Confused Christians

Mark Finley: One of the subjects that Christians are really confused on is the idea of the role of grace and the role of law in the plan of salvation. If we're saved by grace and grace alone, is there any place for the law in the plan of salvation? Somebody said, "Love God and do as you please." Is that biblical? If I have this so-called love for God, can't I just do as I please, or do I seek to do what He pleases? Somebody else said that keeping the law is absolutely unnecessary for the Christian; if you go keep the law, you go back under bondage, you go into Old Testament legalism. So there is some confusion about it. In this presentation, I want to take you through the Bible. This is more of a Bible study. If you happen to have your Bible near, take it out, and you want to mark some of these Bible texts. In the book of Ephesians, chapter two, verses eight and nine, it sets forth for us very clearly the role of grace in the plan of salvation. Ephesians 2, verse 8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." So some people say we're saved by faith. No, faith has no merit in it. Faith is the arm that reaches out to receive God's grace. We are saved totally, absolutely, completely by the grace of God. It's because Christ died and paid the ransom price for our sins. His death substitutes for our death, and His perfect life substitutes for our imperfect life. It says very clearly we've been saved by grace through faith. It is what? The gift of God. If something is a gift, you don't work for it. If something is a gift, you don't do anything to merit it. A gift is a gift because it's a gift. And it says "not of works, lest any man should boast." So it's not of works. Somebody says, "That settles it." Well, read verse 10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." We are His what? Workmanship. Grace not only pardons my past, but grace empowers my present. What do good works do? Good works reveal the authenticity of my faith in Christ and my reception of His grace. Good works reveal that the faith that I have that reaches up to receive God's grace, that that faith is authentic. So throughout Scripture, grace is the means of our salvation, good works are the result of our salvation. Let's look at another passage, Romans chapter 3, verses 23 and 24. We want to be crystal clear that our good works do not save us, but our bad works can condemn us. And if we don't have any good works, it's because we do not have genuine faith. Romans chapter 3, verse 23: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." So how are we justified? How are we made right with God? Freely by His what? By His grace. But it says "through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth," verse 25, "to be a propitiation," that's a ransom, "by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate," verse 26, "at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus." So all boasting, Paul says, is taken away. Christ is our Savior, Christ is our Redeemer. Christ's death on the cross saves us. We are justified by grace. Does that mean then we love God and do as we please? No, it means we love God and do as He pleases. Does that mean that keeping the law is legalism? No, it does mean that since we're saved by grace, we have a new power operating in our lives that leads us to obedience. Look what Paul says in verse 28 of Romans 3: "Therefore we conclude..." Now, any conclusion you come to that's not in harmony with what Paul says is a wrong conclusion. Wouldn't you agree? "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law." So the basis of justification is not our law-keeping; it's God's grace. But he's coming to the conclusion: "Do we then make void the law through faith?" That is, do we do away with the law? "Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." So Paul says the law is not meritorious. We are not saved by our good works; we're saved by grace. But the grace that saves us does not lead us to make void the law; it leads us to obey God's law. The justified believer lives a life of obedience because they're sanctified by the power of Christ. God's grace not only pardons us, but it leads us to obedience. Look at Romans 1, verse 5. Romans 1, verse 5 should leave no doubt in our minds. It says, let me go back and pick up verse 3: "Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, through whom," that is through Jesus, through the Lord our Savior, "through whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations." So what have we received? We receive grace for what reason? For obedience. So the Apostle Paul tells us that God's grace always leads us to obedience. So you can't separate the grace of God from the law of God. You can't separate loving God from obedience. This is some kind of false dichotomy that is a deception of the devil. See, what would you rather do? If you're riding in a car down a highway at 65 miles an hour, would you rather go off the cliff on the left or into the river on the right? You say, "Mark, I don't want to make either of those two choices." There are two great dangers. First, to believe that you're saved by your law-keeping. That leads to frustration, guilt, fear, insecurity, and lack of assurance. So we're not saved by law-keeping; that's one ditch. The other ditch is to say, "Oh, I'm saved by grace," and it becomes a cheap grace, a sentimental grace, and "Oh, I'm just saved by grace, so it doesn't make any difference what I do. I don't have to