June 2, 2013
“A
certain ruler asked [Jesus], ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life’” (Luke
18:18)?
Evangelical Christians think such a
question to be absurd. We don’t do
things to earn salvation and with it eternal life, it is given as a free gift
from God. Yet, if we read Luke 18, we
have to acknowledge that Jesus does not tell the man salvation and life cannot
be earned. The man asked what must I do? Jesus tells him what he needs to do. He has to sell his possessions, give the
money to the poor, and follow Jesus. We
doubt that Jesus would give the same answer if another person asked about
eternal life. The context is clear;
Jesus was speaking to this man’s idol – his wealth. He has to get rid of the wealth he worshiped
so it would not prevent him from following Jesus.
But even with that caveat, it still
sounds like something the seeker does: remove an idol and follow Jesus. We say salvation is a gift from God. Is that consistent with the Biblical
accounts? Or are there requirements and
if we fail to meet them then do we have no hope?
A few years ago, a popular book
called Love Wins by Pastor Rob Bell
raised all sorts of controversy. Many
readers decided that Bell, in the book, had discarded the Biblical view of
Hell. The critics accused Bell of
universalism – the notion that in the end all people go to Heaven. In numerous interviews, Bell tried to defend
his writing and beliefs. He maintained
that he does believe there is a Hell. He
asserted that his views are in line with the Bible. Two extremely popular pastors – David Platt
and Francis Chan – did short videos responding.
Neither named Bell, but both were clearly refuting his ideas.
The conversation boiled down to a
question. Who is in? When it is all said and done, who gets to be
with God for eternity? Who is consigned
to Hell – eternal separation from God and the people of God? These two questions have tormented the
conscience of men and women for centuries.
Who is in? What must I do to make
sure I am in?
In theological terms, these basic
questions come up in the centuries old debate over justification. I won’t spend a lot of time on that
term. I will though add to our
discussion a late 20th century version of this debate. It centers on the writings of the Apostle
Paul.
Paul is unquestionably the author of
Romans, 1st & 2nd Corinthians, Galatians,
Philippians, 1st Thessalonians, and Philemon. The New Testament also lists Paul as the
author of 2nd Thessalonians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1st
& 2nd Timothy, and Titus.
Some scholars doubt he wrote the letters in that second set. In most cases, I tend to think Paul was the
author or extremely influential over the one who actually penned the
letter. What is clear is that this
Christian, after Jesus, was the most important in terms of forming Christian
thought in the first century.
The debate of the last 30 years is
over what exactly Paul was saying in terms of who’s in. Was Paul more concerned with what we need to
do to be saved? Or was Paul answering
the question who is in and who is not in?
In other words, was Paul worried about a single individual? What
does Joe Smith need to do to make sure Joe Smith goes to Heaven? Or was Paul dealing with groups? How do
we know the Jews are saved? How do we
know if non-Jews can be counted among the people of God?
Bible scholars get pretty worked up
over the finer points in these conversations.
We’re not going to join the argument per se. We’re not going to debate how many angels can
dance on the head of a pin.
The letters Paul wrote were to
specific churches. Sometimes he wrote
theological treatises. Romans and
Ephesians are this type of writing. Paul
also wrote very pointed letters in which he was responding to things he had
heard. First and 2nd
Corinthians fall in this category. Reading
these texts so many centuries later, we are disadvantaged in that we don’t know
what Paul was responding to. We have to
read his letters along with the rest of the New Testament, especially Acts, and
we try to piece together the situation to which he responded.
In Galatia, where there were several
churches, there was crisis. Paul had
preached the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. He founded those churches on the idea that a
person acknowledges sin and then receives forgiveness and new life from
God. The individual is baptized in the
name of Jesus and that’s how salvation comes about. It is an act of receiving what God gives.
Paul built the church on this gospel
of grace, and then he went on to other places.
After he departed, another group of evangelists visited the Galatian
believers. They agreed with Paul that it
is necessary to put one’s faith in Jesus.
But they then added an additional requirement. The believer must be circumcised and must
keep the Law of Moses.
Were these other evangelists saying
that one has to earn salvation by keeping the law? Or were they saying that one has to keep the
Moses tradition to be counted among the people of God? The war scholars wage in lectures and the
pages of journals is a worthy one. It
drives the church deep into the pages of scripture, where we need to be. But we don’t need to settle this debate.
