SALVATION: What’s so amazing about grace?
ROMANS: Salvation: what’s so amazing about grace?
(ASD 8 and 10am – 20th July Romans – a letter that makes sense of life by Andrew Ollerton pgs. 55-77)
"Father God, we thank you for your boundless grace, a gift we don't deserve. As we gather to explore your grace today, we ask that your Holy Spirit open our hearts and minds to understand its depth and power. May we be transformed by your grace, and may your love be reflected in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Is there anyone here who would love a Cadbury’s cream egg or perhaps a bag of wine gums? Invite them to come and get it and then as they walk away ask for £5, “you didn’t think I would just give it away for nothing? I am a poor vicar you know!”
This Summer we are looking at the book of Romans. If you missed these opening weeks, I’d recommend taking one of the sheets on the table at the back of church– it gives you an overview of the journey we’re making through Romans, and gives you links to two short videos which will get you started. It is also worth reading this book by Andrew Ollerton – Romans: a letter that makes sense of life. We’ll be using his material as we travel, so chapter by chapter this will tie in with our Sunday sermons.
We began by thinking about the backstory – the context and setting. Last time we found ourselves deep in the valley of Sin, facing the impenetrable cliff of God’s justice We have all exchanged the living God for idols and pointed at others to mask our own failures. The situation looks and feels hopeless, we are all sinners, we all fall short of the glory of God and Paul doesn’t mince his words.
Well today, I have the joy of being like the superhero in a movie, who comes in, just in time, as the music turns atmospheric the crescendo building, to save all from death and destruction, because as we sit in the crevice of the mountain surrounded by our sin, we hear Pauls words BUT NOW… Andrew Ollerton says. These words “indicate a switch of focus from the failure of humans to worship their creator to the faithfulness of God towards his creation”
It might come as a surprise to you that I am not really a mountain climbing expert, but Andrew tells us that “on a mountain climb, the crux pitch is the critical one. It’s normally the hardest part of the route, involving the most technical part of the climb. But It is also the breakthrough moment. Get past the crux pitch and the rest of the route opens in an exhilarating way.”
Have you ever used the phrase the crux of the matter, suggested that something is crucial. Meaning it is essential, important, fundamental. Crux is Latin for cross. The crux of our salvation is the cross of Christ.
Andrew says “The way out of our predicament in the valley of sin is not more effort on our part. Quite the opposite. It is to believe that Jesus’ death has reconciled us to God. Having felt the crisis of sin, we are now ready to appreciate the beautiful diamond of Grace. GRACE – Modern, secular definitions of grace relate to a person's "elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action; or a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment."
In Christian terms, grace can be defined as “God’s favor toward the unworthy” or “God’s compassion on the undeserving.” In His grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us, even though we fall short of living righteously.
“Grace” is one of the most important concepts in the Bible, Christianity, and the world. It is most clearly expressed in the promises of God revealed in Scripture and embodied in Jesus Christ.
Grace is the love of God shown to the unlovely, the peace of God given to the restless, the unmerited favour of God.
Grace is most needed and best understood amid sin, suffering, and brokenness. We live in a world of earning, deserving, and merit, which result in judgment. That is why everyone wants and needs grace. Judgment destroys and kills. Only grace makes us alive.
We are all sinners, Paul tells us (Romans 3:19-28). There is no distinction – we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is the one thing that we all have in common. None of us, no matter how hard we try, get it all right. We all fall short.
But Now
But now Paul says, listen up, I have news to share with you, something that no other religions have. Righteousness, Justification, Salvation are an unmerited gift, not a hard-earned wage.
Andrew says “The notion of God’s love as a free gift sets Christianity apart from the Buddhist eightfold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish Torah and the Muslim code of law. They offer a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to offer salvation entirely as a gift.”
Faith is always important to a Christian. But I think that these days, it seems more important than ever. Why do I say that? Because I look around our world and see it placing its faith in so many other things, things cannot save us. Politics, Money, Education, living a good life cannot save us. Ignoring what is wrong in our lives or in the world cannot save us. Only Jesus can save us. Believing that fundamental truth is central to our Christian faith.
Faith is the human response to grace, involving belief in God's promises and trust in Jesus Christ. It's how individuals accept and receive the gift of grace.
