i wanted to post this a long time ago, but i had forgotten.. this is one of the sermons we heard.. i thought it was awesome...for us, it was just a nice reminder. it was our last Sunday there in Japan, and I was feeling pretty useless. I felt like I had done such a bad job in trying to "represent" and so forth. It gave me a chance to re-evaluate some of my motives. so these are the notes that he (Pastor Pennington, a missionary in Japan) gave us.
"Compelled by Christ's Love"
The grace of God is one of the most important doctrinal themes of the Bible. Of course, we believe that we are saved by grace alone as taught in Eph. 2:8-9. When we think about God's grace, we usually apply it to our salvation in Christ. Indeed this is the great truth of the Bible. It is one of the essential teachings of the Reformation and our reformed faith. However, the Bible also clearly teaches that as we are saved by faith alone, we also live our Christian lives by grace. We are not able to live our Christian life on the basis of our own efforts and good works. We cannot live the Christian life bye "trying harder" or "praying more", etc. Deep down, we have been taught to believe that success in the Christian life depends on our discipline and faithfulness and commitment. Oh yes, we need some help from God along the way, but basicially, it is up to us. However, contrary to that way of thinking and living the Christian life, consider the testimony of the Apostle Paul in I Corinth. 15:10, "But by the grace of God, I am what I am". Do we really believe that? Let's examine our attitudes regarding this important aspect of the grace of God in our daily Christian lives.
Living by grace rather than works means that you are free from the performance treadmill. It means that God has alreeady given you an "A" when you deserve an "F". It means that you and I do not have to perform certain spiritual disciplines in order to earn God's favor and approval. It means that Jesus Christ has already done all of that for us. We are loved and accepted unconditionally by God through the merit of Jesus alone. Nothing that we ever do will cause God to love us any more or any less. He loves us strictly by His grace given to us through Jesus Christ.
How do we feel and respond to this Scriptural emphasis on grace? Among other reactions, some of us may feel a little nervous and uncomfortable. We may feel, "Well, if all the pressure is off because all of my effort will never earn me one single blessing from God. So, why not just slack off, and even stop doing the things that I need to do to live a disciplined Christian life?"
Recognition of this human tendency in the light of God's grace is very clear in Scripture. This possibility that God's grace can be misunderstood and even abused is a reality that the Scripture does not ignore, and neither should we. So this is the focus of today's message.
The apostle Paul wrote the entire 6th chapter of Romans to answer the question, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" Up to this point, the main point of his teaching in Romans is that justification is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Then he makes the sweeping statement in 5:20, "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more." So why did he even raise the issue in the previous question? he realized that his unqualified presentation of the grace of God left him open to being misunderstood. he knew that his readers (at least some of them) might respond with the attitude, "Well, if what you say is true, then let's go out and sin even more. Since the more we sin, the more we cause God's grace to abound."
In fact, in a sinful world filled with sinful people, this kind of response is always a possibility. I wonder though if it is precisely fear of this attitude that causes some Christians to change the doctrine of grace into a doctrine of works. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones...says the following in response to the question, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound?"
"The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it...True preaching of the New Testament gospel of salvation will lead some to misunderstand and misinterpret it to mean that becausee you are saved by grace along, it does not matter at all what you do..."
This same charge was brought against Martin Luther and all other great preachers of the Reformation. So what was the solution to this potential problem that the doctrine of grace may well lead to license and abuse? It is not to add legalism to grace. It is rather to be so gripped by the magnificence and generosity of God's grace that we respond out of love and gratitude rather than out of a sense of duty. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."
Because of our legalistic natures, the tendency is to load down the gospel of grace ith a lot of "oughts" and "shoulds". "I ought to do such & such"; "I should do more of that"; "I ought be more committed, more disciplined, more obedient to Christ, etc." But when we think and teach and live this way, we are in effect substituting duty, obligation, works for a loving response to God's grace in Christ.
