalists."
To the person caught in a trap of low self-respect, even in some form of self-hatred, the devil launches other deceptions, chief among them perhaps even the thought, "Well, maybe I am a legalist after all, as they've been saying so long." O mark it well Christian; Satan's schemes always lead to the breaking of God's law, for this is how souls are destroyed. Satan's plan is always to attack God's law. But he has learned how to do it with all the subtlety for which he is so renowned. Satan wants to take advantage of our good intentions. He wants to confuse us by means of our conscience. So the Christian, who humbly is seeking for what is right is bombarded with these subtle inward insinuations about being too pious, trying too hard, seeking to be saved by one's works, etc. Watch out dear children! What does the devil do? He goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour, right? Don't miss something in that passage. You see, the reason a lion roars is to strike fear into his pray; it's not to let you know he's coming, it is to cause you to fear. And that's just exactly what he's been doing to Adventists. Only his roar comes in subtle tones carefully modulated to put you off your guard.
The lion's roar today is, "You're obsessing with standards." "Ah, you're one of the 'concerned brethren.'" "That's very literalist of you." "Brother, you're doing that because of tradition." "You're a raving fundamentalist." "You propose a yo-yo form of salvation." One book published a few years ago (1994) even suggests that an interest in character perfection will lead to "insanity." Then of course there are all the variants on legal: "legalist," legal-thinker," "Pharisee," "narrow," "fundamentalist," "fundamentalistic-person," "black-and-white thinker," etc. The list of epithets applied by those revising the gospel of Adventism today seems beyond exhaustion.
And what is it all? It is the sound of the lion's roar. They are trying to shout down the truth, not merely to drown it out, but to prevent even its verbal or written expression. Can we wonder that at this time God has seen fit to let the internet unleash itself upon the world? If the pulpit goes silent, He will give His message through other means. "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence" (Isaiah 62:6).
When you hear the lion's roar, realize that he is roaring because it is he who is afraid. He doesn't want you to see or hear or give the real thing! So he roars. He will roar until his lion teeth fall out. Watch out. He is seeking to devour you. He wants to scare you with words, with the attitudes you may fear your friends at church will begin to entertain about you if you become too earnest. Watch out. This is the hour of his power, the power of darkness; don't fail now, right as we approach the point of testing. Realize, the great tests are still coming. Don't cave now; don't sell out now. Things are just starting really to get interesting! Quickened by His Spirit
We may look to our weakened humanity for an excuse not to obey. But there is a solution to this. Listen:
"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any men have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:5-14).
The mind is where all the decisions are made, even those characterized by the "fleshly" agenda. To be carnally ("fleshly") minded is death. But to be spiritually (filled with the presence and motivations of the Holy Spirit) minded is life and peace. The fleshly mind is an enemy of God. It refuses to obey Him. "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." This explains what Paul was saying when he cried out "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" He stated the same thing later when he said that the carnal mind "is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
What then of the Christian? "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Is the Spirit of God dwelling inside of the nonchristian? No. Is the Spirit of God dwelling inside of the Christian person? Yes. So if the Spirit of God is dwelling inside of you, then are you in the flesh? No -- you are in the Spirit! Can you have the Spirit in you and not have Christ in you? Never! "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin. Remember, we are "planted together in the likeness of His death" (Romans 6:5). "As many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death" (Romans 6:3).
I'm not talking so much about a mystical union here. Much more, I am talking about the fact that Jesus offers His perfect life in place of your imperfect life in the heavenly sanctuary right now from the chamber room of the most holy place in heaven. Before the Father He pleads His life in the place of your life. But He doesn't merely say, "Accept My life in the place of this unchanged sinner," but rather, "Father, because My life was given in place of his life, and You accepted it, today I am here in heaven interceding. He has prayed to be changed inwardly, and with Your permission I have sent him overcoming power, and he has accepted it. Because of mercy He has received Your grace, and he is a changed person because of it."
Crucified With Christ
But what could this Scripture mean that if Christ is in us, then "the body is dead because of sin"? Consider Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Paul says he is crucified with Christ, and yet he (Paul) lives. But that makes sense, for Christ was crucified and today He (Christ) lives. But Paul says that the life that is in him is not his own, but that "Christ liveth in me." Now notice this too. He says he is living life now "in the flesh." He is not living a life of fleshliness, but he is living life obedient now while Still dwelling in fallen flesh. That is because if you permit the Spirit of God to be in you, then you can live in fallen flesh and be victorious all the way anyway. "The Spirit is life because of righteousness."
