How Does God’s Grace Help Us Overcome?

Grace is the foundation of how God deals with you every day of your life.

The grace of God is the spirit in which He pursues His ongoing work of calling you out of this world and bringing you along each step of the way into His family.

Your Calling Begins Because Of God’s Grace

Ephesians 2:1-9

The underlying motive behind God’s grace is love. But love is just a word… a concept… and idea. We don’t really know what love is until we see it in action… An act of kindness or a gift as we just read. When we see acts of love that we can look at in and say “Ahhh that’s what love is”.

The way we see or experience God’s grace is that He takes the initiative (and act of kindness)… He makes the first move (He gives us a gift)… He calls us. Note: God does the calling… You do the answering. John 6:44

What Exactly Is God In His Grace Calling You Out Of?

The Father through Jesus Christ is calling you out of death. In his eyes you are/were DEAD in your transgressions and sins. As we read in Eph 2:1

Discuss Sins (hamartia) vs. Trespasses (paraptoma) à Natural law vs. Revealed law

Romans 5:12-14 Note: the first sin was a trespass

Sin still brought death and wrath even before the law was revealed to Israel. Sin and death was a reality even before the commands of God were given. Therefore, we can see that the idea of sin having consequences is eternal… before, during, and after the Sinai Covenant. Sin (and its consequence… death) are a reality with or without law.

Romans 5:20-21 The revealed law delivered at Sinai gave a more complete awareness of what sin was, also what righteousness entailed (justice, mercy, faith), uncleanness, holiness and plenty more. Before the coming of the Word to live and be executed to pay for your sins it was good to show all mankind a good look at the full depth of sin. This gives all of us a larger and grander context in which to understand the full meaning of His sacrifice for our sins.

Dead in Your Transgressions

The consequence of sin as exemplified by the Adam is that you no longer have access to the tree of life. And without that you have no future… unless God gives you that gift of eternal life the end game for you is DEAD DEAD DEAD. Anihilation. Non-being. (life in flesh… 2nd resurrection… if you don’t have access to the eternal life, the tree of life you are nothing…)

Romans 5:17-19 God takes the initiative and graciously acts in kindness to give us a gift of pardon.

This calling out of death begins with God’s gracious initiative through Jesus Christ AND it proceeds every step of the way through a continual process of gracious kindness, mercy and compassion as He walks with us in the power of His holy spirit to convict us of what sin really is, convict us of righteousness (the good works and fruits of the spirit), and convict us of judgment (continuing in sin has consequences).

He acts à We respond   NOT    We act à He responds Romans 5:8

How Does God’s Grace Help Us Overcome Sin, Be Righteous ETC

Analogy: All analogies break down

Let’s picture God as if He were running a business. The name of the company is Bringing Many Sons To Glory Inc. On January 15th He places a classified ad in the Raleigh News and Observer that reads:

You are dead in your sins. Your life is going nowhere. Try a whole new career… get a new life. Come sit with me in the heavenly realms. Call 1 888 INFAITH.

For most this is just too wacky to believe. But you believe it might be true and so, you respond…

God has taken the initiative and you have responded. And as a result God takes the initiative again and asks you to come in for an interview. The address is 740 Remission of Sins Avenue 12th floor, suite 316 (the first light after Repentance Road traveling north on Baptism Blvd.).  You respond… you step out in faith and go.

God takes the initiative again and gives you the job… o/\o.

OK… God has graciously brought you onboard. But His Grace does not stop there…

Next day you attend an orientation session… He shows you a copy of the company manual. “Here are the rules of the company. You need to keep all these rules and policies to stay with the firm”. You respond saying something like “ok, I think I can do that”. There are lots and lots of pages showing how things work but the concepts are pretty straightforward.

God takes the initiative and give you something to do. One of your assignments is to write more classified ads like the ones you saw in the Raleigh News and Observer. You respond by cheerfully sitting down at your new desk and start typing away. Soon you have your first page written.

I forgot to mention that you are a rotten typist and lousy at spelling... you’re just made that way

After lunch God reviews your work and says “Jerry, there are some spelling errors in this first sentence.” Oh no… what’s going to happen now? The company manual said spelling errors are not permitted. Will I be fired? Will He let me off the hook? It’s all in his hands now… What’s He going to do?

The grace of God acts in kindness and mercy… and He hands you a dictionary (a gift). “Here, use this to check the spelling of all the words. Please use it and don’t submit any more work with spelling errors.”

God Has Acted - How Will You Respond?

You could have said, “I don’t need a dictionary. My way of spelling is just as good. What’s important is that you understand what I mean… and on, and on”.  But with that sort of attitude you kind of blocked God from moving on to anything new, better, more challenging.

Maybe you persist in your incorrect spelling and God just keeps handing you the dictionary over and over again. You see… God’s grace also shows in His incredible patience. He’s patient and kind because He really likes you, actually He loves you, and He wants to you succeed and do well.

Perhaps you get bored or frustrated because you are not getting anywhere at this company and you quit… Maybe you get stuck there handing the dictionary back and forth over and over. After all you don’t get fired, its nice to have a steady pay check… God is so patient and kind I can kinda do whatever I want. He give me a lot of leeway… I wonder what other things I can get away with?

However, our story has a happy ending because you respond by using the dictionary and improving your spelling. God decides to take the initiative once more and give you some new assignments and so on, and so on… to develop you into the kind of person that reflects the values of the company and Himself so well you could practically run the place. You could even be considered a son and brought into the family business.

I said earlier that all analogies break down. There is something I don’t like about my little tale. It does not take into account the power of God’s Holy Spirit at work in you.

If you had the convicting power of the Holy Spirit would not be able to come to work, collect your check, fool around, do whatever you want…. Take God’s grace, His patience, His kindness for granted.

Romans 6:1-4

Clearly we are not raised to a perfect or sinless life without mistakes, setbacks or spelling errors. But we are raised to a new life that is different. Its different because the power of the Holy Spirit is at work in us to seek out and also to do what is pleasing to God… to become more like Him… to become part of His family.

The grace of God not only starts us on our journey it makes it possible us to get up and walk again ever time we fall.

To End Lets Get Back To Our Analogy…

God’s grace changed your life.  You were walking along the street in Raleigh… your iPod tuned into the wrong radio station… dead in your sins. Through grace God made a move, though you were in no way deserving, let’s say God inspired you to look up… you saw the billboard – “You are dead in your sins. Your life is going nowhere. Try a whole new career… give me call.”

Romans 6:23