Understanding Grace - Part 2

0:50And faith boils down to that response to grace. So what is grace? We need to understand grace in order to respond to grace in faith. And so I want to pick up where we left off last time. We were looking at grace. We looked at grace in the Old Testament. One of the key texts there is Exodus 34, 6, where God describes himself as a gracious God, abounding in loving Kindness. God who is gracious shows favor and loving kindness is loving and he is kind. We spent some time looking at those words and some illustrations of that last time. I want to pick up now and look at grace in the New Testament. The grace in the New Testament. The primary Greek term for grace is charis.

2:00It shows up quite a number of times, some 155 times, over 100 times in Paul's writings, for by grace you have been saved through faith, Ephesians 2:8. But the concept of grace that Paul is going to build on comes out of the Gospels. It comes out of the realization that the God who spoke to Moses on the mount took upon himself flesh and walked among us. And so this divine grace, this divine favor, this flow of God's goodness, mercy, loving kindness to the undeserving manifested itself in Jesus. Christ.

3:03John 1:14 says this, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, full of grace and truth, the very things that saw in Exodus 34, 6. Grace, truth, justice. For of his fullness, verse 10, I'm sorry, verse 16. For of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Look how many times he uses the word grace there at the outset of his gospel. Full of grace. We have received grace upon grace. Does this sound like abounding in grace? God who abounds in loving kindness overflows.

4:13It's interesting that John doesn't use the word again in this gospel, but he sees the whole of his gospel as an expression of God's grace abounding and flowing out of. And overflowing through Jesus Christ. And this is evident as one works their way through the Gospel of John. There are seven major miracles, seven sign miracles that Jesus performs. That really John records. John has a purpose for recording those specific ones. I want to just quickly look through some of these so that you'll get an idea that what John's gospel is about is this expression, this communication of the one who showed his grace to us.

5:17Sign miracles. First, can you read that okay? I asked you that last time. It looks small to me, but it looks big up there, so that's fine. First, I just want to think about the miracle of the turning water into wine, the very first miracle recorded. It's in John chapter 2. And this speaks about, this is like a transforming grace, a transforming miracle. The miracle itself, first of all, highlights the insufficiency of man, the need for grace.

6:00Laid out, there's an insufficiency of man. Man has an inability, and when I'm speaking, man, mankind, us, we have an inability to handle even the routine demands of life. This is evident in this miracle. They ran out of wine. They ran out of a staple necessity for a wedding to take care of their guests. And weddings weren't a little afternoon gig back then. That would go on for a week because people had to travel. You didn't have hotels. You didn't have all that. And so they would. But the very first one is they didn't make provision.

6:52But then you see the grace of Christ. He is able and willing to help even in the little details of life. So there was this grace. He was moved to do something. It was a grace of meeting basic needs. You see God's grace there, a God's grace in covering the shame of his friends. Just a beautiful picture. He came to the wedding and they were going to be found insufficient. And he covered their shame, covered them from public embarrassment, and transformed something common into something noble, something good and useful, something for celebration. And that's what he did. And so you see this grace, grace of Christ being able and willing to help in even the little details of life. And so, as John would point out, what do you do in all of this? Well, you can think about this. This is God's grace. This is who He is. This is what He wants to do. It was manifested in Jesus Christ. So, what are we to do? We are to come to Him with the everyday issues of life, knowing who we're approaching and what His heart is like. He wants us to come to Him with even the small details of our lives.

8:30The second miracle: the healing of an official's son in Capernaum. This again highlights the insufficiency of man. We are helpless in the face of sickness and disease, or certainly helpless in that, but we're also helpless and have an inability to help those we love. This is a touching story of a father. And parents get this. He wants the well-being for his son who's at the point of death. A grace. This is something that, as parents, as children, we can all understand we have loved ones, we have those we love, and we are helpless to even help those we love. But then at the this miracle, it highlights and showcases the grace of Christ, who is moved to help a father's heart.

9:40He's willing to help, he's willing and able to help those we love. What a picture. You see a picture of who God is. That's why John is just grace upon grace. I can write so much more. And he says in his gospel, grace upon grace. I've written down a few signs, and I've written these so that you will believe, and so that by believing in him, you will have eternal life, that you will come to him. But what John is doing is he's showing us God's heart. He's showing us this grace that flows out of Jesus Christ. This grace that was manifested, the grace that tabernacled among us. Language very reminiscent of Exodus 34 and the God who came and tabernacled among us.

