Grace Alone

Bear with me one moment. We find ourselves this morning
exactly at the halfway point of the solas of the Reformation.
Thus far, we have considered only two of the five solas. The first, Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone really opens
the door to the other four solas, because after more than a thousand
years of being hidden within the translation of the Latin
Vulgate, Translations into vernacular languages liberated the scriptures
from bondage, and with that, the doctrines therein. At the
rediscovery of the richness and the clarity of the scriptures,
the commitment of scripture alone naturally emerged as a lively
principle. Last Lord’s Day, we looked at
the second of the five solas, solus Christus, Christ alone,
that in Jesus Christ, God has provided everything that we need
for salvation. And we were reminded last Sunday
that Jesus himself believed in solus Christus, And he declared
it most clearly in John 14, six. He said, I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but
through me. Jesus and no other is the way,
the truth and the life. There is no other means of access
to the heavenly father, only through Christ. Jesus Christ
is the one source of redemption and forgiveness of sin. And so, last week, or rather
this week at our halfway point, we take up consideration of the
third sola, sola gratia, grace alone, As we have seen, the solas
of the Reformation were not a series of tenets declared and recited
during the Reformation. As far as we have been able to
determine, there is no historical document that sets forth the
five solas until 1996. What was called the Cambridge
Declaration That document looks back into the mindsets and into
the operating principles of the reformers and observes these
five key beliefs. Sola Scriptura, as I’ve mentioned,
Solus Christus, Christ alone, Sola Gratia, grace alone, the
one means of spiritual restoration, sola fide, faith alone, the one
means of possessing Christ’s righteousness, that we are justified
before a holy God by our faith. And then finally, sola soli deo
gloria, God’s glory alone. Thus far, We have found these
principles to be biblically oriented, even if they are not outwardly
declared tenets of the Reformation. We found these principles to
be not only biblical, but actively at work in the lives and the
passionate efforts of these reformers. And we trust that we’ll find
the same with regard to the remaining solos. As we have seen, with regard
to both Solus Scriptura and the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Solus Christus, over a thousand years of mischief without any
accountability to God’s word, the Catholic Church had invented
and instituted many grave heresies. And, the church’s exclusive stewardship
of the scriptures, availed only to scholars and priests, was
a convenient cloak. The gospel, as well, had not
only been tainted, but had been so misconstrued that in its current
form it was no good news at all. Instead of the liberating truth
of justification by faith, faith alone in Christ alone for salvation,
Christianity had become a system of merit and reward, a never-ending
pursuit of so-called grace that never provided sinners a biblical
assurance of salvation. We saw the devastating effects
that a thousand years of spiritual darkness had on biblical doctrines
of Scripture and Christ the Savior, but the gospel too had become
horribly disfigured. To begin to grasp the magnitude
of the disturbing and damaging effects upon the gospel, we have
to first remind ourselves about the biblical doctrine of grace. The word translated as grace
is the beautiful Greek word charis. It is used about 130 times in
the New Testament, and in its most basic sense, it means favor
or kindness or graciousness. As we begin to back away to formulate
a doctrine of grace, a general summary of the nature of grace,
we come upon some familiar attempts to define it. You’ve heard many
of these. Perhaps the most well-known attempt
to define grace is undeserved favor. You’ve heard that. And that does capture several
important features. Favor, kindness, positive good,
and undeserved captures an important aspect of grace that it cannot
be earned. But grace goes even beyond that.