What we find in Paul’s words, which
we believe were inspired by the Holy Spirit and are thus a word from God, is
that we are saved by grace. And it is by
grace that we, every one of us who follows Jesus, are counted among the people
of God. The gift we hold is the
Word. The Word of God came about, in the
case of Paul’s letter to Galatia, because He has to clarify his Gospel in the
face of a serious challenge. His
response stands before us and shows us what it means to receive the Gospel of
Grace.
Grace is a tricky word. It is a popular name for girls, a beautiful
name. It is something said before
meals. A simple definition of grace is
it is something we receive as a free gift, with no strings attached and nothing
required of us. But is that a uniquely
Christian definition? What does the
Bible mean by the idea of grace? We are
going to spend the next six weeks looking at this.
The Gospel of Grace
1 – Grace Revealed
2 – Grace Received
3 – Grace Lived
4 – Grace Shared
5 – Grace Declared
6 – Grace Sought
The problem Paul faced confronts
Christ followers all time. We give lip
service to salvation as a gift. But in
our minds, we label others as “good” or “bad,” and we determine one’s eternal
destination based on how we have categorized them. Oh, and we also have ourselves and the people
we love in the “good” category.
Someone
spends his life drinking, goes through two divorces, skips out on child-support
payments, never darkens the door of a church, and never prays. At his funeral, his old drinking buddies
gather around his casket. “Well, he was
a good man,” one says. Another chimes
in, “At now least he is in a better place.”
We verbalize salvation by grace
through Jesus Christ, but in actuality, we live with a good-bad, salvation by
works mentality. And we convince
ourselves we’ve done enough. Paul
responds, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called
you in the grace of Christ” (Galatians 1:6a).
For Paul the issue of Gospel – the right Gospel or a false gospel
matters. For us it is of eternal
significance.
Thankfully, in his opening remarks
in Galatians, Paul lays the groundwork for the Gospel of grace. Imagine that what he is writing to the first
century believers in Galatia is also to us, 21st century believers
in North Carolina. The Holy Spirit has
given life to Paul’s words so that his writing is God’s word to us.
“Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free
from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father”
(1:3-4).
What do we mean when we say word
‘grace?’ We mean Jesus gave his life for
us. His act of doing that has set us
free from sin. A light is shed on the
works argument. What do I need to do? Well,
there’s nothing I can do, but there is something Jesus did and did with us in
mind. He went to the cross. He gave himself for us. We are free from sin’s grip. No matter how dark the days in which we live,
we are free from the evils of this age.
Grace means Jesus gave His life for us.
It also means we are in the family
of God. Paul declares we are all members
of God’s family (1:2). He will go on to
introduce adoption as a concept for understanding our place with God. He legitimate adoption as a way of being
family and he sets it as the way of understand our standing with the Lord. Over and over Paul refers to God as father
and “our father” (1:1, 4). Grace means
that in Christ, we are related to one another.
To suppose the thickest connections among people are blood relations is
a worldly way of thinking. Paul implies
that our connection in Christ runs much deeper than any blood kinship.
His energies reach their peak as he
writes, “I want you to know that the gospel [I proclaimed] … I received through
a revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:11, 12).
Human wisdom is not in play. This
idea of grace as God giving himself by become human and dying for all is a
God-originated plan. The only way we can
know it in any sense is if God gives it.
Grace is something revealed by God in Jesus. Any other definition of grace – a free gift;
given something I do not earn; or any other is OK. It is valuable. But grace as a description of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ must be understood in these terms.
It is Jesus giving himself for us.
It is a declaration that in Him we
are related; brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is something revealed. We only know it because God shows us. We only have it because God gives it.
So now we turn back to our opening
questions. What must I do to receive
eternal life? How do we know who’s in
with God at the end?
I can’t do anything, but Jesus has
done what was needed by giving himself on the cross. So I receive what he gives. And all who do this regardless of ethnic
background, gender, education, or social status are in with God, forever.
This morning we’ve barely scratched
the surface of Paul’s thought. We have
in the most general terms summarized grace.
What’s the next step? Between now
and next Sunday, I want each one here to read 1000 or so pages on the idea of
grace. I will provide reading
lists. Or you can find your own sources.
Of course we probably won’t
accomplish that. I am sure I won’t. So, read Galatians. And with every verse, seek Jesus. In your quiet moments, seek Jesus. In your most difficult conversations, seek
Jesus. He is the giver of divine grace. Ask Him to reveal it to you.
AMEN
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