Jesus and Salvation Series (Part 16C)

Welcome to the Summer 2006 study for the Koinonia Class of Calvary Baptist Church, Denver, Colorado. We’re looking at the issue of Jesus and Salvation, using the book “Is Jesus The Only Savior” [James R. Edwards, Is Jesus The Only Savior? (Grand Rapids/Cambridge: 2005)]. We encourage each person to buy a copy and follow along.

The Results of Amazing Grace

“The costly counterpart to sin is divine grace.” So begins the section entitled "Three Effects of God's Grace in Christ" in chapter eight of Edwards’ book. It reminds us of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous book, “The Cost of Discipleship” in which he coined the phrase “cheap grace”, as in these two quotes:

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian "conception" of God.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. "All for sin could not atone." Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin. (See here for references.)

A gift that has no cost behind it has no heart in it. Lovers know this intuitively. That’s why people in love sacrifice their own desires to give something to the one they love. O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi” captures that truth with a poignant twist.

To speak of God’s grace without the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, and without asking us to give up our sinful ways, is to treat the sacrificial gift from God as if it were nothing. God’s gift was costly. And to give it the respect it is due will also cost us something—our freedom to do whatever we want with our lives.

“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” And again, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (I Cor. 5:15 & 21) We are saved by the gift of God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Then we can do the good works God has for us to do in His power. “ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:8-10)

Edwards identifies three things that God’s grace through Christ does for us: (1) it gives us a standing where we are justified before God; (2) it enables us to experience God with the new life He gives us and continues to mature in us; and (3) it creates a new destiny of eternal life with God (see Rom. 6:23).

This gift of eternal life is not just a future existence “in heaven”. It starts the moment we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior. It continues throughout life on earth as we obey Him as our Lord and then beyond the grave as we rise with Him with not only new life but a new kind of body (see I Cor. 15:51-54). As Edwards says on page 160, “…Jesus’ resurrection experience is the destiny of all believers. The life Jesus now lives is the life that believers, by his grace, will live—free from death, living eternally with God.”

The chapter is neatly summed up in two sentences on page 162. “We have talked at length about sin in this chapter, because our culture is in denial about sin, despite the fact that sin, as G.K. Chesterton noted, is the only empirically provable doctrine of the Christian faith. The gospel insists on the severity of sin not to produce gloom and dread, but to establish the certainty of joy.”

Sin is serious business, and the wages it pays are serious. “Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (Rom. 6:23 The Message). That’s why the gift of God’s grace was costly. Serious business demands a serious investment. Thanks be to God for providing what we need to obtain new life through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.