People’s thoughts vary when you mention the Day of Judgment. Some people fear it. Some look forward to it. Some scoff. Some are hopeful. Some are hopeless. I would venture to say that most people get about as excited about the Day of Judgment as they get about their dental appointments. Yet, it doesn’t have to be that way if you understand the Scripture.

Introduction

The story is told of an immigrant who enlisted in the United States Army during World War II. Being a foreigner, he had great difficulty with the English language. One day as the troop prepared for inspection, the men realized that unless they gave this soldier some help, he would flunk, simply due to his difficulty with English. So one of the men said to him, "Now look. In a few days, the general is going to come around, and unless you are extremely careful, you could fail inspection simply due to your problems with the language. Let me tell you the questions he’ll probably ask and the answers you need to be prepared to give.

"The first question he’ll undoubtedly ask is, ‘How long have you been in the army?’ When he asks that, simply answer, ‘Two years.’ The second question he will undoubtedly ask is, ‘How old are you?’ When he asks that, answer, ‘Twenty-two.’ The third question he will surely ask is, ‘Have you been receiving good food and good treatment?’ When he asks that, tell him, ‘Both.’ Two, Twenty-two, and Both. As long as you can remember these three answers you should have no difficulty. But whatever you do, don’t forget: Two, Twenty-two, Both."

The day of inspection came and, sure enough, the general did ask three questions. The only problem was, he did not ask them in the order in which the soldier was prepared to answer them. Instead, he said, "I’d like to ask you a few questions. First, how old are you?" The soldier answered, "Two years." The general looked at him and said, "Well, how long have you been in the army?" and the soldier answered, "Twenty-two years." The general looked at him and said, "What do you take me for - an idiot or a fool?" And the soldier answered, "Both."

I’m certain that all of us are delighted that we didn’t have to stand in the shoes of that poor soldier when it came to the day of inspection. Yet each of us is keenly aware that one day soon we are going to participate in a far greater inspection, because we are going to stand before the Creator of the universe and give an account of ourselves. "It is appointed for men to die once," says Hebrews 9:27, "and after this comes judgment."

People’s thoughts vary when you mention the Day of Judgment. Some people fear it. Some look forward to it. Some scoff. Some are hopeful. Some are hopeless. I would venture to say that most people get about as excited about the Day of Judgment as they get about their dental appointments.

Yet, it doesn’t have to be that way if you understand the Scriptures. More specifically, there is a particular doctrine you need to understand. I refer to the doctrine of God’s Grace. If we continue to stand in the presence of God at judgment, it will be solely on the basis of His grace.

What is grace? One thoughtful disciple of Jesus somewhere once said that grace is God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.

Someone else has said that grace is simply Unmerited Favor.

The same concept was put more creatively this way: Grace is everything for nothing to those who don't deserve anything.

While those are helpful definitions, we need to know more.

In this message I want to try to help you understand God’s grace by sharing three pivotal truths about it. Each one of them comes right out of your New Testament. Please join me in Romans 3:21-31...

(Read Romans 3:21-31)

While much more could be said of this passage, I want to point out three truths about grace. The first truth we need to understand about grace is this:

1. It’s a Gift.

Verse 24 says, "being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;"

If someone gives you a gift, how much does it cost you? Nothing! It’s free. If you paid for it, it wouldn’t be a gift, right?

Verses elsewhere in the New Testament show us this free nature of God’s grace, as well. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in

Christ Jesus our Lord."

Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God..."

In John 4:10, we read where Jesus said to the woman at the well, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

God’s grace, salvation, eternal life, are all free according to clear statements of the New Testament.

That can be confusing, however. It can trouble our theology because elsewhere, in the same New Testament, in Luke 14:28, for instance, we read that Jesus said that we should "count the cost" before deciding to sign on with Him.

Wait a minute! I thought that if it was free, that meant that there was no cost! What is going on here?

Furthermore, we find that the New Testament teaches the necessity of obedience. For instance, John 3:36 says, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Hebrews 5:9 says, "He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation…."

If it’s free, why are we told we must obey? If it’s free, why do we need to count the cost?

The way some people deal with this is to accept one of the concepts and ignore the other. They just forget that the Bible says grace is free and they stress duty and obedience. As a result, they fall into a merit system of salvation, believing that, if you want to go to heaven, you must do it the "old fashioned way." You must earn it.

Or they take the opposite position. They forget that the Bible says we must obey and stress that, since grace it is free, there is nothing we can or must do. As a result, they fall into a system of license. "Do whatever you like. It doesn’t matter as long as, at some point, you accept Jesus into your heart."

The only thing these two extremes share in common is that they are both wrong. You cannot deal with Scripture that way. Statements by Christ, His Apostles and His prophets must harmonize. If they don't, you’ve misunderstood them.

So how do we sort this out? Follow me for a few moments and let’s see what we can do.

First, we can say positively that no one can merit salvation.

Salvation cannot be earned. Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit."

