Why Grace?

Why Grace?
February 1, 2012 4:30 AM -0600
Manuscript
Outline
Notes
Bibliography
The word "grace" is simple enough to define, but the do we really get it? In this new series leading up to Easter, Pastor Jeremy will examine the notion of grace, what it's for, why it's so important, and what we need to do with it.
Thesis: God extends grace to make us holy.
Objective: Explain the basic need for and purpose of grace, and challenge believers to respond by seeking an appropriate relationship with God, faith in God, and obedience to God.
  1. Intro
    1. What is grace?
      1. Justice
        1. Getting what we deserve.
        2. If we were to get justice, we would be immediately and eternally punished for every sin.
        3. Represented in the law.
      2. Mercy
        1. Not getting what we deserve.
        2. If we were to get mercy, we wouldn’t be punished, exactly, but we would probably live in an eternal purgatory.
        3. Represented in the cross.
      3. Grace
        1. Getting what we don’t deserve.
        2. With grace, we are not only forgiven but actually promoted to sons of God, co-heirs with Christ, princes in the Kingdom of heaven.
        3. Represented in the empty tomb.
      4. Ephesians 2:8-9: “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — not from works, so that no one can boast.”
    2. Grace is what we want.
    3. Ultimately, grace is what we need.
    4. But what is grace? Why is it so important? How does it work? How do we get it? What must we do with it?
    5. New series, called “grace.”
    6. Today, “What is the purpose of grace?”
    7. Deuteronomy 7:6-11
      1. For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be His own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the
      2. earth. “The Lord was devoted to you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord
      3. loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of
      4. Egypt. Know that •Yahweh your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His
      5. commands. But He directly pays back and destroys those who hate Him. He will not hesitate to directly pay back the one who hates Him. So keep the command —the
      6. statutes and ordinances —that I am giving you to follow today.
  2. We’re a holy people (6).
    1. We are holy (“For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God;” God has claimed us as His own and, as such, provided for us to be holy here and now. For Moses and the Israelites, this was found in God’s observation in Genesis 15:6: “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” For modern believers, it’s found in Jesus.).
      1. 1 Corinthians 1:30: “But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us —our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”
      2. Ephesians 4:22-24: “You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”
      3. It’s like a garment that we don that covers over our own imperfections and sin and allows us to be set apart for and to the service of God.
    2. We are to be holy (“For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God;” We intend to be set aside for God and, as such, must strive for real holiness in thought, word, and deed. It’s not enough to have on the “garment” of holiness to cover our ongoing sin; we need to be eliminating the sin so that the garment of holiness increasingly fits us properly.).
    3. We are to be God’s treasure (“The Lord your God has chosen you to be His own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth;” The key here is the word “possession,” which is not just another thing. Strong’s says it comes from a word meaning “to shut up,” implying that this is something which you would protect in a vault. I.e., a “jewel, peculiar (treasure), proper good, special.” God sets us, exclusively, apart to His exclusive service. We’re His treasure! ILLUSTRATION: alchemy).
  3. God has chosen us (7-8).
    1. It’s not about us (“not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples” (7); God didn’t choose Israel because they were bigger or better than anyone. Indeed, as far as nations were concerned, they were virtually nothing when God initiated His covenant with Abraham. When He reaffirmed it with Jacob, Jacob’s entire household consisted of 70 people. And when He inaugurated the New Covenant with the disciples, He chose 12 ragtag men. Certainly, they weren’t a great nation! And He continues to choose small people and small churches! Indeed, even the greatest person on earth is nothing compared to God. None of our credentials can merit God’s choice of us!).
    2. God loves us (“But because God loved you... He brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery” (8); God chose us and makes us holy, firstly, because He loves us. Indeed, as John said, God is love. Love is His primary motivation in extending grace and making us holy.).
    3. God is faithful (“But because the Lord... kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery” (8); God chose us and makes us holy, secondly, because He is faithful to do as He promised. He promised Abraham and Jacob to deliver to their descendants the promise land so that they could be a beacon of hope and holiness to the rest of the world. He promised to save the disciples from their sin so they could become a city on the hill and witnesses to the rest of the world. And He promises to save and cleanse all who really believe. Faithfulness is God’s other primary motivation in extending grace and making us holy.).
  4. We must respond to grace (9-11).
    1. We must know God as God (“Know that Yahweh your God is God;” (9); We must acknowledge and experience God as the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all that is and the rightful ruler of our lives.).
    2. We must trust God as faithful (“...the faithful God who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commands;” Our response to grace must be to believe that He will honor His end of the covenant (i.e., salvation) if we will honor ours (i.e., obedience).).
    3. We must love God as holy (“...who keeps His gracious covenant... with those who love Him and keep His commands.... So keep the command... that I am giving you to follow today” (9-11); Our response to God’s grace must include a heart shift to loving Him. And if we’re really going to love Him - that is, put His interests first - it will inherently involve us obeying Him.).
  5. Conclusion
    1. You are a holy people.
    2. God extends grace to make that possible and even real.
    3. Challenge: Go out and act like it.
Ryrie
  • (6-11) “God’s sovereign choice of Israel was not based on the size of the nation (Abraham received the promise while still childless, and Jacob’s immediate family consisted of only 70 individuals) but stemmed from His love and from faithfulness to His covenant purpose for them.”
  • (6-11) “holy” is be “separate from all around them and to the Lord for His use.”
  • Hosea 2:19 re: mercy???