10:30But the healing. So we come to him. Come to him with the loves of your heart. He cares for your cares. And that's so many applications. Stop there, and we'll keep going. Third sign, John's gospel, is the healing of an invalid at the pool of Bethsaida. This was in Jerusalem. Again, we see the need for grace and the insufficiency of man. Again, this situation, we are helpless in the face of sickness and disease. But this time, what's highlighted is our paralysis to even receive the cure. Here's a man right next to the pool of Bethesda, and it's stirred, and whoever gets into it gets healed. Well, he can't even get up and get healed. And so he can't make it down. He's paralyzed, even though the cure is right in front of him. It's so true of us. So true. But then you see the grace of Christ in this situation. The grace of Christ, he overcame this man's inability to get to the cure. He was moved with compassion. And he brought the remedy to a man completely helpless.

12:07He made a house call. This is Christ. He brings the remedy to a man who's completely helpless. And we are to recognize this grace. We are to recognize that this is the God who loves to help our helplessness. So we can recognize our helplessness to cure ourselves and ask Him for healing. Come to Him. Come to Him as one who can cure the deep, paralyzing deficiencies of our own lives, of our own souls. That's who He is. You can find grace there. You can find grace there not because you're a swell person, but because He is rich and abounding in grace. And that's what John is telling us. All of this stuff, He reveals this so that we will come to Him. Well, there's a miracle, the feeding of the 5,000. And this is up near the Sea of Galilee. Again, we have an insufficiency, a need for grace.

13:25And this speaks of the barrenness of our resources to even. Supply ourselves with necessary food. We are dependent, very much dependent. And you can see this worldwide. You can see our insufficiency to even supply some of our basic resources. But here you see the grace of Christ. He is this bread of life that supplies not only our physical sustenance, but also our spiritual sustenance. So he is the supplier of both physical life, physical sustenance, and spiritual sustenance, because he knows that we don't live just by bread alone. Yes, we need that.

14:21But we need so much more. I mean, who can make the promise that says, yeah, look, look at the birds, look at all these things around you. Your heavenly Father provides. Don't worry about what you eat or what you drink. God knows you have needs of these. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. All these things will be added to you. Who can make a promise like that? The one who supplies, the one who's very dialed in to who you are, where you are, and is very interested in your physical, spiritual.

15:00Well-being. He's going to take care. So we come to him. That's come to him with all the cares of life, physical, spiritual. You can see the fifth miracle, fifth sign. This is the walking on water at the Sea of Galilee. Again, you see a need for grace, an insufficiency of man. There's our helplessness in the face of the forces of the natural elements of the world in which we live. We're very dependent on our environment, aren't we? Yes, we are.

15:46If the drought goes on much longer, we're in trouble. And you can just see how very susceptible we are to our environment. And you can see that certainly with the disciples on the water and frightened. And there is the one who is Lord of the elements. And in the grace of Christ, we recognize and see there revealed that Jesus is able and willing to provide the physical faculties. I'm sorry. I've got to put on my glasses. Speaking of physical faculties. Faculties.

16:33We see in the grace of Christ that Jesus is Lord and governs the forces that control the environment in which we live. He understands our world, he understands our environment, the forces, and all, and so we can rest in him. It's a grace, a grace. And we need an environment. And listen, we need an environment here now, for however long we're here. We also need one in the age to come. And he completely has his mind engaged and knows, knows what's necessary.

17:16But all this is a grace. Why does he do all this? He loves us. God loves us. He's abounding in grace. So he even takes care of our physical environment. I also see the healing of a blind man in Jerusalem. Again, we can see an insufficiency, a need for grace, a need for grace. This time we see our helpless again, or in the face of sickness and disease. We're helpless in the face of these. But this time, our inability to perceive the world around us. Think about this guy. I love the dialogue there at the beginning of chapter 9 and verse 1. What happens here is as he passed by Jesus, he saw a man blind from birth, and the disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind.

18:25And Jesus answered, It was neither that this man sinned nor his parents, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. And so he goes on to heal the guy. But here's the guy, he's blind. He's over there. He doesn't even, no, for all we know, he has no idea this conversation is even going on. Why is he blind? And Jesus says, he heals the man. This man had the inability to perceive the world around him.