even think about God's law." Both of those are ditches, one on the left and one on the right. The balance is that when I'm saved by God's grace through faith, the genuineness of my faith, the authenticity of my faith that receives God's grace is manifest in the good works of my life, in the obedient life that I live, that grace leads us, teaches us. In fact, the very word "teaches" is used in the Bible, that grace teaches us. When I come to Christ saved by His grace, He becomes my teacher. And grace that is revealed in Christ leads me to live a godly life. That's what the Bible says. Titus chapter 2, verse 11 and onward: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." Incidentally, the grace of God that brings salvation appears to all men. Did it appear to people in the Old Testament? Yes. You say, "But I thought they were saved by law." No, nobody, there are not two methods of salvation. We're not going to get up to heaven and we say, "Moses, no, Isaiah, how were you saved?" "Oh," they say, "I was saved by law because we obeyed." And we say, "How were you saved? I was saved by grace." Not two methods of salvation; not the law method in the Old Testament and the grace method in the New Testament. Salvation comes only by grace through faith. In the Old Testament, they were saved by grace through faith in the Christ that was to come. Their faith reached forward to the grace that would be manifest in Christ to bring them salvation. We are saved through faith by grace in the Christ that has come. Our faith looks back to the cross; their faith looked forward to the cross. Every sacrifice they offered was not meritorious. It did not give them salvation; it pointed forward to the salvation that was to come in Christ. Now note: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." Every human being—Old Testament, New Testament. "Teaching us..." What teaches us? The grace of God teaches us. What does it teach us? "That, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age." So the grace of God, when we come to the cross, when we are transformed by grace, when our hearts are charmed by love, we come to the cross and we recognize what Christ did for us. That He lived for us, that He died for us. We're so amazed at His worthiness and our unworthiness. We're so amazed at His righteousness and our unrighteousness. We're so amazed at His goodness and our sin.
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Mark Finley: We're so amazed at His worthiness and our unworthiness that we fall before that cross and we say, "Jesus, thank You. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Your goodness. Thank You for Your love. All we want to do is serve You." And obedience becomes the outflowing of a heart that loves God. It becomes that outflowing of a heart that's filled with grace. It becomes the outflowing of a heart that is redeemed by the blood of Christ through the cross of Calvary. Now, does grace make the law irrelevant? What does the Bible mean when it says you are not under law but under grace? Let's go to that Bible passage. We'll find it in Romans chapter 6. Often when I'm talking to some of my evangelical Christian friends, they say to me, "Pastor Mark, we're not under the law, but we're under grace," as if not being under the law, we don't have to keep the law. But the Bible is very plain. Notice what it says here in Romans the sixth chapter, verse 14 and 15: "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." So are we under the law? No. What are we under? Grace. Does that mean we can go out and break God's law? Next verse: "What then? Shall we sin?" What is sin? According to the Bible, sin is the transgression of God's law. "Because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!" So then Paul goes on to say: "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" So if you live a life of disobedience to God's law, you're a slave to sin and you're not a servant of Christ, so certainly not under grace. Now, what does it mean to be under law? What does it mean to be under grace? To be under law means to be under the law as a method of salvation. And if you're under the law as a method of salvation, you cannot keep it, you break it, therefore you are condemned by the law that you've broken. To be under grace means to be under the grace method of salvation, that you're saved by grace. But when I'm under the grace method of salvation, it doesn't lead me to break the law intentionally, because Paul says, "What then? Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? Certainly not!" So under law is under the law method of salvation. We're not under the law method of salvation. The law has no merit to earn our salvation. We're under grace. But when we're under the grace method of salvation, do we break the law intentionally? Certainly not, according to Paul, we keep the law. Now, James's epistle—some people don't like James because he speaks so bluntly. He speaks so directly. But I love James because James lays it right on the line. James chapter 2, verse 10: "Whoever shall stumble, whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." It says if you're trying to keep the whole law, you're guilty of all if you knowingly, willingly turn your back on God. He says, "For He who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you become a transgressor of the law. So speak and do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty." So the Ten Commandment law, the law of God, is the law