Sermon 014 The Grace of Christ
Part 3 of Rhythms of Grace Series - 1 John 1:5-9; 2:1-2
Introduction and Review
Over the month of March, we've been digging into the book of 1 John, chapter 1 specifically, but really the whole of 1 John deals with the themes we've been discussing.
Let's read our passage again. 1 John chapter 1 verses 5 through 7:
"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin."
Week 1: The Love of God
We talked about our misconceptions:
- Misconception: God is out to get us
Reality: God desires justice - Misconception: God wants us merely happy
Reality: God wants us to be holy
We explored this deep truth: There was never a moment when God started loving you because there was never a moment when God didn't already love you. He loved us first. We didn't have to convince him or control him. We didn't have to play any games with him. He loved us before we knew there was a God in the first place. He will love us even if we forsake him. He loves us. He always will. He always has.
Week 2: Fellowship of the Spirit
Two weeks ago, we talked about confession and deceiving ourselves. Three deceptions that the church John was writing to had:
- God is okay with my darkness or my sin
Reality: God is light. God is holy. He can't stand darkness. - My nature isn't fallen
Reality: We are broken. We live in a broken world filled with death and hunger and famine and genocide. This doesn't happen by accident—it happens because of people like us. We understand that we are fallen because none of us just decide to diet or exercise and do it perfectly. We always stumble. We always fall. We never do anything perfectly. - I don't make any mistakes
This is patently ridiculous. We are out of control.
The smaller we make the issue of sin, the less magnificent we make salvation from God. Put another way: if our sin is not that bad, then what Jesus did is not that good.
The good news is not just that our God is a loving God. The good news is that our God is a loving God to us, a people who deserve no love. The gospel is not merely that God loves you. The gospel is that God loves us who are sinful. God loves us, people who deserve no love. God loves people who have rebelled and rejected the divine.
It is only by the work of the Holy Spirit that we become aware of our brokenness and therefore our deep need for God. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to be honest with God. The moment we stop being honest about who we are in light of who God is, is the moment we stop growing as apprentices of Jesus.
It's only when we get honest about the depth of our sin that we can get real about the depth of the cure.
Today: The Depth of the Cure
We've talked about two out of three issues:
- The fact that God loves us
- The fact that God loves us, a people who deserve no love
Let's talk about the depth of the cure.
There are three ways in the book of first John chapter one where John deals with the cure. We're going to do this out of order by beginning in chapter one verse nine.
First: The Power of Confession
"If we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
To illustrate this, I want to read a passage from Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis from his Chronicles of Narnia series. Lewis wrote a seven book series which explored different Christian themes from salvation and sanctification to the end times. In this one, he explores what the Christian journey is like and what it means to grow up in Christ.
The Story of Eustace the Dragon
There's a boy named Eustace, and Eustace is a wretched little boy. He's mean and spiteful, and he hates all things to do with imagination, and he likes to pull pranks, and he likes to bully. He's not the kind of boy you'd like to hang out with.
One day, while this crew of adventurers are out on an adventure, they end up on an island, and Eustace wanders off in an angry fit and ends up in a cave. He quickly realizes that this is a dragon's cave filled with treasure. He slips on a bracelet, claiming it as his own. Then he falls asleep.
He wakes up and quickly realizes that he has become a dragon. Everything that was inside of him—spiteful, mean, angry, jealous, and bullying—has now externalized itself on his flesh.
Eustace realizes that this is no way to live as an ugly old dragon and comes to a place of wanting to change. So Eustace explains to his cousin Edmund what happens next:
"A lion comes up. It wasn't afraid of eating me. I was afraid of it. But it came up close to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight, but it wasn't any good because it told me to follow it."
Edmund asks, "You mean it spoke?"
"I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did, but it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains, and there was always this moonlight over and around the lion wherever we went.
So at last we came to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before, and on the top of this mountain there was a garden, trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it, there was a well. I knew it was a well, because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it, but it was a lot bigger than most wells, like a very big round bath with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything, and I thought if I could get in there and bathe, it would ease the pain in my leg.