"The body is dead because of sin," because Jesus paid the penalty for sin when He expired on the cross for humankind. The body was condemned, so it died in figure with Jesus on the cross. We had no part in atonement, but we had part in condemnation. It was Jesus whom God called back out of the grave, who resurrected, not us. We made no offering accepted by God; our lives were unacceptable, condemnable, and suitable for destruction.
No friends, the law has no power for man. It condemns. But it also illumines. And then the Spirit of God can work for us, for then only do we sense our need. What we need is the righteousness of God. And this righteousness He is more than willing to supply. Mark you, this righteousness does not come by means of the law. The law is not its source. Only the divine is the source for our righteousness. Only through Jesus Christ may we attain unto righteousness, but through Him we may indeed attain unto real righteousness. Even I say, the righteousness of the law. For the Scripture saith, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4). If you don't believe this, then your argument is not with me. I'm just the preacher. Your argument is with God.
Who are Christ's? "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24). Colossians 1:22 says that we have been reconciled by Christ "In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." The death of Christ on the cross for us accomplishes something brothers and sisters. If we will lay hold-- truly lay hold of what God has there done for us -- we shall be presented before God as "holy," "unblameable," and "unreproveable" in His sight. And His sight is all-penetrating. Nothing is hidden from Him with whom we have to do. His word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
Made Complete in Him Through His Power
We are made complete in Christ in whom dwells all power. Is that power ineffectual, quiescent, a glowing electrical spastic nothingness since it is not applied to us? I think not. God longs to apply His power to us. But He won't do it without our consent, and so so many of us remain powerless. It is more convenient to be powerless. It makes a great excuse. So since God won't help me I'm doomed to go on the tired way, sinning and living, sinning and living, until I come to my end and discover that the wages of sin is death of an eternal duration.
Consider the testimony of Colossians 2:11-12 which says of Christ that in Him "we are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead." Just as Christ now appears in heaven in a tabernacle not made with hands, one He pitched and not man, so too He offers us the circumcision made without hands. It is the circumcision of Christ's heart applied to our own. Steadfastly our Savior resisted the temptation to indulge His humanity. His example of how to live would have been ruined for us had He consented to respond to the flesh. So He didn't. His burial therefore means the incapacitation of our fallen nature; no longer does it hold controlling power over us. The "motions of sins" (Romans 7:5) which had been the outworking of our broken nature in our thoughts and behavior are neutralized. Now we are risen with Christ. Now our members become "instruments of righteousness" (Romans 6:13).
The Counterfeit is Growing Bold
We must guard against automatically assuming that if we seem to be persecuted, it's because we are living godly in Christ Jesus; we can never assume that we've spiritually "arrived." But at the same time it is true that real grace, effectually working in our lives as we cooperate with God's Spirit will in fact lead us to live lives that are godly in Christ Jesus, and our bodies will become "instruments of righteousness." Don't be surprised if your life warm with the presence of God's Spirit brings out the coldness in others -- even in the church. It is a starkly blinking red glowing sign of our age that not only in the world outside our borders but more than ever within the precincts of the church we find departure from right.
How many in our day pride themselves on their enlightenment, walking in a theological dream- world of their own making and their own mind. Tripping in the dazzling glare of a "progressive" approach to Christianity, they truly seek that which is the least spiritual, has the least of Christ's cross in it, is the least humiliating to their broken nature. Whatever theory they concoct or is concocted for them they slurp up in haste, for it provides a means of quieting the violated conscience. What they desire is a method of forgetting God which shall pass as a method of remembering Him. And this they find.
Two classes of religionist revel in this new version of grace. Those who would be saved in their sins, and those who would be saved by their merits. The borderlines of sin are explained away in intellectual smoke-signals opening the door for whatever sin one would like to bask in, while the other class attains to salvation by their advancement in accommodation and "maturity." When you get to the place where you can call evil good and good evil, you've arrived.
May God have mercy on us pastors in the day of judgment (as you know we already are in) for being unbarking dogs and blind watchmen. We have slept at our posts and the enemy has entered the camp in force. He has brought in a blurry theological mixture he calls "grace," and stupidly we have swallowed great drafts from the poisonous cup.
The gospel of God's grace breaks the power of the body of sin. Whether we understand that body to be the fallen human nature we bear, or the habit patterns of sin built up over years, or whatever we may think it to be, if we will be "in the Spirit" rather than under the bondage of our flesh, God will have His way and our lives will thrill with the victory.
