During a conference quite a number of years ago now on comparative religions,
experts from around the world debated what belief, if any belief, was unique to the Christian faith.
And they began by eliminating a bunch of possibilities.
The incarnation.
They thought, no, actually other religions have different versions of their gods appearing in the world in human form to people.
So what about resurrection?
Again, other religions had accounts of people returning back from death.
And the debate went on for some time until the Oxford Don C.S. Lewis walked into the room
and in his classic C.S. Lewis style said, so what's all this rumpus about?
And when he heard that they were debating the unique contribution of Christianity and had for some time,
Lewis just responded, just jumped on it.
He said, well, that's easy.
It's grace.
Grace.
And after some discussion, the conference agreed.
The notion of God's love coming to humanity free of charge, no strings attached,
goes against every world religion and every instinct of humanity.
There's the Buddhist eightfold path.
There's the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, the Muslim code of law.
Each of these offers a way to earn approval or to stay in approval.
Only Christianity dares to declare God's love as unconditional.
You can't earn it.
It's not yours by right.
You don't deserve it.
You don't ever deserve it.
Now, grace is a word that's familiar to our ears.
Grace.
It can be a person's name.
It can be an attitude, a gracious attitude.
It can be a prayer that you say before dinner if you're not terribly hungry.
It's even a name of a hotel in Sydney.
Ironically, however, there are no free rooms.
The word grace in the Greek New Testament is the word charis.
And it's a holy Christian word.
It was a word.
The word charis was unknown in Greek or Roman ethics and theology before Christianity.
This doctrine of grace gave rise to a new word for grace.
Grace in Christianity is a personal activity of God.
God operates in unconditional love towards people.
Grace is generosity.
It's when something is given purely out of the goodness and the kindness of the giver,
despite the unworthiness of the recipient.
And salvation in Christianity is a work of God, not people.
It's a work of God from beginning to end,
and is given freely and undeservedly through Jesus Christ,
as we just sang in three songs to kick our service off.
And this was the rediscovery or one of the rediscoveries of the Protestant Reformation,
the 16th century, that has come down to us over these 500 years.
As we started this series off,
salvation is according to Scripture alone,
in Christ alone, by grace alone,
through faith alone, for the glory of God alone.
That is our heritage.
It's St. Paul's, and it's where we take our stand as a church today.
And in the past two weeks,
we've been reminded of two key foundations so far
to biblical Christianity that were rediscovered in the Reformation 500 years ago.
Scripture alone, that is,
it's not the Bible plus the traditions
and the authority of the church and reason and experience.
And it's Christ alone,
not Jesus plus human priests and the sacrifice of the mass.
And next week, we're going to explore faith alone.
It's not faith in Jesus plus good works for the basis of my salvation.
And to these, the reformers added grace alone.
And in a sense, grace alone summarizes and explains
the two that we've already done,
the one we're going to do next week.
The Bible, the Word of God,
comes to us from outside of us.
It stands as a gracious gift of God to humanity.
It's God communicating to us
because without it, we would not see or know God.
And Jesus Christ alone is the way to God.
And Jesus again comes from outside of us,
purely and only because of the kindness and love of God.
We don't earn him.
We don't contribute to his work
or help him finish off what he lacked.
Jesus does everything through the generosity of God.
Even the ability, this is what we're going to see next week,
even the ability to see and to trust in God,
as we just read in Ephesians 2,
is a gift of God itself.
Our response is nothing more than an open hand,
held out in trust,
that says thank you
to the wonderful promises of God.
The grace of God is love freely shown
towards guilty sinners,
contrary to their merit,
and in fact in defiance of their demerit.
You see, the context of the Reformers
rediscovering grace alone in the Bible
was a church that believed in grace.
That's the context.
It was a church that actually believed in grace.
You see, Roman Catholic teaching states
that God's grace is God's free favour
and generosity towards sinners.
grace is God's free.
But,
and in this case,
the word but says everything.
It is also,
grace is also a kind of power or assistance
in which God gives us
to help people to respond to him
and help people live through life.
And that's,
the word but,
is where it goes wrong.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
it reads,
we can merit for ourselves
and for others
the graces needed
for sanctification,
for the increase of grace
and for charity
and for the attainment
of eternal life.
What that means
is that salvation
in all its different forms
becomes a cooperation
between us and God.
This view of grace
is built on a particular view of humanity.
A view that says
that people are sinful.
Yeah, yeah,
we're all broken,
we're all sinful,
but we are still capable
as human beings
of reaching out to God
and communicating with God
and with his assistance
turning our life around.
