Happy Daylight Savings Time.
The most wonderful time of the year.
When you compare the various religions of the world,
you'll find that they actually have a lot in common.
Some of you have done this, studied this academically.
Many religions in the world share ideas
about how human beings are to live,
how we are to treat one another.
You will even see concepts such as incarnation,
the idea of a divine being becoming human,
such as resurrection,
the idea of someone coming back from death.
You can see versions of these concepts
in multiple religions in the world.
But there is one thing that sets Christianity apart.
There is one thing that you will find
in no other religion, ancient or modern.
Grace.
The concept of grace.
The notion that God's love would come to people
free of charge, with no strings attached,
that seems to run against every fiber of our being
as human beings.
If you look at the Buddhist eightfold path
or the Hindu doctrine of karma
or the Jewish covenant with its requirements
or the Muslim code of law,
each of these offers a way for human beings
to earn their way into the approval
and the blessing of God.
Only Christianity dares to claim
that God's love would be completely unconditional
in the way it enters our lives.
And this is why the Christian gospel
is uniquely able to transform
human hearts and lives.
And you will probably find no better description
of grace and the Christian gospel
than the one we have in the lectionary reading this week
in Paul's letter to the Ephesians,
chapter two, verses one through 10.
So we're going to look at this
as we consider this unique concept of grace
and the power that it brings.
And we're gonna ask three questions.
Why do we need it?
How do we get it?
And then what is it all for?
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word
and we thank you for the opportunity
to look at the very core of our faith.
For those of us who are Christians,
this is something that we need to hear
again and again and again.
No sooner have we heard it
than we begin to forget it.
For those of us here who are not Christians,
not sure what we believe,
Lord, perhaps this is a time
where you might open our hearts
to help us to see the life
and the love that is on offer.
Lord, wherever we may be this morning,
we pray that you would do your work in us
for your glory.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So why do we need grace?
This is where Paul begins in verse one.
He answers this question for us
when he says this.
He says,
and you,
you were dead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked.
You were dead.
Now, I would guess
that most people in our culture,
including people who are Christians,
who have grown up around Christianity,
fail to grasp the full meaning
of Paul's words here.
One of my favorite movies
is The Princess Bride.
And Wesley is the main character.
There's probably somebody here
who has not seen it.
So for your sake,
Wesley is the main character.
And at one point in the movie,
his friends think that Wesley is dead.
And so they bring him
to a man named Miracle Max.
And Miracle Max takes a look at Wesley
and examines him.
And he says,
and they say,
he's dead.
What can you do?
And Max replies,
oh, look who knows so much.
And he said,
I'm not gonna do the impersonation,
but it's very tempting.
He says,
it just so happens
that your best friend here
is only mostly dead.
There's a big difference
between mostly dead
and all dead.
And since Wesley is just mostly dead,
it turns out all he needs
is a magic pill.
And once he swallows that pill,
he's good to go.
And he goes and he saves the princess.
Most people, I believe,
in our culture
have a kind of Miracle Max mentality
when it comes to the human condition.
Right?
They would read Paul
and they would say,
well, surely doesn't,
Paul doesn't actually mean
that we are all dead.
That would be extreme.
Surely what Paul means,
and this is just rhetoric,
is that we need a little help.
We just need the right medicine
to get us on track.
Now, different people
have different ideas
about what that medicine might be.
Religious traditionalists,
maybe some of us in this room,
might say we need moral reform.
That's the medicine
that society needs
to get us back on track.
Some of you might be more
in the secular progressive camp.
Secular progressives might say
we need more tolerance
and we need more inclusion
and we need less
of the religious
closed-mindedness and bigotry.
That's what society needs.
That's the medicine.
Social media gurus.
Now we've been fasting
from social media, right?
So this doesn't apply
to any of us,
but for other people,
social media gurus might say
we need cold plunges
every morning.
We need a keto diet, right?
These are things
that are going to radically
restart our lives
and get us on the right track.
People love to believe
these kinds of things.
People love to believe
that all we need
is just a little more discipline.
All we need
is just a better strategy.
People love to believe
that we are just one book
or one retreat
or one life hack away
from becoming
the best version of ourselves.
Even though all of these approaches
look different on the outside,
different packaging,
underneath they're all the same.
They all flow out of the idea
that we are fully capable
of solving all of our problems
in our own strength.
We just need the right medicine.
We love to believe that,
but medicine does not work
on dead people.
It works on sick people,
and if you're mostly dead,
but medicine does not work
on dead people.
And what Paul is saying here
very clearly
is that human beings
on our own
are spiritually dead.
dead.