Conclusion
What is stronger brothers and sisters? The power of the body twisted by sin or the power of the Creator who gives grace? If sin abounds, if there is much of it, isn't it true that grace more abounds, that there is much more power in grace than there can be in sin? Real grace means real life in the Spirit, real victory. It means the effective creative power of Christ in the life. His power makes worlds and remakes sinners. It gives hope to the hopeless. It takes away our excuses and replaces them with our praises. We are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Let this be our prayer. Real Grace for Real People
Episode 6
Real Grace at the Wedding Feast
Grace and the Great Controversy
Grace -- real grace -- is in good supply, but so few of God's people embrace it. I have no doubt that when a preacher determines to prepare a message on grace a platoon of demons are immediately dispatched to look over his shoulder to overwhelm his mind with darkened wave of well-crafted deceptions. The demons, if they can, will cause him to veer far afield from the truth. Have you heard of what is today called the having of a "grace orientation," said to mean "the unconditional love of God and salvation as an unearned gift"? Be careful of your definitions. Statements can be true in what they state, but misleading in what they do not say. God's love is unconditional, but is it true that to follow that idea through to its logical outcome is to understand that "salvation is totally in God's hands"? Be careful. Is salvation "totally" in God's hands? Consider the parable brothers and sisters, of the wedding garment:
And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:1-14).
Our King, the Father, made a marriage for His Son, Jesus. All humanity was called to the wedding. In fact, the wedding itself is a figure of the plan of salvation, the union of humanity with divinity. Don't get me wrong; by this I simply mean that God is working-out His plan to remove sin from His universe so that we can dwell in His presence as restored beings. But there is a problem of vast proportion; humanity has corrupted itself, become broken. Meanwhile, God is holy, and His holy law still stands, still defines the boundary line between heaven's selfless morality and the bitter selfishness of Satan's kingdom. And countless beings scattered throughout the creation of God look on as Satan's charges that God's law is unfair echo through heaven. Every angelic mind is focused on the question, Can God really be both just and the Justifier of fallen humans who have believed on Jesus? (Romans 3:26).
Failure of the Hebrews
Yes, all humanity was called to the wedding. But first the Hebrew nation was called. To that people God had granted special privileges. Massive was their responsibility to live-out and to share what they had been given. They had been granted special opportunities, including being made keepers of the oracles of God (Romans 9:4). To them were given the covenants, and the promise of Messiah to come through their race.
But history records a sad fact. Through long ages they persisted in going the wrong way from God. After every intervention by heaven, in short order they would depart straight-away from His will and plunge back into wickedness. With all their opportunities, the results showed little more than their deep indifference to God's spiritually-based kingdom. And so finally at the rejection of His entreaties He rejected them as a unique people, and went beyond.
Oh, there would still be a people in which God would succeed in combining humanity with divinity-- there would still be a successful follow-through on the plan of redemption -- there would still be manifested before the onlooking universe the result of His plan of grace: sons and daughters of God would be produced. But now the tree of Israel was expanded. The unwilling nation was snipped out of it and the willing were grafted in. Israel remained, but the wild-shoots were grafted in. God would furnish His wedding with guests.
He called and called and called. But they would not come. In sorrow and in anger He thus declares "they which were bidden were not worthy." You see, one had to be "worthy" to attend the wedding. One had to be part of the Father's kingdom instead of part of Satan's kingdom. Romans five outlines for us the fact that there are two kingdoms vying for our fealty today: a kingdom of sin and death, and a kingdom of righteousness and grace. Those adhering to the kingdom of sin and death wish to have no part with the King, no matter how benevolent He is. They refuse to come to the wedding, refuse to give up their old nature and become (as the Scripture says), "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). A Desperate Need
The fallen nature of humanity is broken. It must be healed. It cleaves exclusively to itself; it has no place for anyone else or for even its only means of healing. Jesus, Yeshuah, Salvation, is no savior or salvation to the fallen nature. He is its destruction. Our nature refuses to be renewed; it is the nature of a devil. It is an unworthy nature.
So how do we get to "worthiness"? It can't be done on our own apart from God, because we have no power to improve ourselves. But there is a way; there is a means of preparation; there is an experience whereby we may have our part in the wedding feast.
But it is only possible through real grace.
Real grace changes people. And we need to be changed people. We all must be ready for the wedding, and we can't be ready by just wishing it or going "as we are." The invitation comes to us as we are, but to go in to the wedding means to accept our King's plans for preparation.
What did we discover in the parable? Just before the wedding began the king went in and inspected the guests present at the wedding. This wedding was no common affair. Remember, it was actually a figure of the plan of salvation, the union of humanity with divinity. God wants to change and restore people. They are invited to the wedding; they are invited to be changed.
How?
Let's look at it.
