Sola Gratia
The more things change the more they stay the same. Here we are almost five hundred years, an entire continent and a completely different language from 16th century Europe and we are still more or less grappling with the same issues with which they wrestled. Five hundred years ago the question was quite simple: how does one obtain favor with God and a place with Him in eternity?Today despite our advances in political freedom, technology and even religious freedom we’re still asking basically the same question though with a slightly different twist: how can I obtain favor with God so that He will bless me with the good things of this life?
The medieval Roman Catholic church supplied an answer to those who wondered about the state of their soul. In short a system of sacraments along with other good works enabled one to cooperate with God’s grace and more or less to work one’s way to heaven. Due to a series of providential circumstances the RC church began selling indulgences for those who wanted extra assurance for themselves or even deceased family members. Purchasing an indulgence was supposed to lesson the time you spent in Purgatory which according to Roman Catholic teaching was the place you went after death to finish the work of paying for your sins.
Today our focus is just a bit different. We’re not so much caught up with the issue of where we’ll spend eternity as much as we’re focused on what kind of life we can have in the here and now. And according to many within the church the key to that life is obtaining God’s favor for a price. To that end an entire army of Johann Tetzels have sprung up promising that God’s favor can be bought with just the right seed offering. They assure us that God’s favor for our best life now can be secured if we have enough faith which of course is gauged by the amount of our seed offering to their ministry. And judging by their lavish lifestyles and multi-million dollar ministries these sons and daughters of Tetzel are making their spiritual daddy proud.
It is into this climate that we therefore must restate with absolute clarity and boldness that obtaining God’s favor and the salvation that results from His favor is by grace and grace alone. The Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals states the truth of grace alone quite clearly: ‘We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.
That statement hits home on several fronts. First of all it clarifies the primary issue regarding the reason for God’s grace which is our need to be rescued from His wrath against sin. Salvation in the biblical sense is rescue or deliverance from the penalty, power, practice and eventually the presence of sin. Biblical salvation is not the guarantee of a life free from trouble, does not promise us complete healing and wholeness in this life nor is it the ticket to having all of our earthly dreams fulfilled.
Secondly this great salvation comes to us through grace alone and not at all from any merit we contribute whatsoever. The apostle Paul made this clear in Ephesians two when writing of our transition from being objects of God’s fierce, certain, fair, passionate anger against sin to the eternal objects of His kindness in Christ. There he wrote: ‘among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved’
So what caused the change in our eternal state before a holy God? It began with God’s mercy of which our Lord has an infinite supply. God didn’t respond to a change we made or even to something He saw within us. While we were expressing our natural selves (that is thinking, speaking and living godlessly) God chose to have mercy on us. His mercy was a response to His great love for us, not our love or desire to obey Him. Out of His rich mercy and great love God acted to do something for us that we could not have done for ourselves. By the power of the Spirit He made us alive in Christ. And it was that act of unilateral regeneration that enabled us to finally hear, understand and respond to the gospel leading to our salvation. Thus Paul could write ‘by grace you have been saved.
Lastly, and most certainly not least God’s act of free grace has placed us in a position of enjoying God’s favor, blessing and delight forever. Paul went on to write that we’ve been raised up and seated with Christ in heavenly places. Having been raised from spiritual deadness we now are guaranteed to rise from physical death. And if that weren’t enough Paul said that we are seated, that is in a position of rest, security and favor in the presence of God with the consequence that we who were once the objects of His wrath are now the objects of the riches of His infinite kindness in Christ. And that is true for us now, will be true tomorrow and forever.
The people of God need never have to wonder or worry about where we stand in relation to our Father’s favor. We never have to be taken in and swindled by modern day Tetzels who promise that God’s favor is just a seed offering away. God has shown His favor to His people in Christ and it’s a favor that we rest secure in now and will enjoy forever.
For Christ, His Church and the Truth
Pastor lance