But the lion told me I must undress first. I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought dragons are snaky sort of things, and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I. This is what the lion means.
So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully like it does after an illness or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two, I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling.
So I started to go down into the well for my bath. But just as I was going to put my feet into the water, I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I. It only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too.
So I scratched and tore again, and this underskin peeled off beautifully, and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bath. Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, however many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg.
So I scratched away for the third time and got off the third skin just like the other two and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water, I knew it was no good.
Then the lion said, 'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate by now. So I just lay flat down on my back and let him do it.
The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know, if you've ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like anything, but it is such fun to see it coming away.
Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off, just as I thought I'd done it the other three times, only they hadn't hurt. And there it was lying on the grass, only ever so much thicker and darker and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I, as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been.
Then he caught hold of me. I didn't like that very much, for I was very tender underneath now that I had no skin on, and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything, but only for a moment. After that, it became perfectly delicious. As soon as I started swimming and splashing, I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again.
After a bit, the lion took me out and dressed me in new clothes, and then suddenly I was back here."
The Meaning of Confession
Confession is not just about making me feel good. Coming to terms with all the mistakes I've made, all the people I've hurt, all the bridges I've burnt is a painful—claws into dragon skin painful—process. But it's a freeing one. You all know what he meant when he talked about peeling off a scab. It's gross and nasty and painful and yet freeing at the same time.
Confession is not merely an exercise in rehearsing our sins and mistakes to the air. Confession is not merely about us trying to wash ourselves clean, trying to scratch off our own scales. It just doesn't work.
But there's a real God who really hears us and really forgives us.
Forgiveness equals freedom. It means release. You don't have to impress anyone anymore. You have no one to make up anything to. The skin is off and you are clean.
Forgiveness also means a letting go, a release of what is holding you down, of allowing the dragon hide to be ripped from our skin.
This is what John means: "If we confess our sins, he will forgive us and he will cleanse us." It's more than just a writing off. It's more than just forgetfulness. It's a cleansing.
Second: Walking in the Light
"If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and Jesus cleanses us from all sins." (1 John 1:7)
When John writes, "if we walk in the light," this does not necessarily equal walking in perfection, nor does it really even mean walking without fault or walking to the best of our ability without sin. Instead, what it means to walk in the light is to walk in relationship with God.
Getting Holiness Wrong
We usually get this whole pursuit of holiness thing wrong. If we've been in church for any amount of time, you've been told to pursue holiness, pursue goodness, be good. This is the kind of stuff that gets us down and makes us feel bad because we recognize that we're naturally fallen and sinful. Just being told "stop it" doesn't work very well.
We tend to pursue moralism, which is this outside-in kind of do-goodness. If I do things on the outside externally, then my inside will be made right.
Jesus talks about this with the dishes. He's telling the Pharisees, "You hypocrites, you're like whitewashed tombs. The tombs are white, but you're filled with death on the inside." He says, "Take the example of a plate or a cup. If you washed the inside, then the outside would be clean as well."
How often do we apply this outside-in logic to our own lives? You've heard it all. Like if I read my Bible, if I pray so many times a day, if I do my quiet time, then it's going to kind of soak in and affect the inside of myself, and then I'll be a better person.
What I'm not saying is quit praying and reading your Bible. What I am saying is don't do those things expecting that that's what's going to change you. Don't do those things expecting that that's what's going to turn you into the image of Christ.
The truth is that we have to pursue God himself. Not just good things, but God himself. Pursue relationship with him. And then we are changed from the inside out.
The Difference
One way leads to consistent and constant guilt. One way always makes you ask either, "What's the point?" or "Why isn't it working?" or "I didn't do it this week and I feel bad, but I don't necessarily feel like I'm missing out on too much."
On the other hand, when we pursue God himself, when we pursue relationship with God, when we stop pursuing holiness for holiness's sake, but pursue God for the sake of a relationship with him, then something changes. Then our desires change, so that we actually want to spend time with him, we actually want to get into his word and pray.
One way says: if I get into his word and pray, I'll eventually want to spend time with God.
The other way says: if I have a relationship with God, then naturally I'm going to do these things, pray and read my Bible.
