On our travels we encountered a sign reminded us of the story so scandalous, offensive, and wonderful that it is beyond imagination.
This sign caught my eye during my travels as a funny name for a church. But the church isn’t involved in homemade liquor (as far as I know). It was named for Henry Moonshine, a farmer who owned the land on which the church and its cemetery now set.
But what caught my attention even more is the message on the sign: “SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE”
This simple statement summarizes a story that is so strange and scandalous that no person could make it up. It is the story that the Bible describes as:
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1
Let’s break it down and you will see what I mean:
Sinners
Sin is any thought, word, action that is a violation of God’s law. Whether it is the things we ought to do and don’t, or the things we ought not to do and do. God makes it clear in the Bible that everyone is a sinner:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” 2
Practical experience confirms this. Test yourself; is anything bothering your conscience?
- How many lies do you think you have told?
- Have you ever wished someone harm or been glad at their misfortune? Jesus taught that if you are angry with someone or say something to or about them to hurt them, then you have murdered them in your heart. Have you done that?
- Jesus also taught that if you look at someone with lustful intent, you have committed adultery in your heart. Have you done that? When is the last time you looked at porn?
And that is just three of God’s commandments.
But the problem is even deeper than that. Contrary to the popular opinion that people are basically good, God teaches in the Bible that we have a natural inclination to sin and are in rebellion against God. What do you think and feel about this statement?
God claims absolute authority over your life to define right and wrong and how you are to live.
Do you bristle at that?
The first scandalous truth is that we are all sinners by choice and by nature.
Saved
God says that because we are in rebellion against him, we are his enemies, and he will judge us for what we have done.
“For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” 3
and
“For the wages of sin is death” 4
Wages are what you earn. Our rebellion against God has earned us death, both physical and spiritual.
Furthermore, there is nothing we can do to reconcile ourselves to God, because the problem is not just what we do, but that our very nature is corrupted by sin.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” 5
Our sin blinds us to the reality of its heinousness and to the very fact that we are blind!
“‘’You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’” 6
And we are slaves to sin:
“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.‘” 7
This is where God’s story is diametrically opposite of every other religion and philosophy which says you must do something to fix yourself, fix the world, outweigh your bad by doing good, earn life, enlightenment, peace, etc.
The Bible describes you and I in a state of helplessness and hopelessness, as “dead in trespasses and sins”. 8 Our only hope is if there was someone who could save us from ourselves. This is the second scandalous truth.
Grace
You may have noticed two problems:
- If everyone is corrupted by sin, who is there that could save?
- If God just overlooked our sin, wouldn’t he violate his justice? Wouldn’t he be a corrupt judge, who essentially condones evil?
This is why “Grace” is perhaps the most scandalous truth. Grace is God’s free, unmerited benevolence and favor. By definition it is undeserved and cannot be earned. In our context you could put it this way: Grace is God rewarding you when you deserve punishment.
Remember “The wages of sin is death?” There is a “but” to that truth, and it is grace:
“For the wages of sin is death but, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” 9
To display his greatness as a savior, God added to himself humanity (without ceasing to be God) and entered our world of time and space as a man: Jesus.
God did this to be the substitute for sinners, to live on our behalf the life we could not and would not live. Jesus lived a morally perfect life without sin, perfectly loving God and man, perfectly fulfilling God’s law.
Then Jesus freely offered himself as a substitute for sinners by sacrificing himself, dying on a cross, unjustly condemned as a criminal. Jesus took on himself the full guilt and punishment for the sin of those who would trust in him. Thus, Jesus satisfied God’s justice.
God confirmed that Jesus paid for sin in full and authenticated all that Jesus said and did by raising him from the dead. This was all God’s plan that happened exactly as he said it would for centuries before in the Scripture.
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 10
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 11
Jesus being the God-man is the is the one and only mediator who can reconcile God and man. 12
The Bible puts it this way:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified [counted as not guilty] by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation [satisfaction of God’s just wrath against sin] by his blood, to be received by faith.” 13
This is incomprehensible love: that I lived a life of rebellion against God. And that he, being the offended party and needing nothing from me, fully and freely took on himself my guilt and shame, to not only reconcile me to him but to adopt me, his enemy, as his beloved son.
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!'” 14
Thus, we contribute nothing to our salvation, which we don’t deserve in the first place. This is the story that crushes human pride and gives God alone all the credit and glory. And we respond in gratitude and love.
SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE
This is the unique, scandalous, offensive, and wonderful message of Jesus!
One last thing about the sign. There are two groups: sinners and sinners saved by grace. About one the bible says:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” 15
About the other group:
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” 16
Come out of the darkness into the light. Jesus offers to be your substitute: to take your sin, and in exchange credit you with his perfect life, his righteousness. No matter what your background is, what you have done.
These are his terms:
- You must repent. That is, you must turn; turn from your sin and turn to him. Give up your rebellion and acknowledge Jesus as your Lord.
- You must trust in him alone as your substitute: having lived the perfect life on your behalf, having died to pay for your sins, and rising from the dead.
“Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame’.” 17
So what will you do? God offers full pardon, reconciliation, and adoption as his child. God gives himself for the unworthy so that he may give himself to the unworthy. Run to Jesus and he will receive you.
We welcome questions and comments.