To quote Miracle Max,
all dead.
That no amount
of human effort
can fix what is wrong with us.
There is no magic pill
that can wake us up
from our slumber.
He's saying
the world is full of people.
Some of those people
are religious,
and by the way,
in Paul's day,
everybody was religious.
There were no secular
progressive people.
Everybody was religious.
The world is full of people.
Some religious,
some secular,
who seem alive.
You can have people
who are highly moral.
You can have people
who do a lot of good
in the world.
People where you look at them
and you think,
that's a much better person
than me.
But what Paul is saying
is that person
may very well be
spiritually dead.
And we say,
well, how do we know that?
Jonathan Edwards,
who was a pastor
and theologian
during the first
great awakening,
he got to see people
coming to faith
in numbers
that most of us
can't imagine.
He saw these incredible
spiritual transformations,
and he wrote a lot about it.
He thought a lot about it,
and he wrote a lot about
what is the evidence
of genuine spiritual life
in a person.
And what he says is this,
the clearest evidence
of spiritual life
is not that they
intellectually assent
to the tenets
of the faith.
It's not their morality.
It's not the good works
that they do
or the external
religious practices
that they partake in.
Edwards says that
the clearest evidence
of spiritual life
is love.
Do you love God?
Do you delight in God?
Do you delight in God's word?
And does that love for God
overflow into the lives
of the people around you?
The point is,
it's all about our motivations.
You can have a highly moral,
highly religiously devoted person
who looks like they are
spiritually alive,
but what motivates them?
Edwards says there's a lot
of possible motivations.
It could be fear.
Maybe they're afraid
of divine punishment.
You know,
in his day,
that was a thing,
not so much in our day.
Maybe they're moral
and upright
and do good
because they fear rejection
from their friend group
or their family,
and so they keep up appearances.
Or maybe it's pride,
he says.
It feels good
to do good.
We live in a culture
that rewards people
who do good
and who advertise
that they do good.
If you do the right good
in the way that your friend group
defines good,
you're going to get
a lot of affirmation,
and that feels good.
Getting praise from other people
makes us feel good
about ourselves.
But what Edwards would say
is this.
That may produce
a highly moral
or highly religiously devoted life,
but all of these motivations
are ultimately self-serving.
We're not doing good
because we love God
and delight in God.
We're doing good
because it benefits us.
And it is therefore
a kind of shallow
and fragile morality
because as soon as it starts
to not benefit us,
we may stop doing so much good.
The truth is,
as we see in verses two and through,
whether we are moral or immoral,
whether we are religious
or irreligious,
on our own, Paul says,
we follow the prince
of the power of the air.
In other words,
we follow the message
of the deceiver
who has been deceiving humans
since the beginning
who said and continues to say,
you're better off on your own.
You're better off
living for yourself.
And so Paul is saying,
we're driven not by love
and delight in God,
spiritual life and vitality.
We're driven by our appetites
and desires
and the ways of the world around us.
And the key point here
in context,
religion is powerless
to make a difference.
Religion is powerless to help.
Religion can turn
less religious people
into more religious people.
We're really good at doing that.
Religion can turn
immoral people
into moral people.
Religion can also turn
immoral people
into immoral people.
We're pretty good
at doing that.
But religion cannot
raise the dead.
It's powerless
to raise the dead.
And so this first point
is crucial for us
to understand
how and why grace
changes lives.
The first thing
that we need to recognize,
Paul says,
is that true spiritual formation
is not possible
until we recognize
that on our own,
we are helpless.
And if we don't see
that we are spiritually helpless,
if we don't recognize that,
in other words,
if we think that we are
fully capable
of solving
all of our own problems
in our own strength,
what happens
when we see someone
who doesn't have
their life together?
What happens
when we see someone
who
isn't doing a good job
of solving
their problems?
Well,
if we think
that we're capable
of doing it
on our own
and we see somebody
who's clearly not doing it
on their own,
what does that mean
about them?
It's very easy
to look down
on such a person.
You know,
you see someone
who's homeless
on the street.
You pass them every day
on your walk, right?
The same person
is there on the corner
and they ask you
for something
and you give them something
and the next day
it's the same thing
and you think to yourself,
you're here every morning,
couldn't you show up
to a job?
Right?
If you can get here,
can't you get to a job?
Why aren't you working?
You need to be working.
Or you see somebody
struggling with addiction
and you say,
you know,
they just need
more self-discipline.
They just need
more self-discipline.
You see somebody
who's undocumented
and you say,
they never should have
come here to begin with.
Right?
And you're looking,
why didn't you solve
these problems?