Because where we deserved the very opposite, judgment and wrath,
God in his mercy bestows upon us positive good. That’s grace. Yet another popular description
of God’s grace is presented in an acrostic. G-R-A-C-E. God’s resources at Christ’s expense. Perhaps you’ve heard that one
as well. This presents several additional
features of the biblical idea of grace. First of all, this
positive good is from the overflow of God’s resources. We don’t
exhaust any of God’s bounties. And secondly, these resources
are secured for the Christian by Christ’s sacrifice. And that also points to the fact
that there is, with biblical grace, a distinct element that
is related to our salvation. We’ll talk more about that in
a moment. It is also important to note that grace clearly has
the sense of free that is undeserved favor. God is not obligated,
never is, never can be, to show us or bestow upon us his grace. Whereas we deserve God’s most
severe punishment, he instead bestows his richest favor. And this grace can never be earned,
nor can it ever be repaid. God’s grace is, as theologian
Charles Hodge described it, the overflowing abundance of unmerited
love. Isn’t that beautiful? the overflowing
abundance of unmerited love. Overflowing? Yes. And even when
it’s overflowing for the Christian, it is inexhaustible. Love? Yes,
absolutely. Deserved? Not at all. The blessing
of divine grace is absolutely unmerited, unearned. It cannot
be bought with material wealth. It cannot be earned through any
work of benevolence. It is grace, God’s grace. And it is given solely out of
God’s sovereign providence and goodness. Think of God’s grace
in contrast with our own. If we were to show someone an
abundance of grace, the well would soon run dry, wouldn’t
it? especially if the recipient was less than deserving in our
estimation. But God’s grace is different
in that no one, not even the most ungodly sinner can ever
exhaust God’s resources of grace once he purposes to bestow them. But the Roman Catholic Church
has a very different perspective of God’s grace and a profoundly
different means of its distribution. The Catholic Church would agree
that grace is necessary for salvation, that it is at least in measure
divine enablement, but the church sits as the dispenser of that
grace. And the obligatory pursuit of
saving grace is constant for the people in the church, One
must maintain a steady intake of God’s grace if they are to
be saved in the end. Here’s an illustration of how
I would characterize the Roman Catholic system of dispensing
grace. Perhaps you remember Grimm’s
fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel. These two, brother and sister,
venture into the forest, dropping breadcrumbs on the trail so that
they can find their way back out of the woods. Well, I would
liken the Roman Catholic distribution of grace to those proverbial
breadcrumbs dropped along a footpath, except that in my illustration,
In the illustration in my mind, it’s of a hungry bird popping
along the trail, eating those bits of bread. The crumbs don’t
amount to a meal, so the bird is never fully satisfied. She gets barely enough nourishment
to sustain the energy she is expending following the breadcrumb
trail. If she stops, she dies. She must keep hopping along,
gobbling up each morsel of bread. Such is the Roman Catholic system
of grace. The church had mastered instruction
of her people’s need to seek grace from the church and its
system. From the time a child is old
enough to know their need for grace to the final desperate
moment of the person’s life, they are caught up in a moment
by moment dependence upon the meager tidbits of dispensed grace. And the faithful must continue,
the faithful must continue to eagerly seek these morsels The Roman Catholic system of
dispensing grace includes, first of all, seven sacraments. These so-called sacraments developed
over the centuries as the means of grace, things that a person
would be aided by in their pursuit of salvation. It wasn’t until
the Council of Florence in A.D. 1439 that the church even agreed
that there were seven of these sacraments. Here they are for
your consideration. The first one is baptism. The
individual must be baptized as a Catholic in order to be saved
eventually. Confirmation is another step
in this rite. The Holy Spirit is conferred. The Mass and the Eucharist, the
reception of the body and blood of Christ during communion, is
a necessity for salvation. And that necessity must be engaged
in regularly. Penance. is another of the seven
sacraments. It is not the same thing as our
repentance, as much as it sounds like it. Penance, get this, is
the repayment of a penalty doled out by a priest in order to secure
forgiveness for confessed sins. I’ll talk more about that in
a moment. Extreme unction is prayer by the priest for the
dying. We know of it as last rites. Well, those five sacraments are
indispensable to salvation. You cannot be saved as a Catholic
without engaging in those five things. A Catholic cannot be
saved without them. Several of them, baptism and
confirmation, they can be done and checked off, so to speak,
But communion and penance are, again, as mere breadcrumbs along
the path. They must be constantly sought
or performed throughout the person’s life. I said there were seven
sacraments. There are two others, marriage,
which is optional, and orders, which is entrance into the ministry
also optional. These are optional, not mandatory,
but they can add grace, says the Catholic Church, to those
who submit to them. These are the means by which
grace is conferred, distributed, doled out. Just so many breadcrumbs
along the path. But there are other tidbits along
the way as well. Other sources of grace that are
to be dispensed, confession, purgatory, indulgences. Let’s touch upon each one of
these. Confession, this one is tied
directly to the sacrament of penance mentioned above. In order
to remove one’s, pardon me, to receive one’s penance so that
you know what penalty to pay for the confession of your sin,
a person must go to the priest for confession of your sin so
that the priest may forgive you. A good Catholic is obligated
to do this at least once per year. May I tell you, those of
you without Catholic backgrounds, what this is like. The individual
enters in the church into a small room called the confessional.