Reflecting God
  • (6) “Holiness is both a goal (‘you shall be holy’) and, as here, a reality (‘you are holy’).”
  • (8) “The ‘covenant’ of love’ stems from God’s love for his people, based on his character and embodied in his covenant; it does not stem from the numerical greatness of the people or any virtue of theirs. His love must be reciprocated by his people.”
  • (9) “God’s love is not fickle; it lasts throughout all generations as conveyed by the number ‘a thousand.’” (Ex 20:6)
ESV Study Bible
  • (6) “This verse provides the reason for the preceding commands.”
  • (6) “At its heart, holiness means being exclusively separated to God. Hence Israel must have no association with pagan religion.”
  • (7-8) “The Lord’s love for Israel derives from his love for their fathers, the patriarchs (4:37), and not from their own merits.”
  • (9-10) “Unlike 5:9–10, there is no mention here of visiting iniquity to the third or fourth generations. Rather, God repays to their face those who hate him.”

HCSB Study Bible
  • (6) “The term possession translates a Hebrew noun (segullah) that describes an unusually precious treasure. It occurs also in Ex 19:5 upon the Lord's offer of the Mosaic covenant to Israel at Mount Sinai.”
  • (6) “As Creator [God] has claim to all the peoples, but in line with His purposes to redeem them, He chose only the holy people Israel as the vehicle of His saving grace (Rm 9:1-5; 11:28-32).”
  • (8) “God's choice of Israel as "His own possession" (v. 6) was not based on any merit on Israel's part but solely on His love for them (4:37). Their present position as imminent heirs of the land of promise was evidence of His love.”
  • (9) “A thousand generations is a term denoting an immeasurable future and not a specific span of time. The point is that God's covenant loyalty is boundless and unending. Though Israel (and mankind in general) might prove to be unfaithful to the Lord, the promises of God to the nation cannot fail to be fulfilled (30:1-10; Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 36:24-32; Rm 11:29).”

Henry
  • (6) “There was such a covenant and communion established between God and Israel as was not between him and any other people in the world.”
  • (7) “There was nothing in them to recommend or entitle them to this favour.... God fetched the reason of it purely from himself.”
  • The reasons God separated Israel as holy:
    • “He loved you”
    • “He has done his work because he would keep his word.”
  • “Nothing in them, or done by them, did or could make God a debtor to them; but he had made himself a debtor to his own promise, which he would perform notwithstanding their unworthiness.”
  • The foundational premise of God’s relationship with Israel was “that as they were to God so God would be to them.” In short, if they chose to be His friends, He would be kind; if they chose to be His enemies, He would be just.
  • “Wilful sinners are haters of God; for the carnal mind is enmity against him.”
  • “Those that hate God cannot hurt him, but certainly ruin themselves. He will repay them to their face, in defiance of them and all their impotent malice.”

Glo
  • NIV Study Bible
    • “holy” is “separated from all corrupting people or things and consecrated totally to the Lord.”
    • “his covenant of love” is “the covenant in which God pledges on oath to show Israel his unfailing love (kindness, mercy) in all his ways with them through the vicissitudes of their history so that all his particular promises to them will be fulfilled. A closely related phrase is ‘covenant of peace.’”
  • Ryrie, Charles C. Ryrie Study Bible Expanded Edition. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.
  • The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008.
  • The HCSB Study Bible. http://www.mystudybible.com
  • Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc.i.html
  • Glo Bible. http://www.globible.com
  • Barker, Kenneth, ed. Reflecting God Study Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.
©2014 Debra Heights Wesleyan Church
4025 Lower Beaver Rd
Des Moines, IA
(515) 279-5212