But faith does much more than simply save us. Because faith is really about a relationship that blesses us in this life more than anything else in this world.
All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. Not some, but all, Jews and Gentiles, you and me.
In this passage in Romans Paul uses three metaphors to show the gift of Salvation:
Redemption from slavery. In the time Paul was writing to the churches in Rome at least one third of the population would have been a slave. They were not treated humanly but as a commodity to be sold, abused and used. Imagine being a gentile slave hearing these words, that in Jesus Christ, God has stepped into pay the ransom price to liberate you.
It would have also been a significant concept to the Jews as the Israelites escaped the rule of Pharoh by the redemptive Passover, a spotless lamb sacrificed, and the blood marked on the doorposts to save Israel from the angel of death. The final moment when God’s people were set free by Pharoah.
Sacrifice of atonement. It was common practice to offer sacrifices to all kinds of Gods in the hope of receiving protection and peace. Some more weird and strange than others, and yet here Paul is talking about God who has offered the sacrifice for you. The antithesis of what they were expecting, you were supposed to pay the Gods, not God pay for you.
That’s okay I hear you all mumble, we no longer sacrifice animals and infants in strange ways to appease our God. No but, if we make money our idol, we lose sight of what’s important and work ourselves into the ground trying to feel secure. Remember if you say yes to something you are always saying no to something else, rest, time with family, balance in your life. If we make pleasure our idol we are never satisfied, we chase experiences and relationships looking for that next dopamine hit.
Andrew says wisely” to those feeling exhausted by this continual need to impress, accumulate and achieve, the Gospel is such good news. There is nothing we need to do to buy God’s favour. He offered us the perfect sacrifice for free.”
The legal status of justification. Old Testament sacrifices were a sign of things to come when God’s justice would be properly sacrificed. When Jesus the Messiah was crucified on that roman cross, blameless and spotless without sin, offering his life on behalf of sinful humans. On that cross, God’s standards of justice were satisfied, and our sin was atoned for.
Through this justification God no longer hold us to account of our guilt and failures. We are accepted and welcomed into his covenant people regardless of our ethnicity or morality. We are put right with God and become part of God’s family in the kingdom.
But it's not only the New Testament that gives us worthy examples to follow. We have examples in the Old Testament as well. And one prominent example that the Scriptures put before us is the life of Abraham.
For Abraham never knew of Jesus by name. And I doubt that he fully understood the need of sacrifice for sins. But what Abraham did know, he believed. He had a direct promise of God to bless him and his offspring.
And he believed.
Paul tells us that Abraham was counted righteous before he was circumcised, before the law was given to Israel. Because our justification before the Lord doesn't depend upon circumcision or baptism or keeping the law or following some sorts of rules. No, we are justified by faith alone.
Abraham never wavered with unbelief concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
In other words, the sustaining power and fuel of Abraham's faith was his trust in the power of God. Abraham was fully convinced that God could fulfill his promises.
Now, what I think is encouraging is that the faith of Abraham and Sarah was far from perfect. When Sarah heard the prophecy of a child being born to her within the year, she laughed in unbelief. Earlier in their pilgrimage, Abraham and Sarah demonstrated their unbelief in the whole plan with Hagar. And yet, Paul mentions none of these failures in Romans 4. Which should be deeply encouraging to us. Just as Paul wasn't focused upon the failures of Abraham and Sarah to believe, so also God isn't focused upon our failures to believe. Instead, his heart for us is to "grow in faith".
It's why God has given to us a Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's all given to us "for our instruction." And one of the prominent things that we learn from Abraham is the way of justification. It doesn't come through righteous acts or merit of any kind. It comes to us through faith. It comes to us as we believe in the promises of the gospel. It comes to us as we believe.
The gospel of the grace of God is the message everyone needs. The word of grace is proclaimed from every page of the Bible and ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ. The last verse of the Bible summarizes the message from Genesis to Revelation: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all” (Revelation 22:21).
Lord Jesus, we confess that we are broken people. We confess that we easily justify our sinful and selfish actions and words. Forgive us for pretending to be better than we really are. Today we agree that we have fallen short and desperately need your grace. Thank you that we are not without hope, because you died for us on the cross, you paid the price for our wrong and you offer us tall grace and freedom. You truly are the Saviour of all. We thank you for the gift of salvation in our lives. Amen