But,
so,
for us to understand,
therefore,
what grace is,
we need to go back to the Bible
and embrace
and see
the need
of grace alone.
For us to be able to do that,
we need an accurate diagnosis
of the actual human condition.
And if we hold to
what I preached on two weeks ago
about Scripture alone
being authority
and not my experience of the world
or not my feelings about myself
or anything else,
that if that is our authority,
then we need to hear what it says.
And the right diagnosis
was just read out to us.
This is the human condition,
Ephesians 2 verse 1.
As for you,
you were dead
in your transgressions
and sins
in which you used to live
when you followed
the ways of this world
and of the ruler
of the kingdom of the air,
the spirit who is now at work
in those who are disobedient.
All of us also lived among them
at one time,
gratifying and cravings
of our sinful nature
and following us desires
and thoughts
and like the rest,
we were by nature
objects of wrath.
Or we also see the diagnosis
in Romans 3 verses 10 to 12.
There is no one righteous,
not even one.
There is no one who understands.
There is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away.
They have altogether
become worthless.
There is no one
who does good,
not even one.
That's the authority
of Scripture's perspective
on the human condition.
No one righteous,
no one who seeks God,
worthless,
dead,
left to our own devices.
We are dead
in our sins.
And the core nature
of humanity
is not that we are
basically good,
it's that we're actually
fundamentally bad.
We are spiritually bankrupt.
We are spiritually dead.
dead.
And dead people
don't respond
to anything.
I've,
in my job,
I've done a lot of funerals
over the years
and a number of those funerals
have been open coffin funerals.
And it's an awkward thing
if you've ever had that experience
where the funeral director
tells you,
which I'm assuming you haven't,
the funeral director
tells you,
we're going to have
an open coffin
and your job
is to stand beside the coffin
and sort of be there
for people as they come.
And more often than not,
no one really wants
to get there early
for that occasion.
Most people come,
you know,
at the last minute.
So I'm standing there
beside Bill
or whoever it is,
coffin open
and it's me
and this person
and no one else,
no one else
for some time,
often three quarters of an hour.
and in my,
maybe it's me dealing
with the issue at the moment
and my black humour,
I often talk to the person
and they never,
ever speak back to me.
Ever.
Not that I'm expecting it,
but they never speak back to me.
I can practice my sermon,
I can sing songs,
they never join in,
they never participate
in any way
because dead people
don't respond.
They don't have life
to respond.
And that's the biblical picture.
It's not that we
are all as bad
as we could possibly be,
but that because of sin
we are totally marred
in every aspect
of our being
and we are spiritually dead.
We are corpses,
we're not drowning,
we're drowned,
we're dead.
Unfortunately,
as Sam mentioned last week,
some people understand
grace as God
making up the difference
between our good
and the amount of good
that God requires.
So,
I mean,
it's like,
depending on how you've lived your life,
you've got different amounts of good.
Nice middle class people
don't need as much
good as
topping up as,
for instance,
a criminal
sitting in Long Bay Jail.
But whatever it is,
God makes the requirements.
So you can imagine,
I want to buy a car
that costs $100,000,
which I
don't want to,
but I've only got
$50,000,
which I also
don't have.
And this view of grace
means that,
well,
I've got $50,000,
it's $100,000,
well,
God will just,
you know,
kindly top up
what I need.
It sounds nice,
but it's a grave
misunderstanding
both of grace
and of our lack
of righteousness.
We've got nothing to offer,
we've got nothing to contribute.
Not only do we
not have
any righteousness
into our account,
we've actually got debt
in our account.
And so we need
God's grace
not just to make up
for our deficiencies,
we need His grace
to provide a remedy
for our rebellion,
for our guilt,
for our pollution,
our sin,
our debt
against God,
which is incalculable.
We need His grace
to provide a satisfaction
for His justice
and to cancel
a debt
that we cannot pay.
And so it's absolutely
crucial that we
understand our plights
before God
if we're going
to understand
and be amazed
by grace
because those
who have been
forgiven little
in their minds
don't love much.
Don't appreciate
grace
much.
This is how
one person
has put it.
The first
and possibly
the most fundamental
characteristic
of divine grace
is that it presupposes
sin and guilt.
Grace has meaning
only.
It only has meaning
when people
are seen
as fallen,
unworthy
of salvation
and liable
to eternal
wrath.
Grace does not
contemplate sin
as merely
as undeserving
but as
ill-deserving.
