Why is God’s grace so amazing?

Actually we’re starting a new series of Sunday morning teaching sessions today about being a disciple of Jesus Christ. As we go through this we’re going to see six domains of discipleship that will help us to live for our messiah, Jesus. I want you to imagine the light of Christ impacting your life as light impacts a prism. As the light travels through the glass it refracts into a whole rainbow of colours that create a spectrum of amazing beauty.

Quite simply my message is this: As the light of Christ enters our lives it breaks out into a wonderful array of spiritual colours that make our lives objects of great beauty to our heavenly Father. I’m not going to give you any more than headlines right now, but there are six domains we’re going to look at as we go through this Sunday morning teaching series about discipleship – and you can see them here …

click to enlarge

The first domain is grace. A moment when we come to salvation, enter the kingdom of God by making him our king.

This is probably the most fundamental factor when it comes to following Jesus – the guts of being a Christian

I’m going to use five scenes / pictures – each one illustrates an aspect of grace, of what happens to us when we come to faith

What happens to us when we come to faith and experience God’s grace for ourselves?

We are at peace

Because God’s anger is diverted (propitiation)

Imagine a sculptor’s studio

he’s been working for weeks on a figure of a man our of clay – perfectly formed, exquisite in every detail – the kind of piece that gets you going “wow – that’s amazing!”
he’s looking forward to the moment when it will be turned into a bronze and put on a plinth in Trafalgar square (or wherever)

Now imagine that overnight the sculpture comes to life

The sculptor enters his studio the following morning and hears a noise behind him

“Excuse me” – “Did I hear something”
and in front of the sculptor’s eyes the sculpture begins to tear bits off of itself – a finger, a foot, takes a dig into its waist and throws the clay on the floor

Then during the course of the morning the sculpture reduces itself to something that is a shadow of the original.
The sculptor is furious!
“I made you and I formed you and you seem bent on destroying yourself!”

He feels like slamming down his hand on the statue and destroying it flat

but instead he vents his anger on another stature

In that scene the sculptor is a picture of God.

He has made us in his image, yet we have destroyed ourselves through wrong-doing, selfishness, greed and any number of other self-destructive practices and behaviour
and God’s anger is entirely justified at this spiritual self-destruction
but instead of venting his anger on us, his sculptures, his creation, he vents it on his Son.

But here we have a problem: We tend to feel that the concept of anger un-Godlike

Unworthy of him. Surely he’s above and beyond all that kind of stuff.
But sin is the self-damaging of God’s image in us, and it arouses his anger.

But before we get the wrong idea about God we need to know that His anger is not the capricious anger that we often display – it’s not God flying off the handle in an uncontrolled way (Incidentally, that’s the animists belief – and explains why they constantly try to appease their gods)

Our heavenly father experiences a settled and furious hostility to all forms of sin and evil – he hates it!
why? – because above all else it damages us – his creation – and we are precious to Him!
When we sin we distort the very person God has made us to be and the person whom he loves so unconditionally.

So what happens? – at the salvation moment – and as a direct result of God’s grace, his anger is diverted

and staggeringly, it is diverted on to Jesus Christ – he took the full force of God’s anger that is rightly directed at us.

We give it a technical term that’s worth knowing – Called ‘propitiation’

1John 2:1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

2 He is the atoning sacrifice (propitiation) for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Our Messiah – the very embodiment of God in human form – actually took the wrath of God in my place.

That’s God’s amazing grace

A second facet of god’s grace is this:

We are valued

Because the ransom price is paid (redemption)

This is scene 2: Market place – not any market, but a slaves market. The buying and selling of human lives.

If, the first century, you were in that position you’d got to life’s lowest ebb.

I could have shown you an artist’s impression of what a Roman slave market might have looked like – instead I’ll show a contemporary one.

These women are bonded sex workers.
They are slaves in all but name and they are waiting for their next clients in this stair-well at a state licensed brothel in Faridpur, India.
There are about 800 women and girls who live and work inside this brothel. Most of them have borrowed money from the brothel owners and are not making enough money from their sex work to pay back the debt – which is constantly ratcheting up with high interest.
They are utterly trapped (see www,allisonjoyce.com)

We can only imagine the desperation of finding ourselves in that situation.

