Today, I want to talk about the topics of grace, sin, the need to repent, the forgiveness available from Jesus Christ, and they need to constantly seek to do those good works that are pleasing to our holy Father in heaven.
Some would think that the topic is almost too basic to spend time on, but I tell you, friends: I have seen individuals, congregations, and even whole denominations fail to hold onto these basic principles.
Let me give you what the military calls the BLUF. BLUF stands for "Bottom Line Up Front." I want to lay out the basic points, talk a little bit about today's scripture readings, and share with you how they relate to this topic.
Saved by Grace
First, let me reinforce, that through the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we are saved by grace, and grace alone. Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Although salvation is a gift and not our wages for good works, our Father, in heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the person of the Holy Spirit want, and even expect that we will grow in righteousness. This is a process called sanctification.
Sanctification is a fancy church word for growing more righteous and holy, day by day.
This righteousness in our lives will naturally result in good works. We become like good fruit trees that produce good fruit.
Even though God absolutely forgives us when we repent and renounce sin, we will sin — again and again — as we continue our pilgrimage through life. When we sin, we produce bad fruit. When we repent and renounce that sin in our life, God in the person of the Holy Spirit prunes away that bad fruit. Our transformation to become more like Jesus is a lifelong effort.
We are creatures born into sin, living in an increasingly fallen world. God, through His prophets and the words of Jesus Christ Himself, tells us that evil will grow more and more as we approach the day of Jesus Christ’s return. However, as the darkness grows, we will be continually renewed through the Holy Spirit and shall produce good fruit. We will shine as a light of God’s love brighter than that darkness as a witness to the world around us.
God will use our witness through the power of the Holy Spirit to call more people to himself.
In our reading in the second book of Samuel, we see that David, a man, beloved by God, led, and perhaps even filled with the Holy Spirit from time to time. He had committed a heinous act of lust that led to his murdering a faithful and courageous servant, Uriah the Hittite.
The man David murdered was one of the great heroes of Israel. David slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife. She became pregnant, and David had her husband murdered to cover up David’s sin. Later, David took Bathsheba as his wife.
God however, sees all things and was not going to let this sin of David go on punished. David needed a serious pruning. God sent Nathan to prophet to proclaim God’s judgment on David.
Called to Repentance
Perhaps because God loved David, or because God's plan required that Jesus Christ would be born from the line of David... God forgave David’s sin. God, however, took the life of the child even after David was forgiven.
David acknowledged his sin and repented. David also begged God to save the life of this innocent child. When the child died, David accepted the will of God, the punishment that he had received. David acknowledged that God was just and good and holy. This is a powerful lesson for us to hold onto.
Psalm 25 may well have been David’s cry for forgiveness after his sin with Bathsheba. It's a good psalm for us to remember
when we stumble and fall.
We may sin, repent, but still suffer the consequences of our sin. God may forgive our sins spiritually and still have us pay the price of an earthly punishment.
If a person murders another person and is sentenced to jail, God, the Father, may forgive that person but still expect them to serve out their jail sentence, or even to be executed. Forgiveness relates to the eternal judgment that we face for our sins.
God’s forgiveness does not mean that we escape earthly justice.
All people die, righteous and unrighteous alike. Those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and are forgiven, spiritually, will be resurrected to eternal life.
Those who have not repented and are not forgiven, will face eternal death.
Led to Good Works
Now let us take a brief look at 1 Peter 2:11-17. "DEARLY beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king."
Peter repeatedly calls us to turn from sin and seek to do good works. He calls us not only to do good works, but to do so humbly, even in the sight of those who even hate us. Remember, we are to love our enemies and to pray for them that they would turn from their evil and become our brothers and sisters in Christ. When our reading says to pray for the king (and other translations say emperor)
Peter undoubtably speaks of the Roman emperor — the very emperor who would later put him to death by hanging him upside down on a cross.
Do you see the pattern? Resist sin, repent, and ask forgiveness when we fail, and use that fresh start to begin again, to do good works. By turning in earnest to do good works, we may in some small way witness to the truth and change the world for good.
We don’t do good works to be saved.
We do good works because we are saved.
When the world sees a notorious sinner turn from evil through the power of Jesus Christ to do good works, it sees the reality of the Gospel. The unsaved may even take hope that Jesus can change their own lives for the better.
Finally, let us take a look Matthew 5:13-20: "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its flavor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily, I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
This passage is part of an account of what is often called the Sermon on the Mount. In it, Jesus says that we—as His
followers—are to be unchanging like salt, a light to the world, a city on the Hill. We must be willing to let our good works be seen by others. This isn't to bring glory to ourselves, but to the God who has saved and forgiven us. This is to give glory to God who empowers us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus said that the grace of God did not take away the importance of the law to help guide us to what good works are. The grace of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are to help guide us to do good works in spirit, and in truth, to the glory of God.
We are to stand and proclaim the authority of Scripture, of the moral law.
We should not only point to Jesus as the only begotten Son of the Father. We are to point to the life and death importance of the commandments of Jesus. Scripture speaks to us with the authority of God, who created us and will judge us when we fall short, unless we repent and accept the gift of Grace.
We are also to stand and demonstrate the availability of God’s forgiveness for those who repent, and turn to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We demonstrate the truth of God by our witness, by our love, even for those who ill use us, and by the way that we actually do good to others, especially when we do those good works sacrificially.
Brothers and sisters, let us fully rely on the grace and love of God and look for every opportunity to demonstrate God's grace and love to the world around us. Amen.
