Archive article 24

“Sola Gratia – Grace alone” is really “Amazing Grace”

This well-known hymn, which never wears out, captures so well what the Reformers were discovering in the middle-ages what the Bible says in the New Testament: “In him we have redemption through his blood, he forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7)  

One of the consequences man suffered when he rebelled against God has been his trust in his own ability. Without even blinking an eyelid, men believe in themselves and their capacity to

understand the nature of reality and order life so as to satisfy their own needs. But if we look under the surface of things, it’s not always that way and he’s often vacillating as he ends up trusting the modern trends in marketing, the development of leadership theory, the latest health remedies, and even the varied forms of transcendental thought. Unaware of this basic choice, modern man continues to trust in his own ideas, his own life-remedies, the various philosophies which keep on flowing through magazines and the television, as well as religious belief such as that of the Roman Catholic Church. And this, while all around us massive tragedies are showing us how impotent we really are with massive earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and catastrophic oil spills which devastate our environment. And in recent days, even as the world’s economic crisis has showed us how the system is precarious perched at the edge of the precipice – we continue to live as though we can “do-it-ourselves” and we don’t need God!  

This is unfortunately also true of many churches – even evangelical ones. Preachers are developing new gospels – of healing, of prosperity, of self-worth, etc. all of which make the Gospel seem something more like a consumer-good available on demand and ready to resolve any sort of problem anyone might have.

In actual fact, the Gospel of Jesus, is quite different! It’s the good news of grace which in through Jesus Christ, is the heart of our salvation and the only channel by which we can truly discover life. All men, and I mean ‘all’ of us, are born spiritually dead and need this work of grace of Christ. In fact, we are do “dead” spiritually that none of us can even cooperate with the grace of Jesus – it’s His life giving Spirit which, by grace through faith, brings new life into us.

It’s because of this grace of God that there is a relationship between Him and His creatures. It’s the Lord, who by grace ransoms, justifies, redeems, sanctifies and glorifies his people.

The bottom line is that we are saved from God’s anger by grace alone. None of our human projects, brilliant though they may be, can resolve the dilemma of our lost-ness. It’s only by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that we come to Christ who not only forgives and frees us from our sins, but brings about a new birth ushering us into a brand new life. All of our self-efforts, ingenious as they often are, fall short and often deceive leading us astray.

Even the best marketing methods, the most efficacious strategies for self-betterment cannot bring the sort of transformation the grace of Christ effects in us. It’s through faith, by this “amazing grace”, that we are saved . . .

“not from yourselves, it’s the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8)

                                                                         Pastor Paul Finch