It's not simply
that we do not
deserve grace
but that we do
deserve hell.
that's
that's the
bleak
pronouncement
of our
natural state
before God.
But in the very
next verses
in Ephesians
we have the hope
of grace.
Ephesians 2
verse 4
but
the word
but there
is a very
different word
but at this
point
you've got to
love the word
but in this
occasion
but
because of
his great
love for us
God who is
rich in mercy
made us alive
with Christ
even when we
were dead
in transgressions
it's by grace
that you've been
saved.
We're dead
in our
transgressions
and sins
but God
intervenes.
We're in
bondage to
sin
but God
intervenes.
We were
objects of
wrath
but God
intervened.
God who is
rich in mercy
intervened.
Our condition
was hopeless.
We are
corpses
floating in
a sea
of ocean.
We cannot
respond.
We're not
asking for
rescue
and God
gets the
fish hook
and pulls
us up
onto the
boat
and gives
us life.
The grace
of God
is love
is his
love
freely
shown
towards
guilty
sinners
contrary
to their
merit
and in
fact
in
defiance
of their
demerit.
And we
get a
glimpse
of the
way God
treats
us
in that
parable
in Matthew
20
that Sam
read out
to us.
So go to
Matthew
20
in your
Bibles.
There's some
stuff I want to
see, show
you around
it.
Matthew
20, parable
of the
workers in
the vineyard,
starting at
verse 1.
Let me say
straight up,
this is not a
story about
Jewish agribusiness.
Before I
became a
Christian, I
had grown up
in a
house that
was on a
farm and
had a
Bible.
And I
remember
reading this
parable a
number of
times as
a teenager
and stuff
going, it
makes no
sense, this
parable.
I don't
know a
single farmer
who would
operate like
this anywhere.
And that's
because I was
totally missing
the point,
because I was
dead in my
transgressions and
sins I
couldn't see.
The background
to Matthew
20 is
Matthew 19.
There we go.
19 becomes
before 20.
That's a big
moment there.
And there's
this story in
Matthew 19,
this encounter
that happens
between Jesus
and this guy,
the rich young
ruler.
And you
might remember
this man,
this young guy
comes running
up to Jesus
and asks a
really crucial
question.
He says,
what must I
do to inherit
eternal life?
It's a great
question, but
he's totally
coming at it
from the wrong
angle.
The word
I is the
problem there.
what must I
do to
inherit?
It's about
me.
It's about
my effort
to get
eternal life.
And as you
read the
encounter,
you get this
sense of this
guy's pretty
pressed with
himself.
I've done a
bunch of
stuff.
Jesus rattles
off a few
of the
commandments and
he's sitting
there in his
mental thing
and his
heart going
ticking off the
box.
Yeah, done
that one.
Yeah, done
that one.
Done that one.
And you go,
yeah, I've
done pretty
well.
Jesus says
to him, you
need to just
do one more
thing.
Sell up
everything you
have and
follow me.
It's a call
at that point
to stop
trusting in
yourself, but
in fact, and
the stuff that
you have and
trust in me
alone.
And
unfortunately,
he's not
willing to do
that and he
walks away.
And in the
background over
here as this
encounter's going
on between
this rich guy
and Jesus is
Peter, James
and John
and the boys,
the rest of
the disciples
are over here
and they're
hearing this
encounter go
on.
They see the
rich young man
walk away
and Peter,
as he has a
tendency to do,
speaks first
and he says,
well,
Jesus,
then who
can be
saved?
And Jesus
says,
with man,
this is
impossible.
With God,
all things are
possible.
So you get
the point?
Salvation is
not by what
you do.
Salvation is
what God
does.
And notice
the very next
question that
comes out of
Peter's mouth.
We've left
everything,
Jesus,
to follow you.
What will
there be for
us?
You get
it?
Jesus,
we're not
like him.
We didn't
walk away.
We've
followed you,
Jesus.
Have we
done enough
then?
Big,
strong
sniff of
merit-based
thinking.
So Jesus
tells his
story.
It's pretty
straightforward.
Farmer
hires men
at different
times during
the day.
We're told
that he
hired them
early in
the morning,
the third
hour,
the sixth
hour,
the ninth
hour,
and right
to the
very end
of the
day in
the eleventh
hour.
And those
began the
work at
the beginning
of the
day,
agreed to
a day's
pay for
their work
at denarius.
And the
denarius was
considered to
be what was
needed to
provide well
for a family.