The Wedding Garment is Provided For Us
What did Jesus say? "Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways." See what God says? "I have prepared My dinner: My oxen and My fatlings are killed," and what? "all things are ready." A moment later we read that "The wedding is ready." Do you see this? Before the King goes in to inspect the guests, He has prepared everything. He has supplied the necessary nourishment to successfully conduct the wedding feast!
Do you remember that powerful verse from 2 Peter 1:3: "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue." Now this verse cannot be true unless the King provides for the guests what they need to attend the wedding. And what they need to attend the wedding feast is nothing less than the very righteousness of Christ -- the wedding garment!
Turn with me to Revelation 3:18. Jesus urged His end-time people to do this: "Buy from Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." Ointment for the eyes is needed too, so that we may see. But let's keep our focus on the white raiment. What is that? The same book tells us. Turn to Revelation 19:7-9, and notice: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and [now watch this!] His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb."
Now notice. This is the same book. Its third chapter speaks to us of the need of God's people in the end of time to have "white raiment" so as to be clothed. The nineteenth chapter tells us that this "clean and white" clothing is for "the marriage of the Lamb," and that the wife, the church, has made herself ready, that she is wearing this garment, and that in actuality it is the "righteousness of saints." Other translations call it "the righteous deeds of the saints."
A Righteousness Not Allowed
Now I hope you are paying close attention. What we have here is something that is not allowed for in the conventional, popular, evangelical theology of salvation. The Bible presents the situation as being that where there is salvation, there are deeds, behavior, acts, whichever label you want to use, works even, of righteousness. Notice also that it is said of the bride that "She hath made herself ready."
This is not allowed.
Nonetheless, this is the testimony of Scripture. What does it mean? Friends, there truly is a cooperative part in the plan of salvation. Notice, "and to her was granted" that she would be wearing the white garment, the righteousness of Christ. Only as a gift is her wearing of this garment possible. And yet, we discover that the Bible uses the wording "she hath made herself ready." Is heaven here trying to tell us that she merits some credit in salvation? That she has, somehow, in some small degree, saved herself? No. All it is saying is that she cooperated with her Savior's plan of redemption and He (the Savior) receives all the credit. All that this is saying is that she cooperated. The gift of Christ's righteousness was never earned by her. "To her it was granted." But when God gave her the wedding garment, she put it on.
Now maybe you are saying, "This is an abberation, a place where the Bible-writer used poor wording, and now overmuch is being made of it." Turn to Revelation 7:13-14. There we read, "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
These people "have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Did they do it on their own, apart from God? Never. They needed access to the solvent, the blood of the Lamb. But they cooperated with God. They "washed their robes."
Law Orientation or Disobedience Orientation?!
For a long time now Christians have been told otherwise than this. A new word has entered the vocabulary: "legalism." If you are trying to obey God, it may be whispered that you have a "law orientation," and not a "grace orientation." If you speak of conditions in the gospel, you are said to be speaking of a "works salvation." All this, friends, is an attempt to shout down the real gospel and replace it with a phony. Always when we seek to preach the authentic gospel, the one the Adventist pioneers understood, this attack is made. The true gospel is being smeared friends, by those who are its enemies.
By the way, did you know that the devil wants us to go to the wedding feast? That he wants us to show up there along with everyone else who's going? That's a fact. He would prefer for you to go. But he wants to send you through the doors into the palace as an unprepared person. He knows this will mean your destruction. He knows the King is going to enter and inspect the guests. So he has two tickets to paradise for you. One ticket says "sin and live," and the other ticket says "the gospel is passive." That is, you can actively sin, and be passively saved. And this he calls "grace." It is forever true, everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin. That is, stated another way, everything that we try to do on our own apart from God is tainted by sin. We are fallen and we cannot obey -- not without divine help. But we have divine help, if we will receive it. This changes everything, because it involves real grace.
God's Golden Streets or Our Own Blacktop
Man constantly tries to manufacture a grace of his own. Constantly we are prone to seek to supplement the road to heaven in some way, to add a stretch covered with our own blacktop. It is true that humanity is at heart, in its fallen state, ever trying to climb up the salvation ladder some other way, to add a rung or two of our own. But this is not the only trap. There is another one just as destructive, and it is one we have to discuss and give a corrective for. This is the view that believing in Jesus somehow releases us from the necessity of obeying God. It is said that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, now our works have nothing to do with our redemption that salvation is totally in God's hands.
But what happened back in our parable? The King, at the wedding feast and just immediately before the wedding, comes in to see the guests. And there he finds "a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless." If salvation is "totally in God's hands," then why is this invitee to the wedding condemned for not wearing the wedding garment? In accordance with eastern tradition, the king had provided the wedding garment. But the guest refused to put it on. He came in his own clothes.
