I wonder what verses you have learnt off by heart? Its a dying discipline for many, but it’s a great thing to do (see Ps 119:11, for example!). One of the first verses I learnt because I decided to (rather than as a requirement for getting a prize at Sunday School!) was Eph 2:8-9. I guess many of you will also have learnt it at some time too:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.“
I learnt it because I was travelling to Southern Ireland to do outreach amongst people who were predominately from a Roman Catholic background. Their upbringing told them that their life was about the merit that they could earn before God which would allow them to qualify for His grace in dying for them. Yet in Eph 2:1-7 Paul recalls the depth of our fallen nature and utter unworthiness before a Holy God and then, in that terrible reality, declares these glorious words … that it is nothing to do with my work, my merit, but entirely about His undeserved kindness to unworthy people. There is nothing to do; I am called simply to repent of my rebellion and trust in the finished work of Jesus who paid the penalty for my sin. In fact, if we are to examine scripture further, we find that even the ability to hear and respond to this gospel message is an act of His grace because we are spiritually dead (Col 2:13, Rom 5:6-8).
The problem
This verse was amazing! It opened my eyes to the goodness of God in His salvation plan, confirmed in my heart the security of His salvation, and thrilled my soul with the extent of His love. Yet there was a problem. I didn’t ‘get’ that what starts by grace continues by grace. I failed to realise that His work in me was exactly that … His work. I had the desire to follow Him (the “hunger and thirst for righteousness” that characterises all saved people), and so set out to follow Him as best I could. But the problem was that it was the best I could. It took me many years to understand that it was to be Christ who was to work in me (Gal 2:20), it was with His energy I was to labour and not my energy (Col 1:29), it is His fruit that His Spirit brings about in me (Gal 5:22-25), His transformation (Rom 12:1-2), not my character change. The wonder of His Grace in sanctification took time to dawn on me.
And that wasn’t the only problem. Because I was seeking to do things myself, I became proud of my own achievements and judgemental of others lack of achievement. The “so that no-one can boast“ of Eph 2:9 was, for me, for salvation only. I was the epitome of the unmerciful servant of Matt 18:21-25 … and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Charles Swindoll, in his fantastic book “The Grace Awakening” calls such people “Grace Killers”, and he wasn’t wrong.
Grow in grace
Sadly, I discovered that I was far from the only one who was amazed by God’s grace in salvation but failed to recognise His work of Grace in our lives in Christ beyond salvation. Our fallen nature that elevates works so much makes it hard to comprehend the extent and scandalously generous nature of grace in every part of our life. To so many believers the reality of what Jesus says when He says “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:30) is utterly foreign. And the result is so often the hardness, coldness and lack of love that so characterised my own life.
But, 2 Pet 3:18 says that we are to “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.“ Piper, commenting on this verse says this:
“Peter’s great desire for these people and for us is that we might experience lots and lots of God’s grace; that we might suck it up through our roots and grow by it; that we might soak it in like sunshine through our leaves and grow by it.
After “Jesus” there is no sweeter word in all the Bible than “grace.” As Dr. Widen would say, “It’s the greatest unused resource in all the world.” It is the wealth of God’s kindness; the riches of his mercy; the soothing ointment of his forgiveness; the free and undeserved, but lavishly offered hope of eternal life.”
John Piper
In our Spring sermon series we will be looking at Grace in the morning sermons and, to complement this, looking at the book of James in the evening services. It is my passionate prayer that God might use these series to open our eyes anew, or reawaken in our hearts afresh, amazement at the outrageous grace of God to us, soften our hearts in grace to one another, and revive in us a greater hunger and thirst for righteousness that comes to us only by His grace.