Think of a closet, basically. And in that room, there is a
small, closable window, closable only by the priest. And when
the priest opens the window, You begin this established dialogue,
very formal. Bless me, Father, for I have
sinned. And then you begin to utter your
particular confession to the priest, and in turn, he issues
the penitent, the one who has confessed his or her sin, he
issues a series of punishments. Go say 10 Hail Marys and 10 Our
Fathers. and I will forgive your sin. There’s another tidbit along
the trail called purgatory. We’ve spoken about it previously.
It’s a theological invention of the Catholic Church that was
first introduced in AD 593. This doctrine says that for any
who die in an imperfect state, they go to a place called purgatory
where they can be helped by the intercessions of the faithful,
their family and friends. It’s kind of a time out for adults.
A strange way station where you wait until you’re perfected for
heaven. The problem is no one knows exactly
where one stands with God in the church. And so the pure gospel
of justification by faith in Christ is effectively nullified. very closely related to purgatory
are indulgences. This is the means that others,
friends and relatives have in participating in the process
of perfecting loved ones that are caught up in purgatory. And
for all they know, they may well be. It is accomplished by prayer
and ultimately by the sale of forgiveness for money. This practice,
as I pointed out earlier, was introduced in AD 1190. It was
found to be especially despicable to the reformers because Jesus
Christ purchases sinners’ pardon with his own blood. Well, with
all of these means and many others, grace is dangled before the members
of the church like the proverbial donkey’s carrot. And the people
were always in pursuit, but never able to fully lay hold of saving
grace. But there’s another theological
inaccuracy that made all of this possible. The Roman Catholic
Church believed and taught her people to believe that gathering
up enough of God’s grace was possible. that measuring up to
God’s standard was possible. All that a person had to do was
to be baptized and confirmed into the church, go to mass,
take communion without fail, go to confession, do your penance,
and be so fortunate as to have a priest at your bedside when
you die. Human effort was possible. It
was not only possible, it was necessary for salvation. Grace must be constantly pursued
and gathered. Well, the Reformers came along
and they saw humanity in a completely different light, according to
God’s Word. They saw that grace, while absolutely
necessary, was not attainable by sinners. Salvation could not
be earned Because we did not have the ability to gather enough
grace. It’s not just that sinners needed
grace. They needed grace alone. Human
effort was not possible. What made the process of a sinner
securing his or her salvation was the dreadful effect upon
us by the fall of Adam and Eve. Ephesians 2 paints the picture
accurately. It says you were dead in your
trespasses and sins. That is the spiritual death that
we talked about several weeks ago. One of the four effects
of the fall, the humanity walked out of the garden inherently
sinful. We now have a sin nature, inherently
sinful, temporally vexed. We are cursed here on earth,
the sweat of the brow, the pain in childbirth, and all the rest.
Inherently sinful, temporally vexed, physically dying. This
is where mortality suddenly became a reality to every person ever
born. inherently sinful, temporally
vexed, spiritually and physically dying, and spiritually dead. The fourth is the worst by far.
Our communion with God, our ability to relate to him was destroyed.