of liberty. It frees us to live the abundant life that Jesus Christ desires. And so we're judged by the law of liberty. Now, how else could God judge us? He can't judge us by our intent or thoughts. Our works become the basis of the judgment. And this is what James says. He goes on to point it out this way, James chapter 2, and we're looking there at verse 17 to 19: "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." That's a dead faith. It's not a saving faith. It's not an active faith. It's not a dynamic faith. "Someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" So what is James saying to us? He is saying that if you claim to have biblical faith, if you claim to have authentic faith, if you claim to have genuine faith, that is going to lead you in the reception of the grace of God for your salvation to have this dynamic faith living in you to live an obedient, godly life in harmony with His Ten Commandments. Now, the law of God is the basis of the judgment. And our obedience that reveals whether our faith is genuine or not becomes a standard in the judgment. Notice Revelation 20, verse 12. The Scripture puts it this way. It says: "And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God." This is at the end of the millennial period. The Holy City has come down. At the end of that period, "I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened." God has a record of every word, every thought, every deed, every action. "The books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books." Notice the book of Ecclesiastes. We look at the last chapter. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. You look at the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, and this is what the Scripture says regarding judgment and works. Ecclesiastes chapter 12: "Fear God," we're looking at verse 13, "let us hear the whole conclusion of the matter." In other words, the essence of the thing. "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it's good or evil." Fear God, reverence God, keep His commandments. Do the keeping of the commandments save us? Absolutely not; it's the blood of Christ that saves us. Are the keeping of the commandments meritorious? Do they gain merit for us? No. But does obedience play a part in the overall plan of salvation? It does. How so? It demonstrates the genuineness of our faith. It shows that we have truly received the grace of God. Follow me closely. Our good works cannot save us, but our bad works can condemn us to eternal loss. Our good works are not meritorious, but our bad works or evil deeds, or a lack of obedience, are a revelation of where the heart is. God makes an earnest appeal to you and to me. We are saved by grace and grace alone. When God's grace enters our life, it pardons our past. It frees us from guilt. It delivers us from condemnation. But it empowers us to live a godly life, to live an obedient life. Our good works, as I've said, will not save us, but our bad works, our sinful acts, our evil deeds, will condemn us in the judgment. Here's the appeal of the New Testament: Let God's grace wash over your soul. Let God's grace pardon your past. Let God's grace forgive you. Let God's grace redeem you. Let God's grace deliver you from guilt, deliver you from condemnation. But let God's grace teach you, as Paul says to Titus, teach you where you're falling short. Let God's grace teach you where you're not in harmony with God's will. Let God's grace teach you to live an obedient life. Let God's grace strengthen you. Let God's grace empower you. Let God's grace enable you to live an obedient life, to be a light in this darkened world. In Jesus' name. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we ask You that we can be a light in this dark world. We ask You that God's grace would pardon us. We're sorry we have failed and failed again. But, oh Lord, we long to live not in the guilt of the past, but in the glorious assurance that Christ is our Savior. We long to live with Your power filling our heart, obedient, godly lives so we can be a testimony to our families, to our children, to the people working around us, our working associates, and to this world. Help us be a light in this dark world filled with Your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.
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Mark Finley: I am not a poet, but I've adapted a little poem that I wrote. It's called "Heaven is Home to Me." Earth holds no treasures but perish with the using, however precious they may be. Yet there's a country to which I'm going; heaven is home to me. Out on a hill of that wonderful country, happy, contented, and free, loved ones will unite together in a glad jubilee. So today I'm waiting and watching for His coming; heaven is home to me. Why should I long for the world and its sorrows, when in that home o'er the sea, millions with my family will sing the wonderful story? Heaven is home to me. Father in heaven, we thank You that a relationship with Christ is the basis of all of our relationship with others. Teach us how to apply these principles in the everyday world. Sometime we struggle with it, but we know based on Romans 5, verse 5, that You can pour the love of God into our hearts by Your Holy Spirit. So we who are blessed can be a blessing. We who are edified can be a minister of edification. Send us from this place with the self-sacrificial love of Christ to bless others, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.