The Gospel of Grace and Faith

Once again, we’re going to be looking at two words in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. These two words will not be technical words like the two words that we looked at in last week’s sermon - propitiation and justification. Today’s words are much more familiar. They are grace and faith. Most of what I will say about these words today will not be new to most of you. You know about these words. So, why am I preaching on them? There are a couple of reasons. Here’s one. I would like you to grow in your sense of wonder at what these two words are about. The Gospel is simply amazing. And the more we feel that amazement the better. I’m hoping that what I say this morning will help you do that. Here’s a second reason. There is more of God’s grace for you to enjoy, lots more. And I really want you to enjoy as much of His grace as possible. So much changes as that happens. A first step in growing in your enjoyment of His grace is growing in your understanding of His grace.

So, let me tell you what I’m going to do. I will comment on these two words separately, offering basic definitions and pointing out potential errors to avoid. Then, I’ll talk about how they relate to each other and what difference it makes.

Listen to what Paul wrote.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. Romans 3.21-25

Let’s start with the word ‘grace’. In the past I’ve told you that the Greek word usually translated ‘grace’ is also translated ‘favor’. So, the idea behind the word ‘grace’ is not complicated. It’s an attitude in God. It’s His being favorable toward you. That’s grace. That’s its basic definition.

Theologians have talked about two ways in which God is favorable, two ways in which He is gracious. They have labeled the first ‘common grace’. This is about how God is favorable to all sorts of people. Here’s one example of that. Jesus is speaking.

​But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ​so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5.44-45

God grants the blessings of rain and sun to the good and the evil, just and unjust. This is one example of how He acts favorably even to those who are not His children, to those who remain rebels against Him. So, consider a family where there are two parents who love each other, the kids are being taught how to respect others, there is a clear structure to family life and other good qualities of being a whole and healthy family. Experiencing these benefits is not automatic. There are many who do not live in such good families. The only reason that there are any who do is that God has been favorable to them. That’s His common grace.

Then, there is the other category of God’s grace. This one has been labeled ‘special grace’. And that’s what Paul is referring to in the part of his letter that I read to you. This is about God’s redemption of His people. It is because of this special grace, this different kind of being favorable, that we here have been rescued from our sin. That’s His special grace.

Now, let’s deal with a potential misunderstanding about common grace. Is God obligated to act in a favorable way to His creatures? Is He obligated to bless by making the sun shine and the rain fall? Absolutely not. There have been times when God has withheld this kind of grace. So, think of those rainless years in the days of Elijah and the famine that followed. Or what about the curse of an overabundance of rain that we call Noah’s flood. Or consider that in hell there will be no whole and healthy families with their helpful structure and mutual respect and all the rest. There is an alternative to God’s common grace. It’s called wrath.

Now, what is true of God’s common grace is also true of His special grace. It is by no means something that God is obligated to do. This explains why Paul writes,

 [We] are justified by his grace as a gift.

Christians often think about this idea of God’s grace as a gift in terms of our not paying for it. It’s a gift. And that is certainly true. But there is another aspect to this favor of God being a gift. He didn’t need to offer it to us at all. He was not obligated to act favorably. It could have been that God would justify no one, that He would not even offer it as a possibility. That could have happened, and there would be no injustice in God. He is not obligated to be gracious.

I remember one of my pastors saying that he gave thanks to God for his salvation every day. Now, there is someone who understood that God’s favor to him was not due to some obligation. It was a gift that He did not need to grant. That may be an example worth imitating.

So, grace is God being favorable to people, and not because He has to. It’s a gift that He decided to offer. That’s true of His common grace, and it’s true of His special grace.

Now, let’s consider that other word, faith. The noun ‘faith’ - along its related verb ‘believe’ - have suffered at the hands of modern people. These words have been twisted to mean what they were never intended to mean. So, what do they mean?

The main idea of faith is not complicated. Faith is saying, ‘I trust you’. And that can be said in lots of different kinds of situations, in families or in friendships or other relationships. However, for this to be a wise act instead of a foolish mistake, there needs to be a reason for this trust. It is a fool who trusts someone who is not trustworthy.

God has given us reasons to trust Him. That’s one big purpose of the Bible. Having people write the Bible is God’s way of giving us plenty of good reasons to trust Him. Some of those good reasons are the many different promises that He has made, recorded in the Bible. Other good reasons come from watching how He has acted in history, doing things like keeping those promises, also recorded in the Bible. God has given people plenty of reasons to trust Him, whether we are talking about someone’s first step of trust when he becomes a Christian or the many times after that first step when he finds himself in need. Faith is saying to God, ‘I trust You to care for me because of what I know about You. You are the God who has made promises to me and who always keeps His promises. It’s all in the Bible.’ That’s faith.

So, there are our two words: grace and faith; God being favorable and our trusting Him. Now, let’s put them together and see what we get.

Listen again to what Paul wrote. I’ve omitted some words to make my point clear.