We had no relationship with God and no way to restore it. We
were left with a complete inability to do anything to rescue or restore
our standing with this holy God. We were too dead to do anything
meriting or chasing or accumulating God’s grace. Grace was not something
that could be gathered. gathered over time for salvation,
grace in its entirety must be bestowed by God upon the helpless
sinner. And so all of salvation was believed
to be all of grace. And this is precisely Paul’s
point in Ephesians 2, as it transitions from that very bad news to very
good news. You were dead in your trespasses
and sins, but God. Verse four, but God being rich
in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive. He made us alive together with
Christ. By grace you have been saved. When it says there that
he made us alive, Paul is pointing out the great doctrine of regeneration. in which God, in His grace, brings
the dead sinner to life, spiritually speaking. Those who are saved
by God are, by a special instantaneous work of the Holy Spirit, regenerated. They are reborn from a state
of deadness and sin to newness of life. And this regeneration
is entirely a work of the Holy Spirit. This is Jesus talking to Nicodemus,
isn’t it? You must be born again, and he
doesn’t tell Nicodemus to do a single thing. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit
in the sinner’s life, but once spiritually enlivened, upon hearing
the truth of the gospel, the individual will certainly come
to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Let me put it this way. It doesn’t
need to be any more difficult than this. With regard to your
salvation, God moved first. Sola gratia. Grace alone. Needless to say, when these so
many would-be reformers began to consider these Catholic ideas
in light of scripture, they were greatly appalled. You see, there
is yet another feature of grace that I think we should capture
from Scripture. We could rightly think of grace
as divine enablement. And we see this in Scripture
both generally and specifically with regard to salvation. Let
me explain. Divine enablement. Let me show you what I mean by
a general Divine enablement. By this I mean the equipping
or the spiritual energy provided by God that enables a servant
or servants to do or accomplish some task. Divine enablement. Luke captures this in the earliest
days of the church, actively at work. He presents the apostles
as faithfully proclaiming the gospel, Acts 4.33. Just listen. When with great power the apostles
were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
and abundant grace was upon them all. That’s divine enablement.
In other words, they were divinely enabled to do what God had called
them to do. Several chapters later, Luke
captures the same thing with regards to Stephen, Acts 6, 8. And Stephen, full of grace and
power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. Stephen
was divinely enabled to serve God in a fantastic way. Divine enablement. And Paul himself
was always quick to acknowledge that divine enablement was the
only way that he was able to do what he did. Romans 12.3,
Paul couches his admonitions to the Roman church through the
grace given to me. In 1515, of that same epistle,
he acknowledges that his boldness toward the Roman church was due
to the grace given me from God. He tells the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians
3.10, that he labored like a wise master builder according to the
grace which was given to me. And famously, he declares in
1510 of that letter, by the grace of God, I am what I am. He operated not in the fleshly
wisdom, but in the grace of God, he says in 2 Corinthians 1.12.
He speaks of God’s grace as a stewardship given to him in Ephesians 3.2,
by which he was made a minister according to the gift of God’s
grace. The very next verse, 3.8, to
me, the very least of all saints, grace was given to preach to
the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ. I think you
get the point. God’s enabling grace was everything
to the apostle. And Paul was not only constantly
acknowledging God’s grace in his own life, he was ever encouraging
believers to draw upon the endless supply of God’s sustaining grace. Tick through Paul’s epistles.