I solved my problem,
why can't you do that?
Once the truth
of our spiritual helplessness
begins to hit home,
it begins to fundamentally
change how we see ourselves
and how we see other people
and frankly,
it is profoundly humbling
because you know
that you're no better
than anyone else.
When you see people
whom society
tends to look down on,
people who are homeless
or people with addictions,
you say,
well maybe on the outside
we look different,
maybe at this point
in my life
our lives don't look
the same on the outside
but you know
that deep down,
spiritually,
you are no better
than anyone else
and in fact,
you may very well
be much,
much worse
than that person,
spiritually speaking.
You know that even
if you're not
addicted to a substance,
you're spiritually addicted.
Right?
That even if you're
not currently struggling,
not having a place to live,
that you on your own
are spiritually homeless.
You're an outcast.
You're no different.
You're looking into a mirror.
When we begin
to recognize this truth
that on our own
we are spiritually dead,
it changes how we see ourselves.
Also,
if we don't recognize
this truth about ourselves,
we will never really believe
that we need God's grace.
We will simply believe
that we need
what God owes us,
which is a very different matter.
That's other religions.
So that's why we need it.
How do we get it?
Paul says in verse three,
we were by nature
children of wrath
like the rest of mankind.
Now listen,
the idea of God's wrath
is frankly very disturbing
for most people today.
Because I think
when we hear wrath,
like honestly,
when I hear the word wrath,
my first mental image
is that God
is storming around
like a dad
with anger issues.
I think of that
as being God's wrath.
He's just storming around.
He's like,
I can't believe
they did it again.
I've given all these chances
and they're just,
you know,
that's how I imagine wrath.
But that's a completely
unbiblical image of wrath.
What does it mean
when the Bible
talks about God's wrath?
Well,
imagine that you live
in a really,
really big,
nice house.
You're going to have
to really try hard.
But imagine,
pretend that you live
in a really big,
nice,
multi-million dollar mansion
and you've got
original art everywhere
and it's just,
it's this amazing place,
right?
And imagine that you have
to go away for a few weeks
and you ask your friend
to house sit for you.
And your friend says,
yeah,
I'll house sit for you.
And then while you're away,
they throw a huge party.
And it gets way out of control.
And there may be live animals.
And things catch on fire,
right?
And all the art,
everything gets destroyed.
And it may be that
at one point late in the night,
a car gets driven
through one of your walls
or something like that,
right?
So it's a crazy
out of control situation.
And you come home
and everything is trashed.
The whole house is trashed.
The fire department's there,
right?
It's a mess.
You have a couple of options.
You could,
option one,
demand that they pay
every penny
that it's going to cost
to restore your house.
They have to pay it all off.
You haul them
in front of a judge
and you request
a court mandated payment plan
and they have to pay
everything back.
But let's say
it's going to cost
at least a couple million dollars
to restore everything.
Right?
Some of that stuff
is priceless.
What happens to your friend
in that relationship?
Well,
they might never be able
to pay it off.
And so for the rest
of their lives,
the rest of your lives together,
they're going to be paying
and paying and paying
but they're never going
to pay it off.
So that's option A.
What's option B?
You could choose
to forgive them.
But what happens?
What happens
when you say
I forgive you?
What are you choosing
to do in that moment?
Wait,
you're choosing
to absorb
the cost
of the damage
that they did
to your house
and you're choosing
to absorb
the pain
of their profound
disrespect for you
and their disregard
for your things.
And you're choosing
to absorb
all of that.
The price doesn't go away
but you're the one
who's going to pay it.
You're the one
who's going to be writing
the check
to pay
for all of those
repairs to be done.
They're not going to have
any debt to pay.
Not because there's not a debt
but because you paid it
so they wouldn't have to.
You're choosing,
in other words,
to absorb
the full cost
of the wrong
and you're choosing
to extend
friendship
and love
and acceptance
instead of demanding
that they repay you
even though
that would be
just and right
and fair.
You're choosing
to absorb it
to set them free
from that debt
so that you can continue
in your friendship.
The point is this
is that God created
this world
and then God entrusted
this world to us
and we've rejected
and ignored God
in the world
that he made
and then we have defaced
and destroyed
his creation
as well as ourselves
and there is
an accumulated cost
of all of the sin
and the rebellion
of humanity
throughout the centuries
there's a debt owed
for all of the damage
that we've done.
There's a debt owed
for the disrespect
and rejection
of God.
God's wrath
is his righteous desire
for that debt
to be paid.
It is God
looking at that debt
and saying
out of his righteousness
somebody must pay
this debt.