[We] are justified by his grace as a gift … [which is] received by faith.  Romans 3.24-25

Paul, here, is writing about God’s gracious act of justifying us. As he makes clear, it is something that is received by faith. God’s special grace is received by faith. His favor is received by trusting Him.

Now, that’s just basic Gospel truth about becoming a Christian. Not news to you. However, what I want you to see is that this connection between grace and faith, favor and trust, is not limited to the blessing of justification. Christians can enjoy God’s favor in every aspect of their lives. God is more than willing to bless us with more and more of His favor. However, in order to enjoy God’s favor in some situation there has to be trust. Where there is no trust expressed, there will be no favor enjoyed. And the trust that is required is not just some generic attitude of trust. What is required is trusting Him in the situation and in terms of what He has said He would do in that kind of situation. We enjoy God’s favor by trusting His promises. That’s true of the blessing of justification and of every other blessing God grants.

Let’s explore this a bit. Think back to the Garden of Eden. There is Eve having her conversation with the serpent. And what’s he telling her? ‘Go ahead and eat. It will be so good. You will be like God.’ But what had God said? ‘If you obey me, you have no idea how good life will be. If you don’t, you have no idea how bad it will be.’ So, what’s the question that Eve is pondering? It’s this. ‘Whom will I trust? The serpent or God.’ Do you know her answer? ‘I will trust myself.’ She evaluated the conflicting claims and made her decision, a very foolish decision. Re-read Genesis 3. You’ll see her doing this.

It would be one thing if what happened in the Garden was unique. But it’s not. All too often, we do the same thing and also suffer the consequences of our foolish decisions.

Here’s Bill. He’s a Christian, and he is facing a problem. But this is a bigger‑than‑usual problem. In fact, it’s because of this bigger‑than‑usual problem that Bill is becoming a little anxious. To be more honest, he is afraid. Now, why is he afraid? He’s afraid because, unlike most of life which he handles pretty well, this situation is a bit beyond him. He can’t handle it. He doesn’t know what will happen. It might be really bad, and there’s nothing that he can do about that. And that scares him.

Let me translate what I just said. Here’s Bill who usually trusts himself with life’s problems. And that has seemed to have worked out well. But now he knows that he can’t trust himself. This is too big of a problem. It is beyond his ability to control. And that’s what has him scared.

And we do the same thing. We trust ourselves. And while it looks like that works pretty well most of the time, the error of living in this way is revealed in those more difficult situations.

What we need to tell ourselves, in every situation, goes something like this. ‘God will deal with me and my situation favorably if I trust Him to do that. He has given promises that speak to the situation I’m facing. If I trust Him now He will take care of me. He will bless me with His favor.’ It is as we trust the God of the Bible that we will experience the favor of the God of the Bible, and we will experience that favor in ways that He has described in the Bible. Grace is received by faith.

Trusting ourselves is one obstacle to enjoying more of God’s favor. Here’s another. It has to do with understanding the nature of faith. Let’s take the same scenario with Bill, except this time he decides to trust his God. But he is having a hard time doing that. The anxiety, the fear, is still there. So, what does he do? He tells himself, ‘Come on. You need to trust God in this situation, and you’re not doing that very well. So, you’ve got to try harder. Come on! You can do this!’ What has he done? He has made faith into a work. It is something that he needs to make happen. But what if he is unable to produce enough of this faith?

But faith is no work. Consider George. He is a Christian, and he is standing before God on the Last Day. God asks him, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’ What should George say? Bear in mind that heaven and hell hang in the balance. What should he say? What if he tells God, ‘I believed in Jesus. That’s why You should let me in.’ What is he saying? He’s saying, ‘Look at what I did! I did the right thing. I believed! So, I should be allowed in.’ If George says that he is basing his hope on his works, what he did. And if that’s George’s plan during his lifetime, then his faith will become a burden. He will need to make sure that at every moment his faith is good enough. And that burden will crush him.

Here’s a better alternative for George. He hears God’s questions, and he says … nothing. All he does is look over at Jesus who’s standing next to the Father. George knows that Jesus has made promises to him about this day, promises that boil down to this. ‘George, I will rescue you from the wrath of God. I will get you into heaven.’ And George believed Jesus’ promises. So, George says nothing and simply waits for Jesus to keep His promise. And that is exactly what Jesus does by saying, ‘Father, I paid for George’s sin.’ That’s faith. It’s trusting Jesus to keep His promises.

Grace is received by faith. Favor is enjoyed by trust. That’s true of the first day a person becomes a Christian, the Last Day when he stands before God and every day in between. And when faith is weak, don’t give yourself a pep talk. Simply admit that to God and appeal for His help. Or to quote what that famous father said to Jesus, ‘I believe; help my unbelief’. And if you remember, even with that weak faith his son was healed.

Let me pull this together. Your God is very favorable to you, His people. He is a God who is full of grace for you to enjoy. And He wants you to enjoy more of it. But you will not enjoy His favor unless you receive it by faith. You need to trust Him. In the different situations of your life, you need to trust Him. It is in learning how to do that better and better - something that is itself a gift of grace - that you will discover more and more of the riches of His grace.