This is true of both our initial salvation and our continued salvation. We cannot earn salvation because we have nothing with which we can pay. The penalty for even one sin is death. We have only one life, so if we’ve ever sinned even once, we’re finished. We’re broke. We have nothing with which to pay. Unless God provides us with the means, we’re lost. That is why salvation is by grace. That is why, if God is going to give it to us, it has to be free.

Second, salvation is given in order to bring us into a relationship with God.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they were cast out, which, in essence meant we were all cast out. From that point onward through the rest of the history of God’s dealing with man, we see God wanting to restore that lost relationship with those who want it. But He doesn't force it. He gives free choice. If we don’t want a relationship with Him, He will ultimately leave us alone with our choice.

In any good relationship, there are obligations. Think about it. When I married my wife back in 1969, I didn’t have to pay for her. She came to me freely. Her dad, after paying a sizable amount to raise her to age 19, brought her to me, handed me her arm in the presence of a preacher and some close friends, and said, "Here she is. She’s all yours!"

I didn’t get a bill for her three months later for 19 years of expenses! Though it cost her father a lot to raise her, I got the relationship for free. But did that mean there was no cost involved or that I accepted no obligation when I married her? No! I remember the preacher saying some heavy things like, "for better or worse, for richer or poorer." He made me promise to love her and cherish her for the rest of my life. But wait a minute! I thought it was free!

You see freedom does not nullify responsibility or obligation. The free nature of God’s grace and mercy brings us into a relationship with Him. Like any other relationship, if I want it to continue, I must do my part. No. That’s not so I can earn the relationship. The relationship exists because both parties chose to be there. If my relationship with my wife were earned, then I could demand that she stay with me as long as I kept up my end of the bargain. But our relationship is not based upon bargaining. It is based upon love and freedom of choice. In full freedom to choose, we agreed to give ourselves to one another. A relationship based upon love has to be between two parties who come willingly and give willingly of themselves.

God’s grace is free but there is a resulting obligation. It is an obligation of a loving relationship. Can you see how those two things can coexist?

Think of a close friendship you might have. Your friend isn’t there because you pay him is he? ("Hey buddy! Would you to be my friend for two weeks? Here’s $500 for your services!") That wouldn’t to be a friendship at all because friendship is a relationship based upon love and mutual consent. But are there obligations involved? Certainly! You do things for your friend and he or she does things for you. If that isn’t happening, the friendship ultimately dies. The difference between a friend and someone you hire is that you do things willingly for your friend.

My point in all this is simply what I said in the beginning. God’s grace is free. No matter what you may have done in the past, no matter what you might to be into now, if you want a relationship with Him, He will accept you freely if you come. He will wipe away any sin. He’ll cleanse you and make you as guiltless as the day on which you were born. Just understand that it is a relationship you enter. It isn't a bargain where parties dicker back and forth to get the best deal.

If you have drifted away from him, the situation is the same. Don’t think you have to buy His favor once again by good deeds! He loves you. He longs for your friendship once again! He even misses you! Simply come to Him, and, like in any loving relationship, confess your wrong and enter the relationship once again. He’ll put you right back where you were before you drifted away.

2. Its Extensive.

How much grace does God have to cover our sins? Is there any danger that it will run out? Some of you may say, "Well sure there is. We all know God is a holy God who hates sin." Verse 22 of our text says, "...even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe..."

According to this verse, there is enough of the righteousness of God available to cover the sins of all those who believe. That takes in quite a few people. That’s a lot of sin-eliminating power!

But that isn’t the whole of it. John the Baptist, when he pointed out Jesus as Messiah, said in John 1:29, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

There would to be enough of God’s grace to take away the sin of every person in the whole world if those people really wanted it. Can you imagine how many sins that would involve? How long do you suppose the list would to be? Pretty long, don’t you think?

What if we wrote down all of the world's sins for the past month or the past year? How about the last 100 years? How about the whole duration of man’s history? How disgusting the list would be! What would be on it? Adultery. Murder. Hatred. Racism. Bigotry. Child molesting. Rape. It would to be a disgusting list. Yet there would be enough of God's grace to take it all away.

Of course, we all know that the whole world doesn’t want or care about God’s forgiveness, but if they did, you can to be assured that God's grace would to be big enough to cover it. Sometimes we get the idea that our sin is just too much for God. Yes, maybe if He had caught us a little earlier in life, before we messed things up so badly, He might have been willing to forgive us. But not now. There’s just too much wrong that we’ve done. Or perhaps if we weren’t so weak and we hadn’t failed Him so many times already.

My friends, if that is the way you are thinking, then you have a puny, stunted, pint-sized, runty, anemic view of God’s grace that needs to be corrected!

In His book, Our Sufficiency in Christ, John MacArthur tells the following story: One day the English preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon, was riding home after a heavy day's work, feeling weary and depressed. A verse came to his mind, "My grace is sufficient for you." In his mind he immediately compared himself to a little fish in the Thames River, apprehensive lest drinking so many pints of the water each day he should drink it dry. Then Father Thames says to him, "Drink away, little fish. My stream is sufficient for you."

Next he thought of a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt, afraid lest its daily nibbles exhaust the supplies and cause it to starve to death. Then Joseph comes along and says "Cheer up, little mouse. My granaries are sufficient for you."