If we walk in the light, if we have fellowship with God, if we pursue Him, then all these other things are going to fall into place.
Fellowship with One Another
Here's somewhat unexpected phrase: "If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another." What? If we walk with God, we have fellowship with people? Which is somewhat unexpected, but of course it makes sense.
If we walk in relationship with God, and if we pursue Him, then of course, He is going to be acting and moving in our lives to remove these patterns of sin and darkness. And then of course we're going to be in better relationship with human beings because sin always puts a wall between you and me. Sin always puts us in some sort of battle between each other.
If I'm being selfish, that means I'm trying to take for myself something that maybe you need. If I am walking in pride, that means I'm making you feel worse about yourselves. This is why if we walk in relationship with God, our relationships with people come together.
If we abandon the light, if we do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it, of course we're going to lose relationship. Sin hurts people. But walking in a relationship with God should naturally restore our relationships with people as far as responsibility lies in us.
Third: When We Do Sin
"If anyone does sin, Jesus pleads our cause. He is the sacrifice who atones for our sins and the sins of the whole world."(1 John 2:1-2)
Remember when I said "if we walk in the light does not necessarily equal walking in perfection"? Because John expects, John knows us. John realizes that we, of course, are going to mess up and make mistakes.
The good news is even when we do screw up and mess up there's still grace. Jesus does not just abandon us to our own devices. He pleads our cause. He's our counselor and our defender.
Correcting a Distortion
Sometimes when we hear things like this we get a distorted image of what's going on. "Jesus pleads our cause to the Father" and too often I've heard a gospel that sounds like Jesus is trying to convince God the Father not to send us to hell. That God the Father is ticked off but Jesus is talking the Father down so the Father will let us live. This idea that God's angry at you, but Jesus is going to convince him otherwise.
But this is just not true. Remember what we talked about three weeks ago. The Father loved us first. The Father sent the Son while we were yet sinners and rebels and disobedient and ignorant children.
This is why we can stop living in fear of not only our past mistakes, but our next mistake. There's not some mysterious line that you're going to cross that will ensure that the Father will stop forgiving you.
The Heart of the Gospel
This is why we must get it out of our heads that God is asking us to do good, to stop making mistakes, to cease sinning in order to be in relationship with him.
If we think Christianity is merely about being good so we can know God, to cease sinning so we can go to heaven, to make no mistakes so God can be pleased with us, then we aren't truly believing the gospel anymore.
Instead, we must accept the good news that God already loves you, already sent his son to die in your place, and already accepts you. Instead, what God is asking is that you would be in relationship with him, know him, truly know him, spend time with him, be with him. And he, God, the Holy Spirit, and the grace of Jesus is going to be the one that's going to transform you into the image of his son.
We can't transform ourselves. We can't do it. And we can't keep trying to impress God because God already loves you.
Once we accept that, then the whole way we live our Christian lives changes.
Either way, the dragon skin's coming off. But when it's by you, when you're the one trying to achieve it, it's hopeless and pointless and endless. But once you realize that God's love and acceptance is not something to be achieved, but something to be accepted, to live in, to bask in, to swim in, then you can finally allow God to remove the dragon skin and wash you clean in the rhythms of his grace.
Rhythms of Grace
Oh yeah, rhythms of grace. What I want to share with you about rhythms of grace is actually fairly simple, but hopefully it's profound because this describes the whole way that our Christian lives should come together.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 14, Paul writes as a conclusion to his letter:
"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."
This has been the pattern for this month:
- We've talked about the love of God
- We talked about the fellowship of the Spirit
- This morning we're talking about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
I think this succinctly sums up the whole of our Christian lives.
The Trinity
Trinity is this idea that we believe in God who is three persons but one substance. We believe that he is three persons at the same time serving and ministering to us in different ways, but at the same time he is one God. We do not believe in three gods but one.
The Father is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. But the Father is God and the Son is God and the Spirit is God. This is the Trinity.
The Dynamic of Grace
The love of the Father, the fellowship of the Spirit, and the grace of the Son.
