This is the first in the series, Destination Grace, outlining how to get from where we are, to an experience of grace and a place of gracious living.
Suppose you are driving with your son is sitting beside you in the front passenger seat and a drunk driver slams into the passenger side of your car. In the wreck, your son is killed.
I know how most of us would feel and react. First, there would be a great deal of anger. Then, there’d be a desire for vengeance. We’d run over to the drunk driver and do everything in our power to beat him to a pulp.
Some might be more restrained and let justice run its course. Justice would mean waiting for the authorities to arrest the drunk driver. Then you’d make sure the court system did its job. You’d press for the severest penalty of the law.
Consider this scenario. Suppose that when the police took the drunk driver to court, you intervened before the judge, pleading for mercy and pardon for the drunk driver. Additionally, you told the judge you’d personally forgiven him for hitting your car and killing your son.
Then suppose you went farther. You took the drunk driver back to your own home. Then you adopted him as your son. That would be unheard of, but that would be grace. It sounds pretty outrageous. I doubt if very many of us are gracious enough to do that. That is exactly what God did for us. And that’s the way he wants us to live.
We’ve offended God and messed up our lives. We deserve God’s anger and God’s vengeance. However, rather than treating us the way we deserve, God lavishes on us the riches of his grace, the riches of God at Christ’s expense.
GRACE
The English word grace in its Hebrew form, means to bow, to bend or to stoop. I have visited England several times and have seen the crown jewels, the pageantry and the palaces. It is all meant to raise the royals to a level far above commoners. When royalty ventures into the streets, commoners bow before them. On occasion, a royal will stop, bow down and reach out and touch a commoner. This was called grace, stooping to a lower level to honor a person who had no status in society.
Donald Barnhouse said, “Love that goes up is worship, love that goes outward is affection but love that stoops is grace.” Grace is extending favor to someone who clearly does not deserve it.
You have to put grace in context. As we start on the journey to destination grace, you discover there’s a big detour. No one can appreciate grace until he recognizes how guilty he is. The journey to destination grace starts with a guilt trip. You will never appreciate grace, until you own the fact that you are still in great need. Sin is a roadblock on the road to grace.
WE ARE ALL SIN-POSITIVE PEOPLE
The test results are in: the sin-virus has hit us all. When Adam and Eve sinned, sin entered the human race and from that time on, Adam’s sin was passed to everyone. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12).
Humanists want us to believe that we’re basically good. They would like us to believe that given the opportunity to choose between good and bad, most people will choose to do good.
Nothing could be further from the truth. There is an over-riding principle operating in all of us that taints our decisions. Given the choice, we do not always choose what is good; rather, we often choose what is bad. We tend to choose good only as long as it is to our advantage.
Parking lot study
Have you ever looked for a parking spot at a busy shopping mall? You go up and down the rows and there doesn’t seem to be a single parking place. So you start stalking the lanes, watching people coming out to their cars. You hope to get their parking spot when they leave. Have you ever wondered why people seem to dawdle when they see you waiting for a parking spot?
A research study was done in a Chicago shopping mall to determine if people really do slow down when they see someone waiting to move into their spot. The study showed that the average person takes 32 seconds to open the car door, start the car and start moving away from the parking stall. Just 32 seconds -unless someone is waiting for the parking spot, in which case it takes them much longer.
Now if people were basically good, you’d think that if they saw someone waiting for the parking spot, they’d speed up to help, but people are not basically good and the average time jumped from 32 seconds to 39 seconds, almost 25% longer! And if the person waiting for the parking spot showed any impatience or agitation, the time jumped from 39 seconds to 43 seconds.
Why do we enjoy making people wait longer? We see someone waiting, so we adjust the mirrors more carefully and the ladies check their make-up, just to keep someone waiting. What makes people so ornery? No one has to teach us to do that. That research validates what the Bible says about human nature. The Bible explains this quite clearly: we are born with a sinful nature. We’re sin-positive people.