So we want to be very clear on this point. We do want to practice and cultivate commitment, discipline, and obedience in our relationship with Christ. We do want to submit our wills to the lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of life. We are to practice commitments in all areas of our lives that flow out of this basic commitment to the lordship of Christ. For example, integrity and fairness in business relationships; acting in love in family and church relationships. But I am committed in these areas out of a grateful response to God's grace poured out through Christ. I am not trying to earn God’s blessing by means of my obedience or commitment. This is a subtle, but very real difference in the way we approach our Christian duties in response to grace.
There is an interesting dichotomy that creeps into our thinking and practices. We tend to preach grace, salvation by grace alone, to non-Christians, but duty once a person comes to saving faith in Christ and becomes a Christian. It sometimes seems that there is plenty of grace if you are not yet a Christian. However, once you have become a Christian, then there seems to be all kinds of laws that you must obey and many duties that you must perform. No wonder that some Christians at times feel that they were better off before conversion. We speak of the gift of salvation, and cost of discipleship. Of course, the “cost of discipleship” is not necessarily an unbiblical expression. It’s the unspoken connotation that often goes with it. The unbiblical idea sometimes gets conveyed that God’s grace gets us inside the doors of thee Kingdom; but after that, it’s all by our own blood, sweat, and tears; i.e., by our own efforts.
What then is the relationship between grace and spiritual discipline and commitment? Let’s briefly look at two passages of Scripture that may provide some help in answering this important question.
The first is Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.” Remember that Paul wrote this letter to believers in Rome to help them understand more fully the salvation that they already possessed. In fact, the first eleven chapters show that salvation is entirely by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Then he follows by dealing with various questions that his teaching on grace would raise. Not until he had spent 11 chapters teaching thee gospel of the grace of God to people who were already believers did Paul then ask them to completely commit themselves to God as living sacrifices. Here in Romans 12:1 he urges, “Offer you bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.”
A contemporary translation interprets the phrase "offer your bodies" as "make a decisive, once for all, dedication of your bodies." But it is even more than that. The phrase "living sacrifice" conveys the idea of a "perpetual sacrifice, never to be neglected or recalled" and a "constant dedication." So God through the apostle is calling for a decisive, once for all dedication that is to be constantly reaffirmed and kindled afresh. That’s just about as high a level of commitment as one could expect. And the basis or motivation for such a total commitment is the "mercy of God", not a deep sense of duty. Such a response is based on a heartfelt gratitude to God rather than a sense of obligation. Now the fact is that we do not have a duty and obligation to God. He is sovereign ruler of the universe and our Creator and Lord. But he motivates us to obey His laws and precepts on the basis of His mercy in Christ. "In view of God’s mercy"...Submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ over our lives in in response to the love and mercy of God. Our motivation for commitment, discipline, and obedience is important to God. In fact, I think that we can safely say that it is more important than our performance.
Read I Chronicles 28:9; I Corinthians 4:5
God searches the hearts and understands every motive.
Let’s look at the second passage of Scripture which was part of our Scripture reading -- II Corinthians 5:14-15.
There is a lot of spiritual truth in this passage, but the essential teaching is that Christ’s love compels us to live no longer for ourselves but for Him who died for us and was raised again. The main subject is once again, commitment to the lordship of Christ in every area of our lives. But again, what is the motivating principle for this kind of commitment that will enable a person to live no longer for himself, but instead to live for God?
We are told here that it is the love of Christ that compels us to make this kind of commitment and to carry it out day after day. Compel is a strong word that often has a negative connotation associated with force or coercion. But the meaning here is very positive. It is not the fear of consequences or even the expectation of reward that motivates us. Rather it is the love of Christ that more and more becomes the governing influence and the driving force of our commitment and obedience. "We love because He first loved us."
