Pastor Scott
Jonas
Grace Alone
11/18/17
We are at the end of our reformation
sermon series on the Solas. We started
with Scripture Alone because the reformation emphasized that it is only through
the Word of God that we know our Savior.
Then there was Faith Alone. It is
only through God initiating a relationship with us that we can have eternal
life. Next was Glory to God Alone. The Saints past and Saints present owe their
whole existence to Jesus. I am as
dependent on Christ as Pastor Rodney Wise is who died this year. We both continue to Glory to God alone
because he is worthy to receive our praise.
Then there is Christ Alone. The
plan for salvation runs through one person, Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can show us the Father. Today, we conclude with Grace Alone. It is not by the Law of works we are saved
but only through the mercy of God.
I
feel so strongly about the five solas of the reformation that I named my
daughters Grace and Faith. A boy could
have been Christian. Another girl might
have been glory. I decided to leave
scriptura as a last resort. That would
have been a tough ask.
I did want
my children’s name to be central to their identity. That is a tact that is found throughout the
Bible. Name your child something to
which they can aspire. How many David’s
do we have here? David means “beloved”
and the Shepherd boy was treasured by God.
Any Sara’s here? It means
princess. I will let you decide if you
lived up to the name. I know we have a
Tim. It means “One who God honors.” There is something settling about having that
stamped on you at birth, “One who God honors.”
I wanted
Grace to be filled with grace and Faith to be filled with Faith. Whenever we were in church and their name was
said in church I would nudge them or give them a look. When they werer young they would smile. As they got older their eyes would roll. But my plan worked.
When you
look up the greek word translated “grace” it is Charis. It means of the merciful kindness by which
God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps,
strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and
kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues. Grace.
There is a lot packed into that one word.
Grace alone
means that only through the merciful kindness of God can we be influenced,
turned, kept, strengthened, increased and kindled as the people of God. If there is no grace then there is no faith.
This is true
small picture and big picture. In your
life, if God does not give you his grace then you are a lost sinner without any
hope. No grace means that you get what
you deserve. How many times in our lives
have we said under our breath “That’s not fair!” We long for fairness but be careful what you
ask for. Grace is not fair. Fair is you receive the consequences that
your sin demands. If you gossip then you
pay for every negative comment that you caused, like a snow ball that you roll
downhill. “He thinks He’s better than
everyone else” and gravity takes
over. It is beyond your control as soon
as it leaves your lips. It may be big
enough to take out a whole family or even a small community when your gossip
gets done. Do you really want fair, to
get what you deserve? Or do you crave
grace?
Thankfully,
God has always been generous. He pours
out his grace in the old testament and the new.
He is not a miserly Father in the Old Testament and a forgiving in the
new. His grace is apparent in every book
of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, from the 1st day of
creation to the last day of Christ’s returning.
Grace Upon Grace.
Grace upon
grace is the theme for Lutheran High School this year. It comes from John 1 :16 “For from his
fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Isn’t that a great visual, from his fullness we
have received grace upon grace. Heaven
is filled with grace to the brim. He has
more than enough for everyone, so he gives it out.
Twenty years
ago, when I first became a Director of Education, I was blessed to go through a
year long study called Crossways. Has anyone
here ever gone through crossways. It was
actually developed by a Lutheran Pastor and takes one to two years to go
through the whole story of scripture. It
uses great visuals to get across biblical truth. I can’t show you the visual because we don’t
have a screen here. But I will try to
describe it to you.
At the Top
it is entitled “ God’s Goodness.” Along
the Left side it spells out a pattern. I’ll
call it the Grace pattern. The pattern
consists of three parts Sin, Judgment and Grace. Sin, Judgement and Grace. This pattern shows up throughout the Bible. It goes like this 1. God gives a gift but humans ruin it. That is the Sin. 2. There
are natural moral consequences to the sin.
It could be isolation, destruction of creation, degradation of your soul
or any number of things. This is
Judgement. 3. God always stops the cycle of Sin and
judgment through his Grace. Only the Grace
of God can stop this cycle of death.
For example,
take the first cycle. God created
everything and it was a perfect gift.
But Adam and Eve ruined it by listening to the devil, disobeying God and
eating the forbidden fruit. Sin. The judgment was, among other things, that
all of creation was infected like a body with a virus. Both man and woman were estranged from each
other and God. They would now one day
die. Judgement. Imagine if the cycle stopped there. God removes himself. The world gets worse and worse. People get worse and worse. This goes on until people destroy all of
creation. But the mercy of God breaks to
death cycle.
The natural
moral consequence of disobeying God was instant death. That is what they deserved. God deserves all Glory and praise. Glory means importance. Adam and Eve listened to the devil rather
than God making the devil more important in their eyes than God. They deserved nothing less than instant
death. But God in his mercy allowed them
to continue living on this earth. More
than that he promised to send his son to defeat sin, death and the devil. The ultimate Grace. In Genesis 3 we get the pattern that pervades
the rest of the story. Sin, Judgement.
Grace.
You can give
me any person in the old testament and we will see this pattern. Yell out a prominent name from the old
testament.
The pattern
continues in the New testament. Peter
denies Jesus. Clearly Sin. The natural moral consequences were
incredible crushing guilt. Peter bragged
that all could leave Jesus but not Peter.
He would never betray his friend and Lord. Yet, three times he said, “I do not know the
man.” Imagine doing that to someone you
love, your spouse, your children or your parents. When they need your love and support the most
you look away and say “I don’t know them.”
Devastating judgement. Yet, Grace
is stronger than judgement. Jesus rises
from the dead. He finds Peter specifically,
to restore him in front of everyone else.
Only the grace of God is powerful enough to do that. Sin. Judgement. Grace.
Lutheran
call it distinguishing between Law and Gospel.
Finding the Gospel or Grace in God’s relationship with his people. Luther himself discovered this Grace
pattern. Though Luther was a mess and
suffered guilt and shame, God broke through the sin and judgement to bring Grace. When Luther discovered that Grace pattern, He
shared it with the World.
When we do
confession/ Absolution is the beginning of the service we are recognizing our
need for the Grace pattern. We all have
done things this week that are sinful.
We all have natural moral consequences that result from that sin. But in the beginning of the service we ask
God to break the cycle. Notice that when
we confess our sins, I am in the front.
That is because I am the chief of sinners. I need my sin cycle broken as much as
anybody. But if we imagine the grace of
God flowing from the altar I also get the first wave of forgiveness. Don’t worry about it. There is enough Grace to fill this whole
church, all of Glendale, and all the continents.
Whatever sin
cycle you struggle with, Jesus is stronger.
You are free through Grace alone.
Sin, Judgement, Grace. One day,
we will have a new cycle all together, Grace, Grace Upon Grace.