18:56His true condition. Then you see the grace of Christ step into this. He has compassion on the situation, the physical blindness of the man, but also the spiritual blindness of the man. And Jesus is going to refer to himself as the light of the world. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And so what he does is he physically heals this man. But he also gives him spiritual faculties for him to perceive who healed him.

19:41So you see, the grace of Christ, Jesus is able and willing to provide the physical faculties to correctly see the physical world, and he's able to provide and willing to provide the spiritual faculties so that we can understand the spiritual realm, understand God, understand ourselves, understand the universe. That's a grace. We need to have light. We need to see not just our physical surroundings, but so much more important, he wants to give us spiritual sight. And he is the light of the world, and that's what he came to do. So come to Christ.

20:31Christ came to Christ to illuminate, to instruct, to heal, illumine, and instruct. That's the grace that comes from him. That's an expression of his favor. We need instruction. You can see in the seventh miracle, the raising of Lazarus. Lazarus from the dead in Bethany. We can see the insufficiency of man, the need for grace here. Listen, our ultimate defeat is by death, isn't it? We can't add days to our lives in any significant way. We don't live forever.

21:26We die and we're defeated by death. That's our condition. But then you see the grace of Christ. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He not only turns death back, but also the sorrow caused by death. You see that in Lazarus in chapter 11. And we can be sure of this: that if he can raise one, guess what? He can raise them all. And who is this? Think about these. Who is this guy that comes across this earth doing all these kinds of miracles and raises the dead? Dead. Who is he? And what does this have to do with me? If he raised the one, I can be sure he's going to raise them all because he said he's going to raise. He is the judge. What does that have to do with me? I will stand before him. So there's a little bit of fear, in a sense. A good fear should be a good fear.

22:58We're going to stand before him. But also, I don't need to fear death. Death has a master, and I get to see the heart of the one who is master over death on the pages of Scripture. He is abounding in loving kindness. It overflows from him. He's gracious, abounding in loving kindness. And so, there's no, death doesn't get the final word. He does. All these are expressions of grace. Grace. But what are the purposes for all these signed miracles? You know, John really isn't thinking that a miracle is really anything in and of itself. When he records these miracles, In fact, he doesn't use the word miracle very much in the Gospel of John. He uses the word signs. Signs. And what do signs do?

24:10They're nothing in themselves, are they? What's a sign do? It points you to something else. You probably saw some signs coming in. Nursery this way. Education this way. Whatever. You see signs. They're speaking of pointing to a different place. They're nothing in and of themselves. The signs, what do they point to? What do they point to? Well, in John, it points to a greater reality. And failing to properly read the signs ends in catastrophe. But following the signs ends in life, at least in John's Gospel. Especially if you see a sign that says bridge out and you floor it, what's probably going to happen?

25:11Catastrophe. If you think, ah, bridge out, I'm going to turn around. I'm going to pay attention to the sign. Life. Same is true with John's Gospel, signs. The signs point to the God. Who is gracious to the God who is abounding in loving kindness? He manifested himself among us. Now we get to see the realities lived out in fleshly life, physical, daily, incarnate life. We get to see the God who abounds in loving kindness. And this is what John writes to show us. And these are, and he says, Look, I could go on and on and on and on, but this is sufficient.

26:02You should come to him. You should come to him. See that he is the God of grace. But the miracles were merely the expressions of grace in John's Gospel. We see Christ is one that we are to come to in all of these realms, in all of these matters, and all of these issues, and know that we have a God who loves, who concerns, who hears, who cares. And that should move us to respond. Do you really believe this? Then you are to respond by coming to Him. That's what John expects. That's the proper response. If you really believe, you will come.

26:47If you don't come, you don't believe. It's that simple in John's Gospel. But these miracles were not the ultimate accomplishment of grace in John. John's gospel. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about that. All these were signs showing us the heart of God, showing us the loving kindness, his graciousness, his favor, and how all that expresses itself in a variety of ways. But the greatest accomplishment in John's gospel is the triumph of his grace at the cross. You remember in John 1, John 1, verse 29, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and he says, Look, or behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And you think about God, the Son, arrayed in eternal glory.