At great cost heaven has provided the garment of Christ's righteousness. What an insult it would be not to put it on; to think we can appear before the King in our own righteousness. How speechless we would be.
If our heart has been renewed by the Spirit of God, then our lives will show it. If we are wearing the wedding garment, our lives will show it. The wedding garment is Christ's own righteousness. Christ is God. God is love. If we put on Christ (Galatians 3:27; Romans 13:14), we put on love. With this love poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), what we are will be changed. This supernatural love brings me the capacity to control my hasty ways. It protects me against manifesting my selfish tendencies. It changes me and makes God now my friend and Satan now my enemy. Drastic alterations come even in the motives that underlie my actions. If this divine love is implanted in my soul, won't His law of love be carried out in my life? Can this kind of love be put inside of me and I remain unloving still?
The so-called faith in Christ used as an excuse to release us from the necessity of obeying His law is nothing but presumption. "By grace are ye saved through faith," but "faith, if it have not works, is dead" (Ephesians 2:8; James 2:17). If you give yourself to Jesus, then no matter how sinful your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character. You are accepted before God is if you had never sinned. But grace does more than this! There is a change in your heart when Jesus is present in it. By faith we cling to Jesus, the connection to Him is kept open. We keep ourselves surrendered to Him and He works in us to will and to do what He wants to do.
With Christ at work inside of us, we do the same good works that He did -- works of righteousness, works that are obedient. Since we are sinful and unholy in our natures, we cannot perfectly obey the law of God, we cannot make ourselves righteous. We must have Christ in us, changing the whole equation. We have, originating inside of us, nothing of which to boast, but Christ's righteousness is imputed to us and the same righteousness of God is imparted in us and through us by the work of the Holy Spirit. When we put on the wedding garment, then the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us (Romans 8:4).
What then? Do we receive any credit personally for being saved? Not at all. In the garment of salvation of which we speak there is not one thread or stitch of anything produced by a man or a woman apart from God. God is in it. Jesus came and lived in a fallen human body without sinning. By His perfect obedience, He made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. If it is possible to obey the commandments of God, then where is your or my excuse for sinning? We no longer have one. The power to obey is not in the human agent. It is in God. So we must put on the garment.
How astonishing the fact that so many have today been taught such a brutal lie. They expect to be saved by Christ's death, while they refuse to live His self-denying life. They rant about what they call grace, and seek to cover themselves with the appearance of righteousness. But many don't care to be transformed by Jesus. Under a distortion of grace they shelter themselves from the real bankruptcy and shallowness of their spirituality. But the righteousness of Christ will not cover even the smallest cherished sin -- not one. Sin is the forgotten doctrine of our time. "The wages of sin is death," death I say, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Getting a grip on what real grace is is a matter of eternal life or eternal death.
A Wedding Furnished With Guests Because of Real Grace
Now you might say, "Pastor, I thought we were going to follow the word 'grace' through the Bible. But in this parable that word does not appear." Agreed. The literal word "grace" does not here appear. But grace is still here. After all, this parable speaks to us of God changing a people, making them "meet" (Colossians 1:12) to be "partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light." The word used in the parable is "worthy."
That's an astonishing word. After all, we are so unworthy. In us is no good thing; in us is no latent righteousness. We aren't inert, just needing a little push from God to become good; we are disasterously bad, and it will take everything God has to change us. If the righteous man is only "just barely saved," where will the sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:18). Well, the sinner won't appear in heaven. But the righteous man at least will. And why will he? Why will he be there? Because Jesus proved that divinity and humanity combined can fully obey God's law. The only man or woman who will ever be righteous will be the man or woman who puts on Christ, who lets him put His righteousness in him and upon him. (Romans 3:22).
Brothers and sisters, the King is coming. He has prepared a wedding for His Son. Have you put on His robe of righteousness? Are you ready for the wedding?
Don't forget. Jesus worked His first ministerial miracle at a wedding. I don't believe that He has stopped. There is real grace at the wedding feast. We cannot earn our salvation -- not for a moment. But if we have given ourselves to God, if His Spirit is in us, then "how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:2).
The wedding has been furnished with guests. The guests have been furnished with robes. The robes have been wrought out by Christ. On that day when we meet again, when our tear-ducts have been emptied in joyful reunions and even the physical embrace of our Lord Jesus, make sure you are there. The way things are going, that day may arrive sooner than we think. God gather us there then. May not one be missing. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.