when you get the opportunity. There are literally dozens of
times that Paul either directs or commends God’s people to his
sustaining grace. But grace, divine enablement,
is also a significant element of salvation. In many of the
key passages speaking about the various aspects of salvation,
God’s grace is prominent. Let me lead you through a highlight
of some New Testament passages that present the effects, the
elements of salvation as God’s gift of grace. Listen to this
first. And just for the sake of time,
I’m just gonna have you listen. You can jot them down if you
wish and return. Listen first to Titus chapter
two. Titus chapter two verse 11, Paul
tells the believers there that the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation to all men. Salvation there is directly tied
to God’s grace. Obviously not literally to every
person ever born, but all kinds of men, rich and poor, black
and white, tall and short, blue eyes, brown eyes. God’s grace
has brought salvation to all. God’s grace comes bearing the
gift of salvation. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians,
he says, by grace you have been saved through faith. So generally,
salvation is a product of God’s grace and different elements
pertaining to our salvation are also declared to be products
of God’s grace. Romans chapter three, Paul tells
us that we are justified as a gift by God’s grace. God didn’t owe
it to us. We didn’t earn it. We cannot
repay it. Romans 5 goes on to tell us that
we receive Christ’s righteousness as a blessing of God’s grace.
In Ephesians 1, Paul says that our redemption is the result
only of God’s grace. But for our purposes this morning,
I’d like us to turn to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy and chapter 1. Second Timothy, chapter one,
and if you would, just read along with me the first 11 verses. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus,
by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ
Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace
from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God,
whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did, as
I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day, longing
to see you all, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be
filled with joy, for I am mindful of the sincere faith within you,
which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice,
and I am sure that it is in you as well. And for this reason,
I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God, which is in
you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given
us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore, do not be ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join
with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power
of God. who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus
from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing
of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel. for which
I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.” Now,
there’s obviously a lot there and we cannot possibly tackle
it all, but allow me to briefly walk us through this passage.
This epistle, 2 Timothy, as many of you likely know, is Paul’s
final letter. He was released from his initial
Roman imprisonment. He had a brief additional season
of ministry, but now he has been rearrested and in what is a much
more brutal imprisonment. This isn’t house arrest any longer.
And Paul knows that his martyrdom is not far off. So he knows well
that these are some of his last written words. And how appropriate
that this letter should be written to Timothy, the young believer
whose giftedness Paul recognized during his ministry there in
Lystra. He became Paul’s near constant
companion and fellow worker of the gospel. And whom he refers
to in his initial letter as his true child in the faith, spiritual
son. Here in the opening greeting
of his letter to Timothy here, he refers to him as his beloved
son. In essence, this is Paul’s last
will and testament, and he will go on to urge Timothy accordingly
to guard the treasure of the gospel. Paul warns of a great
falling away from the faith here in this letter, and in this entire
passage, as we will find it is a testimony to grace alone, sola
gratia, the divine ablement that we need for salvation. We don’t know exactly what was
going on with young, delicate Timothy, but in these opening
verses, Paul goes out of his way to encourage this young child
in the faith. reminding him of his prayers,
verse three, his desire to see him, verse four, his confidence
in the genuineness of Timothy’s conversion, verse five, his direct
admonition in verse six, Kindle afresh the gift of God which
is in you. What we have in verse eight and following is basically
an application of that admonition. It’s introduced by that word
therefore. And Paul continues on his theme
of encouragement to persevere when he opens verse eight with,
do not be ashamed. Do not be ashamed either of the
testimony of our Lord, our crucified Lord, or of me, his prisoner.
Timothy has no just cause for second guessing or doubting what
appears to be rather bleak circumstances. Both his savior and his mentor
are soon to be gone. Timothy must press on in the
faith and he must do so as Paul urges here by joining with Paul
in suffering for the gospel. And that’s God’s power for, that
God’s power for doing so is more than efficient. And in these verses, verses nine
through 11, Paul gives Timothy and us three glorious features
of God’s work of grace. Three glorious features of God’s
work of grace. We know that Paul transitions
to speaking about God’s work of salvation based on what he
says in verse nine. Would you just glance there?
Here he speaks of God who has saved us and called us. It’s not, shouldn’t surprise
us or distress us to hear of God spoken of as our Savior. It doesn’t take anything away
from Jesus Christ being our Savior. God is referred to as Savior
many times in Scripture. 1 Timothy 1, 1, 2, 3, Titus 1,
3, 2, 10, and others. God, our Savior. God is the author of salvation,
and so he can justly be called our Savior. These two wonderful
words, saving and calling, are not two separate things. They
refer to one and the same blessing in two articulations. The one, salvation, referring
to the ultimate state And the second, calling, pointing to
the divine process. And all of it, Paul says at the
end of verse eight, is according to the power of God, God’s grace.
