4th Sunday in Lent March
22, 2009
Ephesians 2:8 and John 3:16 100% Grace for 100% Sinners
Dear fellow redeemed,
Sometimes people get what
they deserve in life. Sometimes they
don’t.
* Coming
to mind may be the formerly respected investor Bernie Madoff.
Mr. Madoff
defrauded investors of 50 Billion dollars. Can you imagine?
And now he’ll
probably remain in jail until he’s officially sentenced to up to 150 years.
* As
people wonder how he could get away with such a thing and for so long,
they’re also saying he’s getting off too easy.
This man’s who’s rotten to the core deserves even worse.
* And those who lost everything? They’re not getting what
they deserve either.
So what would you think about
a story where you and I end up getting what we don’t deserve? Not so sure?
What if I were to tell it has a happy ending?
* We
consider the words written to us by the apostle Paul.
“For by grace you have been saved!”
* The
word “grace” refers to the love God has towards sinners. Out of his love, he
desires to save sinners, promising us a better home in heaven.
+ Obviously we couldn’t say that we’re deserving of such
a thing.
When we
first entered this world we “were dead in trespasses and sins.”
* Not one
of us had a single redeeming quality.
We were
spiritually dead. That means we were 100%
sinners. Like Mr. Madoff, we were
sinners to the core and without God’s intervention we were bound to follow the
course of this world and the ways of Satan himself.
* There
was no reason for saving us. Like the
rest of mankind, we were children of wrath, wanting one thing: to live “in
the passions of our flesh”.
+ And
yet, it’s God’s will and desire to save us by his grace and 100%
by his grace.
100% Grace for 100%
Sinners.
If it seems like a unique
concept we may take a look at our Gospel lesson.
Jesus himself taught that
we’re saved 100% by grace.
* “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son” he says,
“that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
* Take
a closer look here at the implications of this passage.
1 God loves the whole world even though the
entire world is made up of degenerate sinners who demonstrate that they’re
deserving of nothing.
That’s God’s grace!
2 And despite it all, God sacrifices his only Son whom he’s known
from eternity. He forsakes him on the
cross so that he would receive the penalty for sin which should rightly
have been ours. That’s God’s
grace!
3 And
in no way was God obligated to consider how he might save us.
Nevertheless, so we might be certain
we’re saved, he informs us that salvation is ours, not because of
anything we might do or think.
* We’re
rescued from damnation because of the simple fact that we believe in his
Son, Jesus and what he has done.
That’s God’s grace - 100%!
For the person who understands this passage, nothing
can bring greater comfort.
* But
not everyone wants to know what the Lord’s grace really is.
And not everyone wants to trust
in God’s grace.
* In our Islam study we
learned that though Jesus is said to be a great prophet among the Muslims, they
do not believe he’s the Son of God.
* Therefore he did not
pay for our sins. He’s only a
messenger.
And you know what? If he’s not our Savior, his message will not
be a message of grace, but one of judgment. “Allah will judge you” says
the Jesus of Islam, “unless you’re like me and perform enough good works
in your life!”
But if the religion of Islam discourages us,
we have people saying something very similar in Christian Church. People want
to believe that the grace of God comes as a response to our performance as a
Christian.
* For example,
sometimes we’re asked by friends or family whether we’re saved. The answer
they generally expect is, “Yes I’m saved because I believe in Jesus as my
personal Savior.”
* We might not fault that
reply, except it shows the individual is being quite subjective. He’s looking into his own heart to feel
confident.
A better answer might be
“Yes I’m saved because Jesus died for my sins.
* To ask whether someone’s saved can
also suggest that by our own efforts, we have natural powers to become a
believer.
* But in his words to the
Ephesians, Paul teaches that we come into this world with no spiritual life
whatsoever.
In fact, it was at the very
time we were stubborn unbelievers that God, all on his own, with no help
on our part, gave us faith.
* “Even when we were
dead in our trespasses” the apostle writes, “(he) made us alive
together with Christ.”
* We were 100% sinners!
Therefore it had to be 100% by grace that we’re saved. No wonder Luther would write: “I believe that
I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come
to him.”
* Luther understood the
words of our text. “For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God.”
To
illustrate, picture yourself flying in a plane which suddenly loses its
pressure.
++ The oxygen masks fling down in front of
the passengers, but you’re having trouble.
You’re fear-stricken and don’t know what to do.
* You’re gasping for air
and your life flashes in front of you.