A contemporary translation of the first phrase of II Corinthians 5:14 is: "The love of Christ continuoulsy constrains me." The word "continuously" is the key. It indicates that the unconditional love of Christ for us is the constant wellspring of motivation for our everyday commitment and obedience to Christ. This is what compels and impels us, who believe in Christ, to live for Him who died for us and rose again.
Let’s read Romans 4:7-8. This is a quote from Psalm 32. "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." What a great encouragement to know that God will never judge me for any of my sins. I know that the old sinful nature still has a strong hold on my life as a Christian. I know that I need the daily sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in my life. However God will never count my sins of selfishness, pride, impatience, etc, against me. Knowing and believing that should cause us to stop and offer a prayer of deep thanksgiving to God for His infinite grace.
In addition, we will ask God to purge us from those old sinful traits. We will ask Him to help us become more and more aware of specific sin in our lives. With the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, we will "put those sins to death", as Paul encourages us in Romans. 8:13. We will be compelled by the love of Christ to get ride of those sins and to become more like Christ.
God is worthy of my love and obedience because of who He is. Read Revelation 4:11 "...for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
When we think about "growing in grace," we often associate it with growth in our Christian character. It certainly has something of this meaning. However, a more accurate meaning is to continually grow in our understanding and acceptance of God’s grace. It means to grow in our understanding that we do not deserve anything from God. Rather, as we are saved by His grace alone, we are also enabled to live our daily lives as Christians depending on God’s unmerited, undeserved, and unearned grace alone.
May we all grow in the grace of Christ in this sense. And as we do, we will also grow in our motivation to obey God with a new sense of gratitude and reverence to Him. Our obedience in this life will always be imperfect. In the same way, our motives will never be consistently pure. There will continue to be times when our genuine love and reverence for God will be mixed up with motives of selfish pride in trying to earn our acceptance with Him.
But recognizing that, we can move more and more towards grace motives. Let’s begin to think daily about the implications of the grace of God in our lives and witness for Him...memorize and meditate often on our Scripture passages for today: Romans 12:1 and II Corinthians 5:14-15. Let’s pray for ourselves and for one another, asking God to motivate us more and more by His grace and love. As we grow in the grace of Christ in this way, we will discover that it is the love of Christ that compels us to live daily, not for ourselves, but for Him who died for us and was raised again.
"Compelled by Christ's Love"
The grace of God is one of the most important doctrinal themes of the Bible. Of course, we believe that we are saved by grace alone as taught in Eph. 2:8-9. When we think about God's grace, we usually apply it to our salvation in Christ. Indeed this is the great truth of the Bible. It is one of the essential teachings of the Reformation and our reformed faith. However, the Bible also clearly teaches that as we are saved by faith alone, we also live our Christian lives by grace. We are not able to live our Christian life on the basis of our own efforts and good works. We cannot live the Christian life bye "trying harder" or "praying more", etc. Deep down, we have been taught to believe that success in the Christian life depends on our discipline and faithfulness and commitment. Oh yes, we need some help from God along the way, but basicially, it is up to us. However, contrary to that way of thinking and living the Christian life, consider the testimony of the Apostle Paul in I Corinth. 15:10, "But by the grace of God, I am what I am". Do we really believe that? Let's examine our attitudes regarding this important aspect of the grace of God in our daily Christian lives.
Living by grace rather than works means that you are free from the performance treadmill. It means that God has alreeady given you an "A" when you deserve an "F". It means that you and I do not have to perform certain spiritual disciplines in order to earn God's favor and approval. It means that Jesus Christ has already done all of that for us. We are loved and accepted unconditionally by God through the merit of Jesus alone. Nothing that we ever do will cause God to love us any more or any less. He loves us strictly by His grace given to us through Jesus Christ.
How do we feel and respond to this Scriptural emphasis on grace? Among other reactions, some of us may feel a little nervous and uncomfortable. We may feel, "Well, if all the pressure is off because all of my effort will never earn me one single blessing from God. So, why not just slack off, and even stop doing the things that I need to do to live a disciplined Christian life?"