Things have to be
made right.
Somebody's going
to write the check.
The problem is
we owe
such a vast sum
that even if we had
all of eternity
and we were all
working together
we would never
be able to pay it.
We would never be able
to put a dent in it.
That's the predicament.
Hear Paul's words.
But God
being rich
in mercy
because of the
great love
with which
he loved us
even when we
were dead
in our trespasses
made us alive
together
with Christ.
And then he says
by grace
you have been
saved.
On the cross
he's saying
Jesus
absorbed
the cost
of all of that
sin
and rebellion.
He paid
the price
in full
and the reason
is because
he has chosen
to embrace
us
as sons
and as
daughters
even though
we deserve
the opposite.
He said
I will write
the check
for the damages
and it will
come out
of my
account.
Right?
And this is
what grace
means.
It is God's
willingness
to absorb
the cost
of our
rebellion
and forgive
us rather
than demanding
repayment.
And you say
well how do we
get this grace?
How does it
come into
our lives?
And Paul
says in
verse 8
by grace
you have
been saved
through faith
meaning anyone
who comes
to him
in faith
will be
embraced.
It's a
guaranteed
response.
Their debt
will be
paid in
full.
And there
are three
verbs
that we
see here
and they
all have
the same
prefix
sin
which means
with or
alongside.
God made
us alive
with Christ.
God raised
us up
with Christ.
God seated
us with
Christ in
the heavenly
places.
And what
we see
here is
that grace
is not
just about
clearing the
debt.
It's an
invitation
to do
life with
Christ.
To leave
behind a
life of
spiritual
alienation
and death
to begin
to live
life with
him.
I love
how Eugene
Peterson
translates
Jesus'
invitation
in Matthew
11.
He says
this,
Are you
tired?
Worn
out?
Burned
out on
religion?
Come to
me.
Get away
with me
and you
will recover
your life.
I will
show you
how to
take a
real rest.
Walk
with me
and work
with me.
Watch
how I
do it.
Learn
the
unforced
rhythms
of grace.
Learn
the
unforced
rhythms
of grace.
The
reason that
we need
grace is
because we
are
spiritually
helpless.
And the
way to get
grace is by
faith.
To come to
Jesus in
faith and
simply to
ask.
And then the
task simply
becomes this.
Learn the
unforced
rhythms of
grace by
beginning to
do life
with Jesus.
That's it.
Final
question though,
what's this
all for?
What's the
purpose?
What is our
salvation for?
And here's
where it
begins to
really come
into our
lives.
Every single
one of us
in this
room,
you have a
God-given
vocation.
Right?
There are
all kinds
of ways
that God
has given
you resources
and gifts
and talents
and abilities
and connections
and all the
things that
make you
you and the
things that
when you're
doing them
you're in
the sweet
spot of
what you
should be
doing.
This is
why you're
here.
You have
a vocation.
So some
of you
are creators.
Some of
you are
thinkers.
Some of
you are
caregivers
and you're
nurturers.
Some of
you are
you build
or you
organize,
you optimize.
Some of
you help.
Some of
you heal.
Some of
you restore.
Some of
you teach
or inspire
or lead.
We all
have a
vocation.
And there
are ways
that God
has specifically
gifted you
to be a
blessing in
the world,
called you
to participate
in the healing
and restoring
of the world.
The brilliance
of the image
that we have
of the new
creation
at the culmination
of all things
is that you
have a garden
and a city
that have
come together,
that it is a
combination of
God's design
and his
creative power
and human
creativity.
We participate
in building
that which
will last
into eternity
and God
has given
you a
vocation
as a way
of building
into that
future eternal
reality right
here and now.
So let me
ask you a
question.
When you
do your
work well
and you
are in
your sweet
spot,
who gets
the glory?
I have a
feeling that
probably the
biggest challenge
for most of
us in this
room, and you
can raise your
hand if you're
an exception,
most people
care about
living good
lives.
You might
say, not
me, but
most people
do.
We care
about justice.
We want
to help make
the world a
better place.
Probably some
of us moved
to D.C.
to be a
part of
some job
or cause
to try to
help make
the world
a better
place.
That's what
animates you.
So the
challenge that
I believe
for us is
not doing
good works.
It's doing
good works
that call
attention to
God's glory
instead of
our glory.
So this
is why
Paul says,
this is not
of your own
doing.
This, he
means, grace
coming into
your life,
transformation.
This is not
of your own
doing.
He says, this
is a gift
of God, not
a result of
works, so
that no one
may boast.
He says, if
you are boasting
about any of
this, then you've
completely missed
the point.