What I think happens is that the Father's love sends out the Spirit. The Father's love sends out his spirit to tell us you are in deep need of the love of God. And when we accept this, the fellowship of the spirit working inside of us, telling us about our sin, telling us about our deep need for God, the fellowship of the spirit sends us to the son.
And what the son does, it says, "Grace, grace, grace. Be forgiven, be cleansed, be washed." And the Son then sends us by his grace to the Father who loves us and then fills us with his Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit then reminds us that there is the Son of God who says to us, "grace, grace, grace." And that grace sends us to the Father and the Father sends the Spirit.
This sums up our mission statement as a church: Connecting, serving, growing.
- The Father is serving because he is the one who sends the Spirit and sends the Son
- The Spirit is connecting us to God, connecting us to one another
- The Son is growing us up into His image
Out, up, and in:
- The Father sends out the Spirit and the Son
- The Spirit is dwelling in us and bringing us together
- The Son is growing us up as we worship and realize the holiness of God the Father
This is the Christian life.
Quick Warning
These cannot be hard and fast and absolute. The Son also ministers in different ways. The Son also is in us and making us the body. And the Father is also causing us to worship and grow up. And the Spirit is also sending us out to do His mission in this world. So don't get the idea that these are hard and fast and absolute. But I think this is a helpful paradigm to think about what the Trinity is doing in our lives.
Application
If You Struggle with Love
Some of you struggle with accepting the fact that anybody loves you, much less God. To you, God is angry, demanding that you have to achieve more and perform more and accomplish more tasks and check more things off of an ever-growing to-do list.
What this tends to do in your personal life is make you awfully self-centered because all you can do is think about, "How can I get more love? Because I don't have any." That's a painful place to be.
What I think God is telling us is we can accept the fact that God's love for you is absolute and unconditional and free. And the best way to put that into practice is to go and to serve someone else, to go show someone else what unconditional and perhaps irrational love looks like. The love of the Father sends us out.
If You Struggle with Fellowship
Some of you struggle with loneliness, with feeling like God is distant, like feeling like people aren't worth the effort because people only cause pain.
But know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, that the God of the universe is dwelling within you. Your temptation is going to be to hide from people, withdraw from them. But instead, do what the Spirit is doing right now, which is to draw close to people.
I'm not asking introverts to become extroverts. I'm not saying you need to change the whole of your personality. But what I am saying is that you have to learn to trust, to enter into deep, meaningful, accountable relationships with people because this Christian life was not meant to be lived alone. You can't do it.
If You Struggle with Grace
Some of you struggle with grace. You feel like you have to prove yourself to God. You feel like the Christian life is a list of do's and don'ts. If you ever fall off the wagon, it's over. You're done. You have to do penance. You struggle believing that you can move past your old mistakes. Or you struggle always thinking about what potential new mistakes you're going to make. You can't seem to do anything but spin your wheels. Maybe you find worship meaningless and pointless.
But know that there is grace that forgives sins old and new, that accepts you for you. Instead of seeing spiritual growth as a checklist, see it as a dance, something with a groove, something that takes rhythm and grace and mercy and probably some stumbling around.
Don't pursue holiness for the sake of holiness. Pursue the Holy One. Spend time with him. Don't seek him for what he can give you. Don't pursue him for results. Just seek him.
Conclusion
This is the rhythms of grace. All of us can pretty much fall in one of those three categories at any given time and maybe those categories shift and change. But when we come back to the love of the father and the fellowship of the Spirit and the grace of Jesus Christ, we can be confident in knowing that we are the sons and daughters of God. And there's no changing it.
We can be confident in growing up into the images of Jesus Christ, God's Son. And we can have fellowship with God and with one another as he peels off the dragon skin and washes us clean. New. His people.
Closing Prayer
Jesus, we remember you coming in on those streets of Jerusalem as a whole nation cried "Hosanna." God, we cry out the same thing. We are a broken people and we cry out, help us.
May your spirit revive within us a desire to know you for you, not for what you can do for us, not to pursue holiness for holiness's sake, but to pursue relationship with you because you are good and loving and you have already accepted us.
May you show that to your people and may they live that out. May they know your love and your grace and your fellowship, God. In your name we pray. Amen.
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