Recognition of this human tendency in the light of God's grace is very clear in Scripture. This possibility that God's grace can be misunderstood and even abused is a reality that the Scripture does not ignore, and neither should we. So this is the focus of today's message.
The apostle Paul wrote the entire 6th chapter of Romans to answer the question, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" Up to this point, the main point of his teaching in Romans is that justification is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Then he makes the sweeping statement in 5:20, "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more." So why did he even raise the issue in the previous question? he realized that his unqualified presentation of the grace of God left him open to being misunderstood. he knew that his readers (at least some of them) might respond with the attitude, "Well, if what you say is true, then let's go out and sin even more. Since the more we sin, the more we cause God's grace to abound."
In fact, in a sinful world filled with sinful people, this kind of response is always a possibility. I wonder though if it is precisely fear of this attitude that causes some Christians to change the doctrine of grace into a doctrine of works. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones...says the following in response to the question, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound?"
"The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it...True preaching of the New Testament gospel of salvation will lead some to misunderstand and misinterpret it to mean that becausee you are saved by grace along, it does not matter at all what you do..."
This same charge was brought against Martin Luther and all other great preachers of the Reformation. So what was the solution to this potential problem that the doctrine of grace may well lead to license and abuse? It is not to add legalism to grace. It is rather to be so gripped by the magnificence and generosity of God's grace that we respond out of love and gratitude rather than out of a sense of duty. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."
Because of our legalistic natures, the tendency is to load down the gospel of grace ith a lot of "oughts" and "shoulds". "I ought to do such & such"; "I should do more of that"; "I ought be more committed, more disciplined, more obedient to Christ, etc." But when we think and teach and live this way, we are in effect substituting duty, obligation, works for a loving response to God's grace in Christ.
So we want to be very clear on this point. We do want to practice and cultivate commitment, discipline, and obedience in our relationship with Christ. We do want to submit our wills to the lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of life. We are to practice commitments in all areas of our lives that flow out of this basic commitment to the lordship of Christ. For example, integrity and fairness in business relationships; acting in love in family and church relationships. But I am committed in these areas out of a grateful response to God's grace poured out through Christ. I am not trying to earn God’s blessing by means of my obedience or commitment. This is a subtle, but very real difference in the way we approach our Christian duties in response to grace.
There is an interesting dichotomy that creeps into our thinking and practices. We tend to preach grace, salvation by grace alone, to non-Christians, but duty once a person comes to saving faith in Christ and becomes a Christian. It sometimes seems that there is plenty of grace if you are not yet a Christian. However, once you have become a Christian, then there seems to be all kinds of laws that you must obey and many duties that you must perform. No wonder that some Christians at times feel that they were better off before conversion. We speak of the gift of salvation, and cost of discipleship. Of course, the “cost of discipleship” is not necessarily an unbiblical expression. It’s the unspoken connotation that often goes with it. The unbiblical idea sometimes gets conveyed that God’s grace gets us inside the doors of thee Kingdom; but after that, it’s all by our own blood, sweat, and tears; i.e., by our own efforts.
What then is the relationship between grace and spiritual discipline and commitment? Let’s briefly look at two passages of Scripture that may provide some help in answering this important question.
The first is Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.” Remember that Paul wrote this letter to believers in Rome to help them understand more fully the salvation that they already possessed. In fact, the first eleven chapters show that salvation is entirely by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Then he follows by dealing with various questions that his teaching on grace would raise. Not until he had spent 11 chapters teaching thee gospel of the grace of God to people who were already believers did Paul then ask them to completely commit themselves to God as living sacrifices. Here in Romans 12:1 he urges, “Offer you bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.”