27:57You see the situation and the havoc on earth with sin reigning in the heart. And you could just sense, at some point there was this moment, I'm going. And I'm going to remove sin from earth. Enough! The movement of God, the heart of God. The time is now. I am going to take away. The sin of the world. He's not going to let earth go on like this. And he is. When his career is done, there will be no more sin in the world. He'll take the sin out one of two ways. In judgment, he is the judge of all things, and he will separate. But he will also remove sin from the world through his grace and through his crosswork.

28:59And so, this is what John wants you to get. And he says it right at the very beginning. When John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, There, behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. That's who he wants you to behold. As you read the pages of John, behold, this is where it's all going. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And in his work, and takes us to the cross. John, his gospel takes us to the cross, John 19, verse 30. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

29:54He takes us to the cross. This is the great work. This is where the Father is. Glorifying the Son. You can think about all the time what's going on with in Jesus' ministry, the miracles. You can be sure there was some excitement that followed the miracles. Great, we got wine. It's probably unfermented. A little bit of a joke, okay? The Baptist joke, you know. But think about it. Think about the, you see, the joy just even in the first, or you know, when the when the head waiter comes and says, Look, you bring out the best wine at the end. You can see joy. And in all of these miracles, you could expect joy, the father getting back his son. Wow, joy.

30:59You could just go through the miracles and you can expect great release, relief. Ah, Jesus, it's you on the water. The feeding. What a joy and joyous celebration that was. Look at all this food. Look at all that's left over. Let's make him Messiah. You can see the joy in all of these. And there he is. John takes us to the cross. It is. Finished, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Then he takes us to John 20, 20.

31:41Jesus shows himself to the disciples on that resurrection day. And when he said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Think about it. There he is, the scarred lamb of God in their presence. Scarred, a man who is marred beyond recognition. Now standing in their midst with the scars. Now they can behold the lamb who took away the sin of the world. They can see him.

32:22They can see the scars. This now, John, I can imagine that John the disciple can hear John the Baptist's testimony echoing in his mind: Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. There he is. And what did they do? They rejoiced. Think about it. Man, you turned the water into wine. Man, you gave this dad back his son. Man, you walked on the water. Man, you provided. Man, you brought Lazarus out of the grave.

33:00And here at this moment, well done it! You took away the sin of the world! Who is this that stands before us? He took the sin away, it's gone. And here comes Jesus: accomplishment. Took away the sin of the world. That's who John wants you to see. The accomplishment of grace is that the taking away of the sin of the world. He has accomplished, he has figured out a way to remove sin from his people. And he did it. And that started out of his favor, out of his grace. That moved him to compassion. All these other evidences of his grace were just rehearsals.

34:20I mean, they're true, they're pictures of the heart of grace, but it's not the greatest accomplishment. We have something far more severe than just blind. Eyes and not understanding spiritual truths. We are dead in sin, and our sin crushes us and separates us. And if we die in our sins, we're completely separated from life forever. And we will bear the shame. But John wants us to see this Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. This is the accomplishment of His grace. And this sets the whole New Testament understanding of grace. And so, how are we to respond? Come to Him as the Lamb who takes away your sin, or do you want to remain in your sin?

35:27He is the one who takes away the sin. How do you listen? One thing I can tell you about Jesus, and the Gospels bear this out. If you could get to Him when He was walking around this earth, He healed you. If you could get to Him, He healed you. Do you want your sin taken away? Come to Him and ask. And be believing the heart of your heavenly Father that stands to forgive. God isn't standing and waiting to judge you, He's waiting to forgive you.

36:17Will you respond to His grace? What's beautiful about this whole picture is that everything, and think about it, let your mind settle on this accomplishment of grace. Everything that offends God in His people has been justly and truly removed. Think about that. When your sin is taken away, there is nothing left that offends God. Think about that accomplishment. He takes away the sin of the world. Everything that offends God and His people has been justly and truly removed.

37:13And this is what John wants you to get. And this frames the whole New Testament understanding of grace. Paul is going to latch on this more than any. We'll spend more time looking at that. But just thinking about the meaning of grace. What is the meaning of grace? When you start boiling it all down in a New Testament context and theological understanding, grace always has the narrow meaning of the unmerited favor of God. It is the favor of God, for it is by grace you have been saved, no longer on the basis of works.