This picture’s God’s grace is actively at work in the lives
of believers. First of all, the salvation of
which Paul speaks is no other than God’s great purpose in his
plan of redemption. The salvation of sinners from
the penalty of sin. Not surprisingly, this word,
saved, is used over a hundred times in the New Testament. And
unequivocally, Paul declares that salvation is exclusively
a work of God’s grace. This is the consistent declaration
of scripture, grace alone. Remember when the question of
the Gentiles’ salvation came to the apostles’ attention? It
was Peter that stood and acknowledged, we are saved through the grace
of the Lord Jesus in the same way that they are. Grace alone. In his deep theological letter
to the Ephesians, Paul pointed out that in him, that is in Christ,
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses according to the riches of his grace, grace alone. What
Paul elaborates on in this second feature, that God has called
us, it is the secret process of God’s work of salvation. First
of all, the calling of a sinner to salvation is always attributed
to God the Father in the New Testament. Paul says it so clearly
in 1 Corinthians 1.9, God is faithful through whom you were
called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
In addition to the outward, the general call to salvation, which
is made to every person who ever hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit
extends to God’s elect a special inward call that inevitably brings
the sinner to salvation. It is essentially the same thing
as what we just talked about, regeneration. a spiritual enlivening. By means
of this special call of the Spirit, he irresistibly draws sinners
to Christ. God is not limited in his work
of applying salvation by man’s will. He isn’t dependent upon
man’s cooperation for the process. The Spirit graciously causes
the sinner. to cooperate, to believe, to
repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ. God’s grace, therefore,
is invincible. It never fails to result in the
salvation of those to whom it is extended. So this calling
of which Paul speaks here, how is it that a sinner is called,
you ask? Paul tells us in Galatians 1.6,
we are called by the grace of Christ. This is God’s doing. God’s grace, again, is divine
enablement. In 2 Thessalonians 2.14, Paul
says that God called us through the gospel. It is nothing other
than the good news of Christ’s redemption by his death on the
cross that we are called and saved. But get this. Consider that to which we are
called in this calling. Scripture tells us that we are
called, Ephesians 1 18, to hope, not just wishful thinking, to
a settled confidence in what God is doing. We are called to
eternal life, 1 Timothy 6, 12. We are called out of darkness
into his marvelous light, 1 Peter 2, 9. We are called to God’s
own kingdom and glory, 1 Thessalonians 2, 12. We are called into fellowship
with God’s Son, Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1, 9. So basically,
Paul begins here by declaring that our salvation is by grace
alone. Sola gratia. As I mentioned a
moment ago, Paul gives three glorious features of this work
of grace. Look at the first. Paul tells
us first of the nature of God’s gracious work. And for this,
would you please just glance again as we gather up some of
Paul’s intermediate thoughts here in verse nine. Here he wants
to elaborate on this idea of calling. What does he mean by
calling? And the first thing that Paul
uses to describe God’s work is the phrase, a holy calling. This isn’t a suggestion necessarily
that the one making the call is holy, although that’s true,
nor is it describing the call itself as if the call is somehow
holy. What Paul is saying here is that
the divine call by God is a call to holiness. Practical righteousness,
the very thing that keeps sinners from a holy God. Only God’s grace
can eclipse that gulf by a life-changing call to a life of holiness. But please note the second thing
that Paul says about God’s calling. He says that it is not according
to our works. How is it that religion man’s
idea about reaching up to God, they’re all built on a system
of works, including the Roman Catholic approach. And yet Paul
makes clear forever that salvation is not, never has been, never
could be a result of man’s work. What moved God to save us? That’s
a great question. It wasn’t our works. Paul said
the same thing to Titus, carrying out his ministry there on the
island of Crete, Titus 3.5. He saved us, not on the basis
of our deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according
to his mercy. That’s what moved God. Salvation
is never a result of our efforts. It’s only by God’s grace. Would
you notice the third thing that Paul says about God’s calling
in the middle of there of verse nine? that it is according to
his own purpose and grace. This just echoes and drives home
the point of the two previous statements. God is not bound
or obligated by anything that a person ever does. Salvation
is by and because of his own free grace alone. God was not
prompted to move by anything outside of himself. Paul says
in Ephesians 1, it was only according to the kind intention of his
will. It is nothing other than the
sovereign goodness and grace of God. And so Paul says first
about the nature of God’s work, but secondly, Paul tells us here
about the source of God’s gracious work. And we find the thoughts
there near the end of verse nine carrying over into verse 10.