Biblical statements
The Bible concludes we are all sin-positive. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5).
Babies are born sinful and they live sinfully. Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies. (Psalm 58:3).
Going our own way is the ultimate expression of the sinful nature. We know the basics of what is right and what is wrong, God planted that in our hearts, but even though we know that it is wrong to lie and steal and kill and cheat, we still go against that spark of divine insight. We go our own ways and do our own things. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. (Romans 3:10).
That sounds extreme. You may think that surely there are a few good people on the planet. Yes, but only good in a relative sense, good in that there are people worse than they are. The Bible concludes that we are all sin-positive. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23).
Personal test
What does it mean to fall short of the glory of God? God’s glory is his standard for our behavior. What is that glorious standard? It’s recorded in Exodus 20 and is called the 10 Commandments.
Lest anyone thinks he can stand up to God’s standard, here’s a test. Don’t be intimidated by the test because no one passes it. I took the test, and I failed the test. There are ten aspects of God’s standard. How do you stack up?
Look at the first one. You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3). No other gods. Here’s the question: has there ever been a time in your life when you put someone or something ahead of God? We devalue God by valuing something or someone else more. God doesn’t appreciate that. He says, make sure you keep me at the top of the pile.
Consider the next one. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything. (Exodus 20:4). Now you might think “I’ve got this one covered.” But idolatry is not so much bowing down to an image as it is surrendering to anything that keeps you from God. Whatever keeps you from worshipping God, is your idol.
The list goes on. No cursing or swearing. Have you ever called out “Jesus Christ” when you weren’t really praying, or failed to honor your parents. No sexual activity outside of marriage. No stealing. Have you ever taken anything that wasn’t rightfully yours? No coveting, no envy and no jealousy.
This test indicates we are sin-positive. Some of us may have more sin than others, but unfortunately, God doesn’t grade on a curve. There is no point in comparing yourself with someone else. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8).
Guilty. Somehow we know this and it is a serious problem. We aren’t even close to meeting God’s standards. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10).
Until we get to the point where we acknowledge that we are sin-positive people, we will never get a grip on grace. We’re born sinful, we live sinfully and we die sinful.
SIN-POSITIVE PEOPLE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM
A problem with life.
Being sin-positive creates problems for us here and now. Sin brings suffering, makes relationships difficult and makes handling the pressures of life a struggle.
A problem with death.
We not only struggle in this life, we have a big problem when we die and face God. God has a big problem with sin-positive people. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
My sin puts me at odds with God. You may say, wait a minute, I thought God is loving. Well he is. God loves you but God hates your sin.
We have a problem. We consistently fall short of God’s standard. God is offended and punishes people who don’t measure up. We’re in big trouble.
Here’s the situation: we’re sin-positive and sin-positive people have a problem with life and death. But there is good news.
GOD HAS A PLAN FOR SIN-POSITIVE PEOPLE
Grace is God’s plan for transforming sinners into saints.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9).
God’s plan is to provide us with grace. He’s the great King who comes and stoops down to our level. He’s the one who comes and adopts the drunk driver.
Grace is truly amazing. It is grace that provides an immediate and permanent solution for all sin-positive people who will accept it.
God’s grace is exceptional.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. (Ephesians 1:7).
God’s grace is expensive.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9).
God’s grace is essential.
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12).
Only God offers us grace. No one else.
It’s a take it or leave it opportunity. There are no negotiations with God, no plea-bargaining with God. You can’t say to God, “I know I wasn’t perfect, but did you see that creep who lives down the street from me?”
We need to own the fact that we are sinners and guilty. We must accept the fact that salvation is completely out of our hands. There is nothing we can ever do to earn it; we’re all too guilty.
We are saved, not by getting one or two right answers, but by God’s grace. Forgiveness is rooted in God’s grace, not our relative goodness.
Grace! We’ve got to get a grip on grace. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more; there is nothing you can do to make him love you less. A relationship with God is not based on a performance treadmill; it is based on grace.
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