For, he says in
verse 10, we
are his
workmanship,
created in
Christ Jesus
for good works,
which God
prepared beforehand
that we should
walk in them.
So what is he
saying?
We're not
saved by good
works, but we
are saved for
good works.
That's the
purpose.
Some of you
may know this,
that the word
for workmanship
is poiema.
You know, we
get the word
poem from that.
You know, so a
way of saying
this is that
Paul is saying,
our lives are
meant to be
God's love
poem written
to the world
to put his
love and grace
on display.
When you look
at a piece of
great art, you
don't praise the
art, you praise
the artist.
You say, this is
amazing, what a
phenomenal artist
to create something
this beautiful.
When you hear a
great piece of
music, you don't
praise the
instrument.
I don't say, wow,
what an amazing
guitar.
I say, what an
amazing musician.
What a skilled
musician, right?
God's vision is
that our community
would be a
community that
puts him on
display.
That when people
see the way we
live our lives,
they wouldn't
praise us.
They would praise
him.
So we are the
art, but he's
the artist.
We are the
instruments, but
he is the
musician.
He's the
composer.
The vision is
that our
community would
be like a
great symphony
of grace.
That each of
us would see
ourselves, that
you would see
yourself as an
instrument of
God's orchestra.
You're an
instrument in
God's orchestra,
and when you
play your role,
when you follow
Jesus faithfully,
when you do your
job with excellence
and integrity,
when you love and
care for your
neighbors, when
you're patient and
gentle with your
children, right?
When you're doing
all the things
that you're
called to do,
God is playing
his music through
the good works that
he has composed for
you to do, right?
He wrote the sheet
music beforehand, and
he's given you the
sheet music, and now
you're playing it with
your life.
And the God-given
purpose of each one
of us is that the
song of our life would
glorify him.
And the good news of
this is, living for
God's glory is not
only right, it's not
only the reason that
we're here, but it is
also incredibly freeing.
Because let's just be
honest, some people have
a lot of anxiety about
whether or not they are
being faithful to God's
expectations of them.
But most of us are far
more worried about the
expectations that other
people place on us, or
the expectations that we
place on ourselves.
And most people I know
who feel crushed under
the weight of
expectations is the
expectations from other
people and from
ourselves that brings
the most weight.
And grace not only sets
us free from the demands
and the requirements of
the law, it sets us free
from having to live for
anyone's expectations.
Because we know that we
have the delight of God.
And that's all that
matters.
I love the story of the
great artist Michelangelo.
I never knew this until
more recently.
He was apparently plagued
throughout his life.
To try, he was sort of
plagued with anxiety and
stress trying to live up
to his other, or to his
own demands for himself
and to the demands that
other people placed on him.
He got notoriety and so
people just demanded and
expected brilliant,
amazing artwork.
And he found that to be
crushing.
And most of his life, he
just lived crushed under
the weight of those
expectations and this
incredible perfectionism.
But as he approaches the
end of his life, a
spiritual rebirth begins
to occur.
And one of his final works
was intended to be his
gravestone.
And it was a statue of
himself, but in the guise
of Nicodemus from John
chapter 4, the one who
was born again.
And it's a statue of him
as Nicodemus holding the
dead body of Jesus.
And in a poem, Michelangelo
describes coming to the
end of his life and
recognizing that his
artwork had actually become
harmful to his soul because
it became, quote, my idol
and my king.
Because he was living for his
own glory.
He was living to try to
appease the expectations of
others and that he had
placed on himself.
And what happened at the
end of his life is that
grace liberated him from the
crushing weight of
expectations.
He began to realize that his
only true hope was not being
a great artist or receiving
acclaim from others, which is
like a black hole, but rather,
quote, his greatest hope was
this, the divine love, who to
embrace us opened his arms upon
the cross.
Grace set him free.
And that would be my prayer for
everyone in this room, if you've
been a Christian your whole life,
or you're just now considering this
for the first time, that grace
would set us free.
Let's pray.
Lord, we pray for your spirit to
do what only you can in our
hearts, that somehow, as the word
became flesh in Jesus, you would
take these words from your
scripture and that they would
become a flesh and bone reality
in us, that you would impress upon
us and within us into our marrow,
into our sinews, the freedom that
grace offers.
I pray that we would cling to it as
though our lives depended on it.
And I pray that you would set us
free to delight in you, free to
love you, free to feel your
embrace, free from the crushing
expectations of the world, free to
live lives that glorify you, that
embody this promise and this
invitation that you extend to the
world.
We pray this in Jesus' holy name.
Amen.
Pokémon 1 1964
Amen.