July 18, 2010

This week I am doing a follow-up to last weeks message. Jesus said repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus shall be preached in all nations. We followed Peter, Paul and then I brought you the challenge of this verse, forgiveness of sins are yours if you are willing to repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ.

I want to share with you another set of verses that deal with the issue of being a Christian.

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8, 9, NIV).

Notice the wonderfulness of this verse. Salvation is an act of grace on God’s part. We are not saved by our works. We cannot earn our way into heaven. Salvation is all of grace.

What do we mean that salvation is all of grace? What we mean is that we are totally unable to save ourselves. We are like the person swimming in the middle of the ocean. We may be able to make some progress towards shore, but none of us have the strength on our own to make it all the way. The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If we fall short, then God must reach down to bring us up. This is what God did by sending Jesus to die on the cross for us. Jesus saves, we cannot save ourselves. It is all by the grace of God. We can do nothing to earn our salvation.

For some, this brings an interesting question. If salvation is all of grace and God does all the saving, don’t repentance and faith as acts of the human will mean that we will earn salvation by repenting and putting our faith in Jesus? Isn’t repentance and faith things about which we can boast? Doesn’t human effort play a part? Is this a contradiction?

For example, Dr. Keith R. Sherlin, a Christian teacher writes this, “Salvation according to the Bible is by grace alone. Grace alone means man did not deserve the favor. The Bible teaches that "for by grace through faith we are saved; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8-9 NASB). Some people, for whatever reason, pride, misunderstanding, ignorance due to false teaching, etc., insert man's will as the basis for God's election. However, if a person does this then grace becomes something the human earns by making the right choice. That turns the gospel message into a message of justice instead of a message of undeserved grace and favor. If God demands that a person believe in order to be saved, and if this belief is the basis of why God elects/predestines a person then the person who obeys the command/law earns God's grace and favor by his obedience.”

First, I will tell you that I disagree with the way he sets this up, but he mirrors what many others say. In effect they say, “If we can repent and put our faith in Jesus, then we earn our salvation. It is no longer by grace.” He makes the statement, repeated by many others, that “if a person does this then grace becomes something the human earns by making the right choice…”

Let me pose this question to you. If a person repents of sin, is repentance considered by God a work that earns salvation?

The answer is no. Let me use an extreme example on this. Let us suppose that someone tortured and murdered one of your children. They sit in a jail cell and one afternoon, they are overcome by what they have done. From the heart they grieve that they took the innocent life of your child. A realization comes over them of the deep pain you are feeling over the loss of your child. This is real, not a phony setup. And then they determine that they are going to change their lives. They get educated so that when and if they ever leave, their plan is to try to make up for all the wrong that they have done.

Have they earned your forgiveness? By earned, I mean, are you obligated to forgive them as a payment for their repentance? I am not speaking from the Christian point of view, for we have been forgiven so much by God, we should forgive anyone who sins against us because of how much we have been forgiven. But on a human level, do these people have the right to demand you forgive them? If repentance is something that can be earned, then they have the right to demand your forgiveness and you owe it to them because of what they have done.

But I am sure that most of us would say, “No way!” They can ask my forgiveness, but it’s not like a paycheck. I don’t have to automatically grant forgiveness. If they earned it, then I would have to pay up. But I don’t. I can say yes or no. If I chose to forgive, I do so as an act of grace, not as a payment due for a work someone has done. They do not earn forgiveness by their repentance.

Now you can choose to forgive them and as a Christian, you will be more at peace if you do. But if you forgive that person, it will still be an act of grace on your part, not anything they have earned by their repentance.

What about faith? Is the fact that God lays out what we need to do to be saved, he shows us his love and his grace, and we respond in faith, is salvation now earned because we believe?

The scripture says, “No!”

4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. (Romans 4:4, 5, NIV).

From God’s point of view, faith is credited as righteousness, not as a wage for some job done for God. God does not view the fact that someone believes as something that requires that he pay them by giving salvation.

This is the human experience as well. If someone comes to a financial advisor and says to them, “I trust you. You are the best advisor I know. I have heard you speak, I have seen your work, I have heard about your reputation. Because I trust you, you must save me from the mess I am in.” We would say, “Just because you trust someone does not obligate them in any way to help you. If they do, it is an act of grace.”

But I will tell you that repentance and faith are both acts of God’s grace. Because he doesn’t need to receive us when we repent, because he doesn’t have to accept us just because we believe, his accepting us based on our faith is an act of grace.

Let me show you how the scripture says this. Some of you may have caught on that I didn’t give a scripture reference for where the Bible says that repentance is not a work. The Bible is very careful in its terminology. It says things exactly the right way. What we will find is that repentance is not a work, it is a product of grace.

18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:18, NIV).

Do you notice what this says? The Jewish people at that time were very adamant. If you wanted to be right with God, you needed to go through Judaism. Peter comes back from a trip to visit Cornelius, a gentile who receives Christ. He shares the story, we did so last week, and then the conclusion is given.

18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:18, NIV).

Notice the word “granted”? God was under no obligation to give life to the Jewish people who received Christ. The fact that Jewish people had the Messiah, the Savior, was an act of grace.

In this passage, the Jewish people had their eyes opened and their world expanded. God granted the Gentiles repentance unto life as well. Did he have to do this? Would it be possible that a Gentile could repent and that God could say to him, “Sorry, you’ve sinned too much and it’s too late.” Sure. God is God and he would not violate his love, justice, or any other characteristic if he refused to act. Jeremiah realized this. He said, “It’s because of the Lord’s mercy we are not consumed.” And the fact that we have a chance to turn and put our faith in Jesus is a gift from God to us. God can have mercy on who he wants to have mercy and exercise justice on who he wants to give justice. He is God.

As a result of this study, I am thankful for this one thing. I am thankful that God in his grace gives me the chance to repent and believe. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. I don’t deserve the opportunity to repent, I don’t deserve the opportunity to believe, but by God’s grace he gives all of us that chance. That is why the apostle Paul says,

“12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:12, 13, NIV).

This opportunity won’t last forever. Scripture tells us that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. We have a limited time to receive God’s grace. The door to repentance, faith and salvation will not be kept open forever. As scripture says, “Today is the day of salvation.”

Why “today?” That is an act of grace on God’s part as well. He could have closed the door on you yesterday, but he didn’t. He loves you and wants you to be reconciled to Him. He wrote this in the Bible, he gave me this message, he encouraged you to be here today so that you could hear the age old story. You see, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Do you believe? Have you changed your mind about Jesus? Do you trust him? Have you turned from sin? Have you put your trust in Jesus? He died for you, was buried and rose again to give you new life. What a gracious God. Have you received Him? Have you receive his grace?

If so, he asks you to make what has happened inside you come out into the open. If you trust Him, you will do what he asks you to do. What he asks is that you be baptized. Baptism is an outward way of showing what we believe inside. Baptism shows that we believe Jesus died for us, was buried and rose again. Baptism shows that we are burying the old life and are trusting Christ to live the new.

You can follow Him this afternoon.