It’s AMAZING this Grace

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God...” -- Eph 2:8

There I was just peacefully trying to meditate on our triune God. Wwhen I was abruptly startled by GRACE. Yup that's right Grace.

I was all of a sudden stunned by it, like it was the 1st time I’d ever contemplated it before and it just seemed beyond magnificent. It seemed to me to be above all comprehension and searching out. One could say, I was in a moment struck by its awesomeness. I almost wanted to tremble in fear of it and yet I had no apprehensions about it. It was altogether holy, righteousness and yet it had sunken so low as to pluck me from the burning and cleanse me, only to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

I began to ask myself,

“How in the world can we ever sound the depths of Grace? How could we ever make it comprehensible?”

And the obvious answer is, we just can’t.

I want to talk a little about WHY we can never truly know the fullness and greatness of Grace; though certainly every taste of it fills us with worship and awe toward our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)

Truth is we’ll never know how depraved we truly are.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jer 17:9

We will never quite get it. We just won’t.

We have no idea how decadent we were before our salvation and if you’re not born again you really don’t know how depraved you are at present.

After all, how can we know when we have such a minor view of sin?

If God let us view just one, single sin and see it in its fullness, we probably wouldn’t be able to control ourselves from being thrown into a fit of vomiting. It would be that horrific, indeed it is that horrific.

If we got a glimpse of the TRUE NATURE of ONE small, (incy wincy) little sin we would scream in horror and terror of how wicked and evil it is.

Its vileness and depth of evil would ensure we couldn’t muster up the courage to take a second look at it. Its wickedness would cause our minds to just about break. And if these minds thought they would have to sustain that concept a moment longer they would crave, with all their energy, to cease to exist.

Even though all I have state thus far is the truth, it’s terribly understated, and I can’t use language descriptive enough to illustrate the true nature of sin.

Thus, how can we ever truly know how depraved we are? Jeremiah 17; tells us that the heart of man is desperately sick. (Synonyms for desperately are: dreadfully, urgently, frantically) that's how sick it is. The human heart is incredibly, urgently, dreadfully sick.

We just can’t have a real understanding about our hearts depravity because the verse appropriately ends with the rhetorical question; “...who can understand it?”

The obvious answer is, “No one.”

One of the more apparent ways we can try and understand the true nature of our depravity is by contemplating the punishment God considers it deserving.

The punishment for a crime is often the best indication of how severe the crime is considered. And this is what we call justice.

Even unchristian people operate on this principle. If any given parent with half a brain sees their child doing something that's wrong, they will reprimand them. And usually, if they have any sort of innate justice in them, they’ll dish out a penalty worthy of the crime.

This is done with good reason, because the penalty is served as communication to the child not to do that again; the worse the crime the harsher/stricter the penalty, in an attempt to suggest to the child how serious their misdemeanour was.

Even a child understands this. If he gets a minor reprimand from his mum or dad, he recognises that it’s somewhat serious and he knows he should try and evade that action in the future. But, if he experiences an overwhelming barrage of reprimands from his parent then it’s imprinted in his mind to expend all his energies in avoiding even thinking about re-committing that indiscretion.

So you can see how the punishment for the crime goes a long way in communicating to any individual how serious the crime actually is. If the punishment is given and yet it’s too lenient or too harsh we are all too ready to cry out against it as unjust.

Let’s make it applicatory shall we.

Think about the punishment for one of those sins you’ve committed. Maybe not the big ones we often immediately think of when someone preaches on sin.

Think about that untruth you told today, that white lie.

Consider what kind of penalty God is set to serve anyone committing such a (seemingly minor) crime.

Rev 21:8 “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death."

Ouch... seems a little too severe doesn’t it? I mean lets be honest; at times parents loose their composure and dish out a little more penalty than the crime asks for.

Do you think this is what God is doing here? I know we don’t really offer much protest when the text says, “...the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, ...murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters...” do we. We can understand that, but why would He deal with people who tell lies as if they were in the same category?

Romans 9:14 “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!”

Whatever God does is just and what justice is God does: Nothing more and nothing less.

However whatever I say that won’t really help too much in our journey to understand our depravity. The reason is because we still don’t understand how serious one of our crimes is before God.

Think about it. You know hell is horrific and that's the inheritance of the person who commits ONE sin. That's God’s JUST penalty; one sin equals an eternity in hell.

You can live the most sterile, clean, holy life and yet still have committed one small and seemingly paltry sin, on one occasion of momentary weakness, and you will still inherit an eternity of doom in the burning lake of sulphur.

“Wait a minute?” you might want to ask.

“Are you quite sure one sin committed equals an eternity in hell? I thought you were discussing justice here.”

OK, let me delve a little here because it will assist some of you in understanding the justice of God.

I’m sure as I made that statement some of you were a little uneasy about it. And though you have a sneaky suspicion that the bible teaches this, (for some of you) that still doesn’t go very far in suggesting to you it’s JUST.

So here’s why. The seriousness/wickedness of a crime isn’t ONLY dictated by the crime itself, but it’s also dictated by who it is committed against. And this is true and observable. Let me explain how.

• If I commit an indiscretion against one of my peers it usually brings scorn and contempt. E.g. If I slap my neighbour he’ll probably cuss me out and may even slap me back.

