The Grace given unto you

22nd January 2012 Eltham Baptist Church

No. 363

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way Corinthians 1:5-9

Paul the Apostle thanks God for the grace that has been given unto the Church in Jesus Christ. In fact he seemed really excited about the fact that others had accepted Gods grace with all its fringe benefits. I believe the reason for this was that Paul was once a Pharisee who was under the terrible bondage of the law. He knew what it was like to be constantly labouring, trying to obtain favour from God by his works and own self-effort. He found that in Gods grace you can stop labouring and rest in all that Christ has done for you already. Paul had an experience with Christ that changed him completely. Not only did he get saved from his sin but soon understood the wonders of Gods grace. The other Apostles hadnt seen this revelation and needed Paul to help them. Its really exciting to see a truth in Gods word which others dont see and share it with them and see the lights come on in their life. I can now understand why Paul was thanking God for those who understood the grace of God. There are still many Christians today who dont understand this grace. Because of their ignorance they are still trying to obtain Gods favour through their self-effort. There are others who have a mixture of grace and the law. The word GRACE can be better understood as Gods Riches at Christs Expense. Its something that is given to us as a gift and cant be earned by money or self-effort. God paid for it with His most precious possession His Son. The natural mind doesnt understand this concept, for all our lives we have lived with the idea that you must earn something through your own self effort. If you mow my lawn I will pay you so much, or if you are good I will give you a bicycle. Santa Claus is someone who is looking for good children so that he might give them presents, but not God. Our good works are as filthy rags in His sight.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:6 He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, Titus 3:5

The only one who has earned Gods favour is His Son Jesus who lived a sinless life and died in our place as an atonement for our sins. Its good to work for a living, but the gift that God wants to give us is so valuable that it cant be earned and if we tried to earn it, it would be an insult to Him. What can you do to earn eternal life? What can you do to have all your sins washed away? Does mowing the lawn do it or giving away $1000? Gods Grace has to be a gift and its given by someone who really did earn it by living a sinless life and dying in our place. Paul realised that the whole reason for the law was to show man that he was a sinner and that he fell far short of Gods standards.
Romans 3:10 (KJV) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

He saw that the point of the law is to show man that he is lost and needs help and the NT shows us that this help is in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The law is our OT Schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. Once we have Jesus we can then have the privilege of accepting Gods grace and owning His righteousness too as our own. This truth filled Pauls heart with thanksgiving.
Galatians 3:24-25 (KJV) Therefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. [25] But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

This says plainly that we are no longer under the law anymore. We are no longer under the law when we put our faith in Jesus and this made Paul glad. The OT was a preparation for Jesus. Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the law and stood righteous before a Holy God. When we confess that we cant keep the law ourselves and admit that we are sinners before God and believe that Jesus is the answer then we are given Christ as a gift, and in Him is all the righteousness necessary to please a Holy God, a righteousness that far exceeds the Pharisees is in that package. This is Grace. Abram was made righteous before God even before there was a law, how?
Romans 4:3 (KJV) For what says the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

He was made righteous by believing and not by the keeping of the law and so we too are made righteous by believing what Jesus did for us on the cross and not our self-effort.

Many Christians realise that they are sinners falling short of Gods law, and receive Jesus into their lives, but because of a lack of understanding of the scriptures and a natural tendency to try and earn rewards; they fall back into Pharisee Mode by trying to keep the law again, but it only leads to bondage, condemnation and misery. Paul had to deal with this problem with the Galatians.
Galatians 3:2-4 (MsgB) Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? [3] Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it how do you suppose you could perfect it? [4] Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

Instead of trying even harder to be holy and right, we need to read the truth about what Jesus did for us in Galatians and believe it. This is grace. When your confidence is more in what Jesus did for you than in what you can do for God then you are set free to live into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. When the gift of grace with Christs righteousness is fully functional in your life, you begin to see that you are not trying to earn Gods favour anymore by your works, because you know that Christ has earned Gods favour for you, its been given to you as a gift. It sets you free to be your creative self and stops you from over killing in your Christian Walk. You are set free to make mistakes without falling into a pit of condemnation, despair and self-pity when you fail. You can even laugh at yourself. So many Christians dont understand this concept of Positional Righteousness and over do things in their zeal for God and end up ruining their testimony. Many people look on us Christians and think we are mad, and rightly so, for so often we do things with a knee jerk reaction, responding to the accusations of the enemy and not the promptings of the Spirit. You didnt say or do enough, is often the type of accusation given by the Devil to an enthusiastic Christian. We often think this voice is from God and then say far more than we should until the person cant wait to get out of our yakking presence. We dont know when to stop as we are too scared to unless we anger God. Does this sound familiar? Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 that we need the righteousness of Christ as part of our Spiritual armour. If you want to fight effectively we need to know about this righteousness. Its not just the be good and love thy neighbour righteousness that he is talking about either. When God says be righteous we always think of a person who is a goody goody.
"Having on the breastplate of righteousness." Ephesians 6:14

This breastplate of righteousness protects your heart and is not an outward thing such as a list of dos and donts as many think but an attitude of the heart. The bible shows us that the moment we put our trust in Christ, we are made righteous before God. It is part of the grace given to us by God as a gift. From the point that we put our trust in Christ, God sees us "in Christ." (Romans 8:1). We are cocooned in Christ when we approach God. If God looked at us in any other way we would be sunk! There is no other way to walk before God than in His righteousness for our own righteousness is as rags in His sight. This is His grace. When Jesus died on the cross He made us righteous.
By the obedience of one [Jesus] shall many be made righteous" (Romans 5:19).

That word made means a permanent condition of being. Its not a righteousness that comes and goes, depending on how you feel. A lot of what we regard as our righteousness is based on our works. We think things like. "I'm righteous because I fasted for 3 days, therefore this promise is mine." Or I have handed out 20 tracts today, God will now bless me. Nor can you say, "My parents were good Christians, therefore great blessings are coming to me." No! The blood of Jesus Christ alone transforms you from the inside out and wraps you up in His identity. Because he is righteous, so are you. This is the grace that Paul was thanking God for. Its a grace that set him free from bondage and he so wanted others to share in his experience. Until you know the truth about Gods grace and how God now sees you, youll always try and earn Gods approval. You will feel unworthy of His love, and fear that youll never measure up. We have been given Christs righteousness as a gift. Unworthiness is one of Satans greatest weapons against us. We need to see the difference between our position and our condition. When we blow it that affects our condition but our fixed position is in Christ. Our shortcomings are our condition and the Holy Spirit is constantly working on that. Its a daily process but while this is going on God always sees us as righteous, thats our position. This is what grace is all about and worth thanking God for. http://ghotter.blogspot.com