A contemporary translation interprets the phrase "offer your bodies" as "make a decisive, once for all, dedication of your bodies." But it is even more than that. The phrase "living sacrifice" conveys the idea of a "perpetual sacrifice, never to be neglected or recalled" and a "constant dedication." So God through the apostle is calling for a decisive, once for all dedication that is to be constantly reaffirmed and kindled afresh. That’s just about as high a level of commitment as one could expect. And the basis or motivation for such a total commitment is the "mercy of God", not a deep sense of duty. Such a response is based on a heartfelt gratitude to God rather than a sense of obligation. Now the fact is that we do not have a duty and obligation to God. He is sovereign ruler of the universe and our Creator and Lord. But he motivates us to obey His laws and precepts on the basis of His mercy in Christ. "In view of God’s mercy"...Submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ over our lives in in response to the love and mercy of God. Our motivation for commitment, discipline, and obedience is important to God. In fact, I think that we can safely say that it is more important than our performance.
Read I Chronicles 28:9; I Corinthians 4:5
God searches the hearts and understands every motive.
Let’s look at the second passage of Scripture which was part of our Scripture reading -- II Corinthians 5:14-15.
There is a lot of spiritual truth in this passage, but the essential teaching is that Christ’s love compels us to live no longer for ourselves but for Him who died for us and was raised again. The main subject is once again, commitment to the lordship of Christ in every area of our lives. But again, what is the motivating principle for this kind of commitment that will enable a person to live no longer for himself, but instead to live for God?
We are told here that it is the love of Christ that compels us to make this kind of commitment and to carry it out day after day. Compel is a strong word that often has a negative connotation associated with force or coercion. But the meaning here is very positive. It is not the fear of consequences or even the expectation of reward that motivates us. Rather it is the love of Christ that more and more becomes the governing influence and the driving force of our commitment and obedience. "We love because He first loved us."
A contemporary translation of the first phrase of II Corinthians 5:14 is: "The love of Christ continuoulsy constrains me." The word "continuously" is the key. It indicates that the unconditional love of Christ for us is the constant wellspring of motivation for our everyday commitment and obedience to Christ. This is what compels and impels us, who believe in Christ, to live for Him who died for us and rose again.
Let’s read Romans 4:7-8. This is a quote from Psalm 32. "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." What a great encouragement to know that God will never judge me for any of my sins. I know that the old sinful nature still has a strong hold on my life as a Christian. I know that I need the daily sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in my life. However God will never count my sins of selfishness, pride, impatience, etc, against me. Knowing and believing that should cause us to stop and offer a prayer of deep thanksgiving to God for His infinite grace.
In addition, we will ask God to purge us from those old sinful traits. We will ask Him to help us become more and more aware of specific sin in our lives. With the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, we will "put those sins to death", as Paul encourages us in Romans. 8:13. We will be compelled by the love of Christ to get ride of those sins and to become more like Christ.
God is worthy of my love and obedience because of who He is. Read Revelation 4:11 "...for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
When we think about "growing in grace," we often associate it with growth in our Christian character. It certainly has something of this meaning. However, a more accurate meaning is to continually grow in our understanding and acceptance of God’s grace. It means to grow in our understanding that we do not deserve anything from God. Rather, as we are saved by His grace alone, we are also enabled to live our daily lives as Christians depending on God’s unmerited, undeserved, and unearned grace alone.
May we all grow in the grace of Christ in this sense. And as we do, we will also grow in our motivation to obey God with a new sense of gratitude and reverence to Him. Our obedience in this life will always be imperfect. In the same way, our motives will never be consistently pure. There will continue to be times when our genuine love and reverence for God will be mixed up with motives of selfish pride in trying to earn our acceptance with Him.
But recognizing that, we can move more and more towards grace motives. Let’s begin to think daily about the implications of the grace of God in our lives and witness for Him...memorize and meditate often on our Scripture passages for today: Romans 12:1 and II Corinthians 5:14-15. Let’s pray for ourselves and for one another, asking God to motivate us more and more by His grace and love. As we grow in the grace of Christ in this way, we will discover that it is the love of Christ that compels us to live daily, not for ourselves, but for Him who died for us and was raised again.
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