38:11Culver says it like this: specifically, grace is that method of God, apart from and in spite of all human merit or demerit and work or lack of it, whereby, on the basis of redemption and upon the occasion of faith, God saves sinful man. Grudem says it well: God's grace means God's goodness toward those who deserve only punishment. So, grace, what is it? Well, grace comes out of God's loving, kind disposition. Grace is not a setting aside or lowering the standards of God's righteousness. That's a very Prevalent misunderstanding of grace. He doesn't just, grace is not like, yeah, go ahead, I got you covered, go do what you want. No, grace is, he doesn't want us in sin. He loves us too much. He knows the deadly, separating, killing effects that sin has. Grace is not setting aside or lowering God's righteous standards, but accomplishes them. That's what grace does.

39:32Matthew, Jesus says, Do not think I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, I came to fulfill. I did not come to set aside the righteous standards that are revealed in God's law. I came to bring them about. Titus 2:11 says this: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Grace instructs us. It comes out of his desire for our well-being. Grace instructs us, teaches us to prefer what is good, to despise what is evil, to deny ungodliness, to live sensibly, righteously. This is what grace wants to bring about.

40:34Grace, and this is two words that I'd like to put together if I describe grace in two words. It's this: devoted favor. Grace involves the devoted favor of God upon the undeserving. That's what grace is. That's why we come to Him as those who are undeserving, because we know His heart. He is one who devotes His favor. It's loving kindness, there's covenant faithfulness. And so He gives His favor completely upon the undeserving, takes away their sin, teaches them to say no to ungodliness.

41:31Well, let me just say another thing about that. When I think about grace as the devoted favor of God, it may express itself in many different ways. This devoted favor may express itself as mercy. A situation calls for mercy. This devoted favor may express itself as kindness. Necessitates it, it may show up as faithfulness and many other ways that promote the well-being of the recipient, especially in salvation, but certainly not limited to it. God's favor certainly saves us, sanctifies us, but He has so much more. That's just the beginning of it all.

42:30And so the well doesn't exhaust itself in salvation, it's only starting to flow. Something else about grace: grace is highly personal. Sometimes we think of grace as this substance that's floating out there in the air, kind of like a force. I don't know where that idea came from. But it's like this substance, and it's like pixie dust or something out there that just somehow gets sprinkled. No, it's not some metaphysical substance out there, it is highly personal. Grace has a subject and an object. I mean, we know that, even as we deal with people, we know if you show somebody grace, you're giving them. Some sort of expression that goes for their well-being, not something that they've deserved, just kindness in some form. But it has an origination point, it has a destination point, just like you get on an airplane. It starts somewhere, it goes somewhere. There's a starting point, an ending point. That's the same with grace. It has an origination point in a person.

43:56God Almighty is full of grace, gracious, abounding in loving kindness. And that grace flows from Him to His people. And all of us on earth are recipients of His grace. The Son comes up, He's good. You see so many evidences of it all around us, the common grace. But common grace doesn't save you. You need that special grace, that one where you come to the point to say, Behold, the Lamb of God who took away my sin.

44:39What a relief that is. What an accomplishment that is, that I can look upon Jesus Christ as the Lamb who took away my sin, and I am left with the realization there is nothing left in me that offends Almighty God. Because I have become perfect, but because his sacrifice is perfect. And his ability to remove the offense before Almighty God is absolutely perfect, complete, thorough. Now that's the way to start living. We don't do well under the frown of God.

45:29We do well under His grace. You know, we know when we have been given favor by somebody we don't deserve. Grace can be quite alarming sometimes. We also know when we've fallen into ill favor. It's not hard. When you come to the cross, we come to that point, that connection point where what began in the mind of God is an expression of love to us, as His people finds complete realization, an expression of grace so wonderful, so complete, that He takes away our sin, leaving nothing of offense. And He gives us His life that which He totally delights in. He moves us from a place of Of offense to a place of being totally delighted in. That's the gift we have in the Son.

46:39Grace upon grace. So come back next time and we'll continue looking at this grace. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we bow our heads before you, we are struck with the realization and the profound question: why? Why would anybody want to do all of this for me, for us? Why would you want to save sinners? Why would you want to send away that which offends and bestow that which you completely delight in? Why would you make us such an object of your favor? There's no explanation other than that you are purely good, thoroughly good.

47:43And what Moses heard, that you are the God who is gracious, abounding in loving kindness. But by no means will leave the guilty unpunished. We thank you, Father. For this great grace, help us to take it in, to believe, and to respond. Thank you for the new life we have in Christ. Go with us now, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.