When I see a picture like that I want to pay off their debt so they can go free!

So now imagine that actually happening – someone comes along and pays the price for you – then pays off the debt you owe – then says’ OK you’re free to go – no longer do you have to live under this weoght of law, of obligation to pay – you’re free!

this would not be cheap grace, it would be a costly paying off of all debts and liabilities!
how would you feel?

That’s precisely the concept used in the Bible called redemption

1Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men- the testimony given in its proper time.

At enormous cost

1Peter 1:18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed … 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

>>> God’s staggering grace!

But there’s more …

We are no longer guilty

A ‘not guilty’ verdict is returned on us. We call this justicifation

This time the scene is a court room and I want you to imagine you’re in the dock

and you’re guilty.
you know it – the prosecution knows it – the defence knows it, the jury know it – in fact the world knows it
an open and shut case.

So the judge hands down a fine of, say, £10,000 – and you haven’t a hope of paying. What do you do?

Now imagine someone else enters the court room and says “Your honour, I will pay” – “I will take that man’s penalty”

That’s what happened at the cross of Christ

As a result of God’s grace – the person who took your penalty is Jesus, personally.

Here’s how Paul describes it

Romans 5:18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.

Let me unpack that just a little

The ‘one trespass’ refers to Adam and Eve’s failure way back in Genesis and the ‘on act of righteousness’ refers to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

So our Messiah’s death and resurrection were intended By God to make up for – more than make up for – the debilitating effect of Adam and Eve’s transgression.

Our price has been paid! The verdict has been pronounced – we are free!

What extraordinary grace!

Also, because of God’s grace,

We are reconciled

Warring parties are united.

God’s grace is seen here in Scene 4 – the family

Imagine two people falling out –

You might hear someone say (as I have) “I haven’t spoken to him for years” – and there’s venom in the voice

Now here is what Paul says about being reconciled:

Romans 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

>>>

FAQ: Do I need to know the date when this happened?Not necessarily

E.g. Motorway through Europe – German Border – if you were asleep you’d miss it!

Some people can’t identify a moment, but one thing they know – once they were outside God’s kingdom – now they are inside.

A. No, but it helps – even if you can only look back and identify a period of time over which your live changes

we are in the family

Because we’ve been adopted.

>>>

two other factors:

Salvation is only through Christ (Acts 4:12)

Context – a man miraculously healed – Peter and John were arrested – brought before the ruling council the next day.

The big questions the rulers wanted answered: by whose authority did you do this? Peter’s answer very clear and very clever

Acts 4:11 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

In that sentence he contrasts ‘you’ and ‘God’ – clear message – ‘you may be religious leaders but you’re operating outside God’s blessing!

11 Jesus is

‘“the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.”[a]

So who are the builders? – the rulers are – and God has rejected you in favour of someone who was rejected by you!

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.’

You might think that salvations comes from the Jews and is administered through the religious heirarcy of priests and rabbis – actually it’s through Jesus Christ – and the evidence makes that very clear!

13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

The good news of the gospel carries with it the power to bring about salvation (Romans 1:16)

Paul said:

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’

people change just by taking on board simple ideas. There is power in them

never against someone’s will of course, but if you’re willing, He will change you.

E.g. lady who poured perfume over Jesus’ feet. –

incredibly costly and generous
in giving that perfume she was giving herself.

Let me tell you a story from China.

There is a legend that during the Ming dynasty the emperor’s wise lay sick and on the point of death. One of her advisers told her to drink some tea made from 4 obscure bushes found half way up a cliff in a remote province.

She drank the tea and remarkably recovered.
The emperor was so pleased that he had four big red robes made to clothes these astounding bushes.
From that day on ‘big red robe’ tea, made from those bushes (of which 3 still remain) has been one of China’s most sought-after teas.
So much so that in 2006 a 7 gram bag of this tea was sold at auction in Hong Kong for £18,000 – which could easily be a year’s wages!

Now Imagine selling all your assets and spending £18K on a tea bag.

To whom would you give that mug of tea?

This lady gave it to Jesus and in doing that illustrated the costly grace of God

That’s what God did in Christ – he gave himself to you!

That’s grace!

Pray >>>

Grace: pictures of the amazing