The Umbrella of Grace

Romans 5:12-21

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

   A.W. Tozer once said “The cross is the lightning rod of grace that short-circuits God’s wrath to Christ so that only the light of His love remains for believers.”

   There are two things that Tozer is making very clear here, First – God’s Grace only comes through Christ for believers and second – God’s wrath does exist

   The idea of Grace gets thrown around all the time, from the pulpit to the sinner but also from the sinner to their own conscience to justify their actions. 

The truth is: Grace IS salvation when properly understood.

Grace can also lead to death when handled improperly. 

   It reminds me of the current debate on firearms, a gun is simply a tool – a tool when in the proper hands can be used to provide sustenance, recreation and protection.  When improperly used it brings pain and death. 

   The first time I fired a gun I was about 12, my dad took me out back and set up a large food can.  He handed me his 12 gauge shotgun and said go ahead and shoot the can.  Well, not know the proper way to handle a gun I held it up, pointed and pulled the trigger – not knowing to pull the butt tight into my shoulder was a mistake and the fact that my dad had loaded 12 gauge magnum 00 buck shot – when I shook it off I realized I was on my back with my dad standing over me.  He said “Lesson number one – that is what that end of a gun will do to you, think about what the other end could”, he then walked away.  I swear I could hear the grin on his face from behind.

   We need to be taking the same precautions in teaching about grace.  It is often defined along the lines of unmerited pardon, or undeserved favor. Though true in part, grace is not merely undeserved favor; it is an enabling favor.

   It is the empowering of a human to live none other than like Christ.  The remarkable doctrine of Grace, when grasped by a true believer, creates a pivotal paradigm shift; he/she begins to live the one life starkly contrasted from the rest of the world.

   In Romans 5 the need for grace is made clear.  Through the sin of Adam all of mankind became sinners by nature – now that is not to say that Adam alone caused us to be sinners, his human nature, the nature of flesh caused it.  Through this act of Adam though it became necessary for God to provide Grace to us and He chose to that through the sinless life of Jesus Christ.

   In Galatians 2:20, Paul exclaims, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” -  Christ lives in me!!  The core of Christian life. 

   Through grace we are saved and brought to this point of Christ living in us.  The problem becomes when we see Grace as a dangerous concept leading toward lawlessness.  The thought pattern becomes “grace in indulgence.”  The Christian stumbles over a rift between grace and holy living, deciphering the two as extremes. This ultimately results in a grave misunderstanding of Grace, Christ, and ourselves.

   I knew a man who proclaimed to be a Christian yet he was living an immoral life, when confronted his response was all I have to do is to ask God to forgive me in the morning….  This man did not have Christ living in him.  He was not sanctified and made holy by the Grace of God; he had only fooled himself into thinking he was by his misinterpretation of Grace.

   Grace is about getting us to a point of Holy Living.  We cannot live holy lives alone, before or after salvation.  Grace says, “You cannot do anything good, right, or pleasing to God because your very nature is not good, right, or pleasing, but my Son has already finished the holy life, and you now have it.”  We as humans cannot gain salvation apart from this undeserved favor from Jesus Christ.  Likewise, we cannot sanctify our salvation apart from his enabling favor.  By faith, my very life is not mine anymore; Jesus is the one walking, talking, and moving through me to reach a lost world.

   Watchman Nee, a twentieth century Chinese Christian, explains in his classic, The Normal Christian Life:
“If an earthly surgeon can take a piece of skin from one human body and graft it on another, cannot the divine Surgeon implant the life of his Son into me?… We cannot tell how God has done his work in us, but it is done. We can do nothing and need do nothing to bring it about, for by the resurrection God has already done it.”

   By God’s grace, we have exchanged lawlessness for righteousness, flesh for Christ.  By belief in the finished life of the Son of God, we begin to walk in the Spirit, producing true life, love, and fruit.  The Spirit of God now fulfills the Law in redeemed humanity and thankfully, we cannot do anything to bring that perfection about.  This is the marvelous doctrine of God’s abundant grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9

“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast”

   Peter wrote in chapter 5 of Romans; “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” and from this my friend stopped his growth in learning the Bible and saw the freedom to continue in his sin.  Peter saw the Romans also misinterpret his message as well and then confronted them in chapter 6

Romans 6:1-14  

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?  Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

   Grace still exists for us; thank God Grace still exists for us because we still remain wrapped in the flesh of human and human nature.  We are still weak, and prone to making mistakes.  But, if you remember nothing from today’s message remember this – Grace is Not a lifetime membership to the get out of jail free club.