Then he thought of a man climbing some high mountain to reach its lofty summit and dreaded lest his breathing might exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere. The Creator booms His voice out of heaven saying, "Breathe away, oh man, and fill your lungs. My atmosphere is sufficient for you!"

Can you, as an individual, exhaust God’s grace by coming to Him in confession and

repentance when you have sinned? I don’t think so!

Jesus said in Luke 17:4 that we should be willing to forgive someone who comes to us seven times a day and says, "I repent." Now that’s a lot of forgiving! Do you think God would require that of us and be unwilling to do it Himself?

But there is one more thing you need to know about God’s grace, and that is,

3. Its Powerful.

Perhaps a few of us are getting uneasy about now wondering if I have gone to preaching what is commonly called "cheap grace." "Cheap grace" insinuates that, since God’s grace is a free gift and is so extensive, we should just keep right on sinning and never worry about it since there is enough grace to cover it all. Said another way, "The more sin, the more grace, so let’s just pour on the sin." Let me assure you, I am not promoting that false teaching. On the contrary, the message I am preaching, if it were better understood, would go further toward promoting personal holiness than any message of fear I could ever bring.

Look closely at verse 31 of our text: "Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never to be! On the contrary, we establish the Law."

You see, Paul was concerned that people might object to this teaching of God’s grace being free and big by thinking that, if people really understood it, they would by more inclined to ignore God’s law and sin even more. That’s why the question, "Do we, then, nullify the Law through faith?"

Paul says, "No! Not at all! Such teaching about grace upholds or establishes the law.

Later in Romans (6:1) he makes this point again. "Shall we continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never to be! How shall we who have died to sin still live in it?"

To suggest that God’s grace encourages moral laxness is an admission that one doesn’t understand grace. Grace doesn’t encourage us to sin. When we really understand it, it` drives us toward moral purity.

Someone once said, "Because of God’s grace, I sin all I want!" Then he paused for several seconds and said, "No, that isn’t true. Because of God’s grace I sin more than I want."

If I pay for a relationship, I feel no sense of obligation other than the money I paid. If the other party doesn’t like that, hey, so what? He got his wages! But if that relationship exists on the basis of a price the other party has paid, and it has been offered to me freely, I’m grateful for it and that has an effect upon my actions. I treat it with respect. I’m concerned about keeping it right. I’m truly sorry if I do something to jeopardize it.

Grace, therefore, based upon love and gratitude for it, is a much stronger motivator toward holiness than law could ever to be.

Law says "you get what you pay for and you pay for what you get." You feel no further sense of loving, concerned obligation under law. The result is a cold, calculated, sense-of-duty type relationship that satisfies no one. God is held at arm’s length and often viewed as a crabby old man who loves to spoil our living.

Under grace, I sin more than I want because I don’t want to sin! The grace of God is strong. It has the power to change us all like nothing else ever could.

Conclusion

H.A. Ironside shares the following story about the meaning of living under grace. I'll share it, then close the message.

Some years ago, I had a little school for young Indian men and women, who came to my home in Oakland, California, from the various tribes in northern Arizona. One of these was a Navajo Young man of unusually keen intelligence. One Sunday evening, he went with me to our young people’s meeting. They were talking about the epistle to the Galatians, and the special subject was law and grace. They were not very clear about it, and finally one turned to the Indian and said, "I wonder whether our Indian friend has anything to say about this."

He rose to his feet and said, "Well, my friends, I have been listening very carefully, because I am here to learn all I can in order to take it back to my people. I do not understand all that you are talking about, and I do not think you do yourselves. But concerning this law and grace business, let me see if I can make it clear. I think it is like this. When Mr. Ironside brought me from my home we took the longest railroad journey I ever took. We got out at Barstow, and there I saw the most beautiful railroad station and hotel I have ever seen. I walked all around and saw at one end a sign, ‘Do not spit here.’ I looked at that sign and then looked down at the ground and saw many had spat there, and before I thought about what I was doing, I had spat there myself. Isn’t that strange when the sign said, ‘Do not spit here’?

"I came to Oakland and went to the home of the lady who invited me to dinner today. Her home was the nicest I have ever seen. Such beautiful furniture and carpets, I hated to step on them. I sank into a comfortable chair, and the lady said, ‘Now, John, you sit there while I go out and see whether the maid has dinner ready.’ I looked around at the beautiful pictures, at the grand piano, and I walked all around those rooms. I was looking for a sign; and the sign I was looking for was, ‘Do not spit here,’ but I looked around those two beautiful drawing rooms, and could not find a sign like that. I thought, ‘What a pity when this is such a beautiful home to have people spitting all over it—too bad they don’t put up a sign!’ So I looked all over that carpet, but could not find that anybody have spat there. What a strange thing! Where the sign says, ‘Do not spit,’ a lot of people spat. Where there was no sign at all, in that beautiful home, nobody spat. Now I understand! That sign is law, but inside the home it is grace. They love their beautiful home, and they want to keep it clean. They do not need a sign to tell them so. I think that explains the law and grace business."

Indeed it does.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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