You think you’re going to
die./
* But then a flight
attendant finds you and in a few short moments manages to place your mask over
your face so that you’re again able to breathe freely.
* Now, when you later relate how you were
saved, you’re not going to say: “I had this oxygen mask!”
* You’re going to say
that the attendant saved you. She saw your situation and rescued
you. The mask was simply what she used
to save you.
Well, that’s how we should
speak of faith.
* When
we explain how we’re saved, we don’t say “my believing heart saved me!”
Or “I’m saved because I chose him. I made a promise! I have this faith!”
* No.
We say “I’m saved because God in his grace saw my miserable condition and chose
to come to me with his words of grace and give me faith!”
* You
see, faith is like that oxygen mask. Our faith is what permits us in a sense to
breathe in the forgiveness Christ gives us freely in his Word.
+ In
the end, as we reflect back on how we’ve been saved, we don’t give our
faith the credit. After all we don’t
trust in our faith. We trust in
Christ and the forgiveness he earned for us on the cross.
Well, we know the truth. And we Lutherans may feel good about that
fact.
And we should!
In humility we can be thankful!
* But,
you know, there are times when we too would rather trust in ourselves
rather than God’s grace.
* We
know we’re 100% sinners and saved 100% by God’s grace.
But often we
too will trust in our personal performance.
1) There’s our regular Sunday morning church attendance. Unlike many others we rarely miss a
service. We love the Word and Sacrament!
2) Or we may think of how sincere we are as a Christian. We’re more than willing to repent when we
mess up as a sinner.
* We
hurt our husband or wife or another member of our family, we don’t have any
problems acknowledging our sin and assuring that loved one I won’t do it again. I promise!
3) Or
it may be our grasp for doctrine where we’re placing our trust.
We love
Christ’s teachings and enjoy nothing more than studying his Word and learning
more.
* But
here lies the problem. We can know the
truth with all of its intricate teachings.
We can promise we won’t hurt someone ever again.
We can have
a life time of perfect church attendance.
* But
what happens when we lose sight of the fact that we’re still sinners who are
inclined to love and trust in ourselves first? What happens when we lose sight of our sin,
is that we lose sight of our Savior.
* 100%
grace means it’s “the gift of God...so that no one may boast.”
When on the other hand we see
that we’re 100% sinners, we’re sinners to the core and cannot contribute in any
way to our salvation, that’s when God enables us to see Christ and to
appreciate being saved by his grace 100%.
* We
consider again the words of today’s Gospel reading which reveals that Jesus
came to our earth for one reason and one reason alone.
“For God
did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the
world might be saved through him.”
* Jesus
didn’t come to condemn the world. He came to save every one of us.
He came with
the explicit purpose of dying in our behalf!
That’s 100%
grace!
* But
you add to God’s grace one little smidgen of responsibility on our part before
we can be sure we’re saved, and that’s when Jesus is wiped out of the
picture.
* Instead
of seeing a Savior, we see Islam’s Jesus. We see a condemning judge because what we’ve
added to God’s grace isn’t going to “cut it!”
But what a relief that we can see Jesus and
know that just as surely as he was lifted up on the cross, we can trust in him
to be saved.
* In the opening words of
our Gospel Jesus says: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
* Just as there was only
one chance for those disobedient Israelites who were inflicted by poisonous
snakes - and that was to look upward to the bronze snake on a pole - so did we
have only one chance. It was if the Son of God were to come to this earth with
the purpose of suffering in our place.
* Only then could we
disobedient sinners look up to him and truly trust in him to be saved.
* It’s because Jesus took
the only route which would work, that we can speak of God’s grace today. We can believe and be saved!
And we can be 100% sure we’re saved – because
of what we see when we believe.
* We look up to the cross and it’s not a
judge we see who’s come to scrutinize our sins.
We see a Savior who taken our sins upon himself.
* We see
the Lamb of God who takes on himself the sins of the world.
You say that’s more sins than one can imagine? I would agree.
In fact it’s a lot more than 50 billion.
+ You
and I may not be able to comprehend the misery Mr. Madoff has caused people in
our country today. But neither can we
comprehend the misery which Christ has spared us by taking our burden
upon himself.
* And
for that we have even more reason to believe.
For he’s made it official in the
end. Every sin is gone.
There’s nothing that’s
required of us in order to be saved.
* We simply look at the Son of Man
who’s been lifted up on the cross in our place, and we may be sure.
* Yes,
we are getting off easy. No we’re
not getting what we deserve.
But that’s what God’s grace is all about!
Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.