• If I commit the same indiscretion against one of my superiors, such as my boss at work, then I can expect to be without a job or some such thing. Obviously a more severe penalty follows because of the position of the individual I wronged (same indiscretion, more severe penalty).

• If I go a step further and commit the same indiscretion against a government official such as a police officer, then it becomes a legal matter, and I'm liable for a much heavier penalty. Because the person holds higher authority I am liable to endure a higher penalty for assaulting them.

• What about if you go to the extreme and slap the president, or the Queen? Well you can follow the logic for yourself.

Can you see how this works? We don’t look on this and demand better consistency, because we can see this is just. It’s not ONLY the crime in and of itself that deems the severity of the penalty but also the one the crime has been committed against.

Can you imagine how God will deal with those who commit crimes against HIM and HIS infinite Holiness and Justice?

Sinning against an infinite, eternal, omnipotent God is sinning against an infinitely Holy character which WILL ALWAYS result in a penalty that's infinite and eternal.

Truth is we are so terribly depraved. We are so depraved that your heart is more deceitful than anything else in all creation. And our blindness confirms how deceitful it really is.

Therefore we have no idea how horrible sin really is. Big or small, large or petty, public or personal, God will judge them all and they will all merit an infinite penalty in hell forever.

God considers all sin that is committed to be sinning against Him because it’s first and foremost His laws that are being broken.

This and this alone is justice.

And yet Amazing Grace can and will save us, if we turn to Jesus Christ, put our entire trust in Him and repent of all our sins. We must love Christ with that kind of love that causes us to become hateful of sin.

What amazing grace is, that it can ACTUALLY save a wretch like me and you.

If we strive to get more of a comprehension of the depravity of man then we can see how much more glorious Jesus Christ really is.

He is so majestic and holy; yet He takes on all our sin and indeed becomes our sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

The Puritan pastor John Flavel (1628-1691),, reconstructed what that conversation between the Father and the Son may have sounded like: (this is just a poetic reconstruction and not a theological statement)

Father:
My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands [either] satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls And thus Christ replies.

Son:
O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety (collateral or guarantee); bring in all your bills (debt), that I may see what they owe you; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shall you require it. I will rather choose to suffer your wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.

Father:
But, my Son, if you undertake for them, you must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no discounts; if I spare them, I will not spare You.

Son:
Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to take it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it.”

That’s my Jesus!!!

Have you any sins that are yet to be placed on the shoulders of the Saviour? Are you truly Born Again?

Amazing grace is amazing because: God is on His throne in heaven whilst we are here on the earth separated by our many sins (breaking God’s laws). If anyone turns to Jesus and believes in Him, they will become God’s child.

Whilst Jesus was on the cross God put all our sins on Him and EXPLODED His furious wrath (that we deserve) upon Christ in our place. the same white hot fury that hell is kindled with, was poured out on Jesus Christ.

This Christ was holy and never deserving of the punishment He was given. AND, for any that turn to Him now, in surrender and trust, giving their whole life over to Him, He’s glad to take all of their punishment for them because of His great love.

Therefore, if you will humbly repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus, you will become a child of God and take on (imputed) Christ’s holiness and righteousness as your own and God will then declare you innocent on judgement day.

This is a HUGE trade-off and exchange of positions. On the cross Jesus became the guilty one because of our awful sins and now we have the opportunity of taking on His perfection, simply due to His perfect obedience to God’s laws.

That’s the astounding miracle of salvation that God freely gives to any who will repent and put their whole trust and faith in Christ Jesus.

The only reason Jesus was willing to sacrifice His life for you is because this is the extent and reach of His love. This is the reason for the cross: God loves YOU! This is what the bible means when it says: “God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son...” (John 3:16).

Consider the horrible and depraved state of our hearts. Consider the fact that we haven’t just told one lie on one occasion or broken one of God’s other Holy commandments; we have committed perhaps thousands of sins against God. When we begin to see that we have truly sinned and offended a Holy God and we understand that He offers forgiveness and seeks to wash our record PERFECLY clean, then we can accept His free gift with an overjoyed heart and desire to give Him our whole life in appreciation for His unspeakable love.

You may ask, “Isn't there a limit to what God can forgive?” Absolutely not! God’s love can cover and forgive any sin that’s sincerely repented of.

Knowing all this helps us to see that Jesus Christ is utterly precious. He’s so astonishing and loving that He would lay down His life for us. It’s that preciousness that makes Him so desirable. He is the definition of ultimate and unending love. WILL you desire Him today? Will you open your heart to Him and respond to His wonderful love?

Because Jesus loves humanity, He has provided the only means of rescue for them and He Himself said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).

Jesus has provided the ONLY WAY to accept God's invitation, the ONLY WAY to be accepted by Almighty God. If you repent and put you life in His hands by faith and trust then He did it just for you. You cannot be saved by anything else. You cannot get to heaven based on good works, merit, or charity. No one has earned enough merit through good works to outweigh the guilt of even one sin.

The truth is, we are all sinners and we need a Saviour. There is only ONE Saviour for the world and His name is JESUS CHRIST.

This is truly the greatest news anyone can ever hear: that even though our guilt has separated us from God and will damn us all to hell, God in His great love has provided the ONLY way to life (through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ). I plead now that you reach out and take hold of life by taking hold of CHRIST!

Are you beginning to see how AMAZING GRACE really is?

Written by Craig Ireland