Sermon Title: The Comforting Provision of Grace
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we[ also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
“What do you have when you have Jesus?” Dr. David Jeremiah, in his book, Captured By Grace, attempts to answer this question. As I read his answers, I thought about what I have in Jesus: security, peace, purpose and hope. Those may seem like trivia words to many, but to me those words speak to who Jesus has become to me. He has allowed me to feel secure in a troubled world, provided peace when there is so much to worry about and to have purpose in life that that seems to have so little meaning. No, I haven’t stopped worrying, struggling and sometimes I seem to find myself still living aimlessly – but how much better to have God helping to navigate my life than to be trying to do it alone.
One of the greatest things that Jesus brings to my life is hope. Life without Jesus is to see a start and finish – it starts at birth and ends at death. What matters is between the dash – life that is lived now – and nothing more. This seems very bleak to me – if my life is nothing more than the time spent on earth, and it has no meaning, no purpose beyond what happens today, then there appears to me that there is little hope. Gone is the hope for a better world, hope for a greater tomorrow, hope to experience life in a greater and fuller way – all the hope that Christ brings to us as we place our faith in Him.
Dr. Jeremiah makes this point when he writes: “Paul tells us, “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). The glory is in Christ alone, but we will share in its riches in an ultimate way. This will be the culmination of all our hopes and the joy to which our whole lives have pointed. Have you noticed that the sweetest joys sometimes come in the anticipation of something? It’s Christmas morning for a child, the wedding or future home for the young couple, even the simple anticipation of a hot bath when you’re out shoveling snow in freezing temperatures. These are joys yet to come, and that sends a little shudder of pleasure through the frame.”
Jesus brings to us great hope in our future – that it will be glorious and grand, so much better than what we experience today. We will talk about this great hope, as well as the other things that Jesus gives to us through His grace, as we continue the sermon series, “Captured By Grace” this coming Sunday. I will look for you then!