Look at Hebrews 10:26-31

“For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.  If anyone disregards Moses’ law, he dies without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know the One who has said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, and again, The Lord will judge His people.  It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”

   There is a well known debate that separates many Christian denominations – that of the loss of salvation.  Can a person do something so terrible that God will reject their previous status of a saved person?  I personally do not believe this and in my simpler mind I have just come to call those who turn away from a holy life the product of false salvation.  At that moment when they were presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ they come face to face with two possible responses.  Either go on to believe and be saved or stop short of actually believing and become someone who either willingly or foolishly embraces a false hope and a misinterpretation of grace.

    In its extreme, this practice of deliberately sinning, of totally rejecting the Holy Scripture and the path to living a holy life can be called apostasy – some say the one unforgivable sin.  But today I want to talk about the danger of what is becoming the common practice of deliberately sinning and the abuse of Grace, perhaps this is apostasy and those sitting in churches this morning who are deliberately sinning are in danger of God’s wrath, I would like to believe there is still hope and either they have unknowingly pretended to accept Christ or they have backslid to a very dangerous point.  All I know is that the scripture is clear here – Paul can get no blunter about it - “For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment”.  I cannot speak for anyone else but if God promises me a “terrifying expectation of judgment” because I know the truth, well the choice is clear and God’s command is clear – Stop It!!

   One scripture that comes to mind when we think of this subject is 1 John 2:19:

“They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us..”

    John says that some who had made a profession of being Christians in that day had all the outward signs of being Christians.  They bore the Christian name, and they identified themselves with some local church.  They were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  They took the bread and the cup at the communion service.  But John says that the way you can tell whether or not one is really a child of God is that eventually they will show their true colors and will leave the body of the church.  They will either physically walk away or they will do so in practice Monday through Saturday by returning to the ways of the world.  By deliberately sinning, following the theology of mankind rather than the truth of God’s ways.

   The saddest portrayal of this is when we see someone who has spent a significant amount of time in the church.  They have heard the gospel on a regular basis.  They may have even professed to be Christians at some point and gave an outward appearance of being serious.  But the day came when they were challenged about the gospel through perhaps just one sin and rather than believing God, they embraced a lie.  Not repenting of such sin will open the door to more sin and the justification of it continues – Grace is abused.  Their heart gets harder.  They may even still be able to rattle off the basic elements of biblical truth but it means nothing to them.  In willful defiance they turn away from Christ, the gospel, and the church.

   My home Pastor had a visual explanation of Grace.  It is like an umbrella – God opens it up and we are free to come stand under it in His protection.  But if we willfully step out from under it then we are going to get wet.  We can step back under Grace, stay focused and dry off, but if we continue to step out or if we stay out too long, well, there comes a point when one is so drenched in their sin there is no more drying out.

   We are standing on a massive cliff here in America, and it is not a fiscal one but one that will bring about God’s judgment upon us – the wrath of an angry God.  Sadly I view our current position as the result of many Christians and False Christians abusing the gift of Grace that God has bestowed upon mankind.

   The good news though is that it is not too late and we have actually seen such a change in our country before.  The 18th century in America began what was referred to as “The Great Awakening.”  Throughout New England the Spirit of God invaded one community after another, bringing the spiritually dead to life, and transforming the worship of churches.  It was not that there were no professing Christians in these villages but there was little evidence of Christian living until the Holy Spirit breathed new life into our nation.  This Great Awakening caused many to reaffirm their faith or to do so honestly for the first time.

   Jonathan Edwards was a very faithful servant of God that was used to spark this awakening.  In his sermon titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” he wrote the following causing many to turn from their trespasses and they themselves become tools in the hand of God to change our country.

“Your wickedness makes you as it were as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottom-less gulf… There are the black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you… the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward… The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all of you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls, all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and (thus those who have never experienced) light and life, are in the hands of an angry God.”

   It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. But remember how different it is for believers. David said in 2 Samuel 24:14, “Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great.”

For the believer no hands are as gentle as God’s hands.