Get a
denarius for a
day's pay,
you provided
well for your
family.
notice that
it wasn't
an expectation
the farmer
would actually
pay for
them a
denarii,
but the
farmer gives
them a
denarii to
provide well
for them.
All of
these who
got paid on
this particular
day got
what they
needed,
not what
they had
earned.
They were
paid according
to grace
of the
farmer,
not according
to the
work that
they did.
And the
twist comes
at the end
of the day
when the
owner pays
everyone the
same,
lines them
up,
pays them
everyone the
same.
It's like
they all
received an
A grade.
It's like
we're all
in the same
university
course and
I'm your
lecturer and
there are
some of us
here who are
diligent
studiers and
we haven't
slept for
days and
we've worked
hard and
we're
expecting
99.9%
if not
100% but
we're just
kind of
expecting that.
Those of us
down here
have been
watching movies
which is
kind of
what I
do.
And 51%
means I
work just
a little
bit too
hard.
And so
I put
all your
scores and
I've given
every single
one of you
an A
grade no
matter how
hard you've
worked.
You've all
got it.
And there
are some
of us
down here
who have
been
diligent
and
working
really
hard
expecting
high
score
and we
see the
Steve
Jeffries in
this world
getting the
exact same
score.
That's not
fair.
See the
natural human
tendency is not
like to
everyone to
get the
perfect score
regardless of
effort.
And that's
why we
struggle with
grace so
much.
Our
natural
moral
default
position is
to count
ourselves
up here
with the
12 hour
workers of
the day.
The 99.9%
score markers.
Our moral
position is to
put ourselves
in that area.
When it
comes to
morality we
can always
look down
to find
someone else
who's
worse than
I am.
And so we
regard ourselves
more highly.
I know
someone who
is currently
who's been
marked to
never be
released from
prison.
Many, many
years ago he
murdered a
mother and
her baby.
And he
was in
the same
section of
a jail,
of a high
security jail
in Sydney
with the
perpetrators
of the
Milpera
Bikie
Massacre
from many
decades ago
now where
two Bikie
gangs came
together,
had a
shootout in
a car park
and they
gunned down
a seven
year old
girl in
the process
of that
shootout,
got caught
in the
crossfire.
This man
who I know
was in the
same section
of the
jail of
those guys.
The
guys who
perpetrated
the Milpera
Bikie
Massacre
grabbed him
one day,
poured boiling
water all
over him
and beat
him up,
quite savagely,
to an inch
of death.
Do you
know why?
How dare
you kill
a baby?
You can
sit in
Long Bay
Jail,
you can
even sit
in Long Bay
Jail,
convicted of
murder,
of a
seven year
old kid
and you
could still
find someone
worse than
you.
Normal,
default,
human position
when it
comes to
the way
we think
of ourselves
and our
morality.
You see,
in a sense
here,
the workers
are right.
It's not
fair what
the boss
is doing,
but that
is the
point.
Grace
is not
about being
fair,
it's about
God giving
us what we
don't deserve
and saving
us from
what we do
deserve.
And the
Bible speaks
about the
incredible
extent of
God's grace
to us
in a
number of
ways.
Wonderful
image of
Psalm 103
verse 2,
transgressions
against God
have been
removed as
far as the
east is
from the
west.
What an
incredible
picture.
That's
infinite
amount.
East,
for as far
as the
east is
from the
west,
is
infinity.
Isaiah
38,
17,
the
prophet
Isaiah
says
of
God,
you
have
put
all
of
my
sins
behind
your
back.
They
are
out
of
sight.
For a
Christian,
God no
longer sees
our deliberate
disobedience
or our
marred
performance.
An
emphasis on
the
completeness
of God's
forgiveness
is in
Micah 7
verse 19.
You
will tread
our sins
underfoot
and you'll
hurl our
iniquities
into the
depths of
the sea.
They
haven't
fallen
over
board.
Oh my
goodness,
where'd
they
go?
They
sort of
sunk
down
there
like a
phone
over the
side
of a
boat
or
something
like
that.
God
has
deliberately
removed
them
and
placed
them
in
the
depths
of
the
sea.
Isaiah
43,
23
emphasizes
the
completeness
of
God's
forgiveness
again.
I,
even
I,
am
he
who
blots
out
your
transgressions
for
my
own
sake
and
remembers
your
sins
no
more.
God
it's
not
that
he's
somehow
forgotten
them
like
we've
lost
my
keys
where
did
they
go?
He's
deliberately
chooses
not to
remember
the sins
that we've
committed
against
him.
He's
decided
never
to
bring
them
up
again.