Would you just glance down? It’s the characterization of
grace. He says here regarding the source of God’s gracious
work that first that it is that which was granted us in Christ
Jesus from all eternity. God’s plan of redemption has
its orientation in eternity past. Christ coming to earth, taking
on flesh, paying our redemption on the cross, that was not plan
B. This was all completely in line
with the divine plan from the very beginning. And as the believer’s
election to salvation is also rooted in God’s eternal plan,
Christ Jesus was as good as ours as soon as God conceived of this
plan. What an amazing thought. But
Paul’s second statement there in the beginning of verse 10
makes it clear that what God ordained in eternity past has
now become a reality. Our great Savior, Jesus Christ,
has been revealed. This is God’s eternal purpose.
Look at the way Paul says that this grace, which was granted
us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, has now been revealed. We can
see it. God’s plan of redemption is no
longer a mystery, as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 2, 7. It’s
no longer just a future promise. It’s a sure actuality because
it has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And this appearing by the Savior
is not talking about, pardon me, it’s not talking about his
second appearing, his second coming, it’s talking about his
initial appearing. It points to God’s provision
of a Savior in Jesus Christ. And this too is nothing other
than divine enablement, grace alone. Sola gratia. And so Paul has shown us the
nature of his gracious work, the source of his gracious work.
Thirdly, Paul tells us of the triumph, the triumphs, plural,
of God’s gracious work here in verse 10. In verse 10, Paul has
spoken of our Savior, Christ Jesus, and he concludes this
verse, he tells of the grand victories accomplished by this
Savior. Look first, he says, that our
Savior Christ Jesus abolished death. When Paul says that Jesus
abolished death, he means that he renders it null and void,
inoperative. This is Paul’s same line of reasoning
in Romans 5, as you know, whereas Adam introduced death into humanity’s
realm, Christ brought eternal life. For the Christian, death
is no longer to be feared. Death is no longer our great
enemy. Death is no longer, it no longer has any control over
us as believers. What we, in our greatest hopes,
could not eliminate, God, in his marvelous grace, did. The second grand victory that
Jesus accomplished is that he brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. This is the positive equivalent
of abolishing death. By God’s grace alone, he has
granted life, eternal life, life everlasting. What he calls here,
immortality. We’re made immortal. We were
made that way to begin with. Even in our unsaved state, our
souls live eternally. But eternal existence had no
positive appeal for those outside of Christ, but it does with forgiveness. It does with forgiveness and
eternal joy in Christ. You see, through the gospel,
as Paul says it here, we have come to know of Christ’s redemption. We’ve come to know that it’s
paid in full, that his sacrifice for us on the cross was all that
we need. No wonder that amid Paul’s great
testimony to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, Paul referred to
the good news of Christ as the gospel of the grace of God. Sola gratia, grace alone. Martin Luther summed up our need
of understanding this principle when he said this, no man can
be thoroughly humbled until he knows that salvation is utterly
beyond his own powers, devices, endeavors, will, and works. And it depends entirely on the
choice, will, and work of another, namely, God alone. Then he has
come close to grace and can be saved. Would you humble yourself
before his throne?