Sermon Title: The Compassionate Plan of Grace
“What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished”
“I’m not that bad.” Many people have told me this in the past when I mention that they are in need of God’s forgiveness. Certainly they are not perfect, they reason, but they are not as bad as some other people. Because they are generally good, why would they need forgiveness or a Savior?
Dr. David Jeremiah writes about this as he describes the experience of the author of the great hymn, “Amazing Grace”:
“John Newton wrote in his now-famous song that grace had saved a “wretch” like him. That word is so offensive to our modern sensibilities that many people replace it with another, less negative, term when they sing “Amazing Grace.”
But Newton knew from his own experience that he was a wretch when God saved him. Indeed, all men are wretches in that they are lost in sin. That is the biblical truth. But Newton knew that truth first-hand. A dictionary definition of “wretch” includes these words: “a miserable person … profoundly unhappy … sunk in vice or degradation … a vile person.” John Newton would have said, “That was me, to the letter!”
On one of his lonely stints at sea Newton was so depressed and full of anger that he considered taking his life; was so angry at his captain he considered killing him as well! In a letter he wrote in 1754 he said that, before he reached the age of twenty, he was never in another person’s company more than an hour “without attempting to corrupt them.” He once said of himself, “My daily life was a course of the most terrible blasphemy and profaneness. I don’t believe that I have ever since met so daring a blasphemer as myself .… I not only sinned with a high hand myself but made it my study to tempt and seduce others upon every occasion.”
The truth is, all people are sinners and need God’s forgiveness. It doesn’t matter if a person is “good” or “bad” – before the eyes of God, we are “wretched” and lost. Or as the Apostle Paul wrote in our text, “there is none righteous, no, not one.” But the good news is that God makes available His grace. Through His grace, He provides forgiveness available through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. We don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, nor can we earn it – it is made available freely and fully through His grace. Praise the Lord!
Starting this coming Sunday, we will begin a new sermon series entitled, “Captured By Grace” based on a book Dr. David Jeremiah wrote by the same title. Throughout the series, we will be examining various aspects of God’s grace and showing how it impacts not only our salvation, but how we live our lives. I hope to see you then!