You
see
blotting
out
our
sins
is a
legal
act.
It's
like an
official
pardon
from a
suffering
governor.
However
the
choosing
to
remember
them
no
more
is
a
relational
act.
It is
where
the
injured
party
God
in
this
case
actively
chooses
to
have
no
sense
of
being
wronged.
He
chooses
to do
that.
The
reformer
Martin
Luther
really
summarized
it
well
when
he
wrote
sin
is
not
cancelled
by
law
living
for
no
person
is
able
to
live
up
to
the
law.
The
law
reveals
guilt.
It
fills
the
conscience
with
terror
and
drives
people
to
despair
much
less
is
sin
taken
away
by
man
invented
endeavours.
The
fact is
the
more
a
person
seeks
credit
for
himself
by
his
own
efforts
the
deeper
he
goes
into
debt.
Nothing
can
take
away
sin
except
the
grace
of
God.
In
actual
living
however
it
is
not
so
easy
to
persuade
oneself
that
grace
alone
in
opposition
to
every
other
means
we
obtain
the
forgiveness
of
our
sins
and
peace
with
God.
You see
the
outcome
of God's
gracious
actions
towards
us
in
according to
Colossians
1
is
there's
no
accusations
anymore.
No
accusation
can be
brought
against
us
because
there
is
no
evidence
against
us.
Two
elderly
Roman
Catholic
men
were
having
a
conversation
about
the
son
of
one
of
those
one
of
their
men
who
this
son
had
converted
to
biblical
Christianity
he'd
embraced
salvation
according
to
faith
scripture
alone
in
Christ
alone
by
grace
alone
through
faith
alone
glory
of
God
alone
and
one
of
the
men
said
to
the
other
about
his
son
and
what
he
had
made
the
shift
away
from
Catholicism
into
Protestant
faith
and
he
said
do
you
know
why
they
don't
believe
in
purgatory
it's
because
they
believe
that
God
is
so
kind
that
he
will
take
his
people
straight
into
heaven
he
was
right
even
though
he
said
it
in
a
mocking
way
he
was
right
the
sheer
kindness
and
grace
of
God
expressed
in the
sufficient
work of
Christ
of the
cross
means
that
death
becomes
the doorway
into the
loving
presence
of
God
but
here's a
sober
but
notice
what
Luther
said
at the
end
of his
quote
it
is
hard
to
accept
and
live
by
grace
alone
if
grace
is so
amazing
why
is it
that we
struggle
to
embrace
it
as
freely
as
it
is
given
in
fact
one
of
the
most
significant
Christian
voices
of the
last
100
years
suggest
that
very
few
of
us
in
the
church
grasp
it
and
live
by
grace
alone
he's
talking
about
those
in
the
church
struggling
to
grasp
and
live
by
grace
alone
in
his
classic
book
knowing
God
Jim
Packer
writes
there
do
not
seem
to
be
many
in
our
churches
who
believe
in
grace
now
when
someone
of
Packer
standing
writes
something
like
that
you've
got
to
listen
what
he's
saying
there
is
we
are
in
danger
of
abandoning
the
very
thing
that
we
say
we
stand
on
and
he
gives
three
reasons
the
first
reason
he
gives
is
that
people
have
a
high
view
of
themselves
we
tend
to
treat
small
virtues
as
compensation
for
great
vices
we
tend
to
think
that
we
are
basically
good
we
tend
to
downplay
the
suggestion
that
we
are
fallen
from
God's
image
rebels
against
God's
rule
guilty
and
uncleaning
God's
sight
and fit
only
for
God's
condemnation
high
view
of
self
the
second
reason
he
suggests
is
that
we
don't
believe
grace
is
that
we
have
a
tendency
to
turn
a
blind
eye
to
all
wrongdoing
that
we
can
he
said
there's
a
willingness
to
tolerate
and
indulge
evil
up
to
a
point
he
said
the
ability
to
indulge
evil
up
to
a
point
is
seen
as
a
virtue
it's
seen
as a
virtue
of
tolerance
we
make
excuse
after
excuse
for
our
sin
we
even
justify
it
I
justify
myself
and
I've
heard
it
many
times
I
was
provoked
I've
had a
bad
life
I was
dropped
on my
head
as a
baby
it's
just
or
it's
just
the
way
that
person
is
we're
just
used
to
the
way
they
are
now
they
gossip
we're
just
used
to
that
that's
just
who
they
are
they're
angry
we're
just
used
to
that
just
who
they
are
we
even
conclude
that
God
is
the
same
towards
us
grace
is
turning
to
leniency
and
leniency
is
where
God
makes
up
the
difference
for
me
divine
retribution
against
all
level
of
sin
is
not
taken
seriously
we
tend
to
have
a
hierarchy
of
the
real
serious
ones
and
the
rest
we
just
tolerate
us
just
the
way
they
are
third
reason
why
we
struggle
to
believe
in
grace
is
the
belief
that
we're
in
a
position
to
be
able
to
repair
our
relationship
with
God
while
we
might
concede
that
we
are
not
perfect
we
still
have
doubt
that
respectability
we
still
have
no
doubt
that
respectability
will
account
for
something
in
the
end
to
the
degree
that
we
view
ourselves
as
worthy
is
the
degree
to
which
we
nullify
God's
grace
so
earlier
I
mentioned
an
inadequate
even
fatal
view
of
grace
where
God
makes
up
the
deficiency
of
our
efforts
salvation
of
salvation
I
just
drift
away
from
grace
into
my
own
merit
my
own
self
reliance
and
independence
from
God
it is
so
easy
to
drift
into
God's
blessings
at
least
partially
to
think
that
God's
blessings
even
partially
are
earned
by
our
obedience
and
by
our
spiritual
disciplines
it
might
not
be
via
the
seven
sacraments
of
the
Roman
Catholic
Church
but
it
might
be
even
our
ability
to
articulate
grace
alone
or
a
theological
clarity
as
being
a
reason
why
God
would
bless
me
we
know
we're
saved
by
grace
but
we
can
drift
into
thinking
that
I
must
live
by
my
spiritual
sweat
we
all
need
grace
from
beginning
to
end
the
saint
as
well
as
the
sinner
the
most
conscientious
dutiful
long-term
hard-working
Christian
needs
God's
grace
as much
every
day
as
the
hardest
living
sinner
the
sinner
doesn't
need
more
grace
than
the
saint
nor
does
the
immature
and
undisciplined
believer
need
more
than
the
godly
zealous
missionary
we
all
need
the
same
amount
of
grace
because
the
currency
of
good
works
is
worthless
it
is
worthless
neither
our
merits
nor
our
demerits
determine
how much
grace
we need
because
grace
does not
supplement
merits
and it
does not
make up
for
demerits
grace
doesn't take
into account
merits
it doesn't
take into
account
demerits
at all
grace
considers
all
people
totally
undeserving
and able
to undo
anything
to earn
the blessing
of god
as one
author has
written
grace
ceases
to be
grace
if god
is compelled
to bestow
it in the
presence
of human
merit
grace
ceases
to be
grace
if
compelled
sorry
grace
ceases
to be
grace
if god
is compelled
to withdraw
it in the
presence
of human
demerit
grace
is treating
the person
without the
slightest
reference
to desert
whatsoever
but wholly
according to
the infinite
goodness
and sovereign
purposes
of god
that is
grace
alone
and so
if you
sometimes
feel that
you deserve
an answer
to a
prayer
or a
blessing
from god
because of
your
diligence
and your
hard work
and your
longevity
as a
christian
it's no
longer
living by
grace
alone
but if
it's just
as true
that if
we
sometimes
despair
of experiencing
god's
blessing
because of
our
demerits
you're no
longer living
by grace
alone
to the
extent we
are clinging
to any
self
righteousness
or putting
our confidence
into any
of our
own
spiritual
attainments
to that
degree
we are not
living by
grace
and so
what's the
evidence
of grace
in an
individual
and a
church
let me
try to
capture
by quoting
one of our
core values
humble
authenticity
humility
is a
genuine
outworking
you do
not elevate
yourself over
people
you do not
say I'm
more worthy
of those
people
I deserve
more things
than those
people
that cultural
group or those
individuals are
less worthy
they need to
understand the
world from my
perspective
humility
grace
humility
they're the
foundations of
a
transcultural
church
that bears
and loves
one another
the need
for us
to see
our
spiritual
bankruptcy
the daily
need for us
to do that
this is where
we must begin
and end
if we are to
experience the
daily joy
of living by
God's
transforming
grace
so I
urge you
today
to lay
aside
any
remnant
of self
goodness
that you
might still
have
admit your
total
spiritual
bankruptcy
and drink
deeply
from the
infinite
grace of
God
we deserve
nothing
we were
owed
nothing
and yet
we have
everything
through the
grace of
the Lord
Jesus Christ
my friends
nothing
in our
hands we
bring
only to
the cross
we cling