This week we’re exploring how following Jesus impacts our lifestyle by one principle: grace.  Grace is one of the most important, life-changing aspects of Christian story.  Here’s how the Bible talks about grace:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

(Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV)

Here is an easy way to remember the meaning:

God’s
Riches
At
Christ’s
Expense

A friend had a young child at home, and a baby on the way and his mother loved to help out by cleaning up the house.  One particularly stressful time she was coming down to decompress the situation by cleaning up the house.  My friend came home that day to find his wife madly cleaning up the house, before the mother in law arrived.  She didn’t want her mother-in-law to see a messy house, even though she was there to clean it as a gift.

We so often we think that we have to have cleaned up our lives before we can accept what God wants to give us.   We don’t have to have sorted ourselves out before we can accept God’s free gift of forgiveness, his grace.

When you ask someone why they don’t like Christianity…you’ll often hear “it’s just a bunch of rules.”  I don’t need a book to tell me how to be a good person.  If that was true, I wouldn’t want to be part of this religion either.

But it’s not true…that’s the religion that Jesus came to get rid of, and not his hope for us.  Here’s the version of Christianity that people are usually describing:

  1. Obey God’s laws
  2. God will accept you
  3. He’ll provide you with loving care
  4. He’ll give you a new status, as a servant of God.

 

This is a law religion, the kind of thing the Pharisees liked to promote.  Jesus didn’t have very nice things to say about that!

The problem is – no one has ever obeyed God’s laws perfectly enough to earn God’s love.  Actually, there was one person – Jesus.  He knew our hopeless situation, and did something about it.  Jesus was all about grace.  This involves the same steps, but in a different order:

  1. God loves and accepts you…unconditionally
  2. God will provide you with loving care.  He wants to be part of your life today, not some day in the future.
  3. God will give you a new status: Child of God adopted into his family
  4. You now return God’s favour with thanksgiving and living in his way.

In grace…we are given God’s love, care and fatherhood as free gifts, even before having proven ourselves worthy, and that gives us a lot to live up to!

Question: Where have you typically seen laws and rules in your faith?  As the way to earn God’s love, or respond to it?  Why?

Reminder:  Last week we talked about worship, and asked you to complete our online survey about worship here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8TS7K93

Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - April 3, 2014

Thursday - Act On It - Reset Death

Reset

Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in nature. And that's because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of death, and in fact, Jesus resets death itself. I have led a number of funeral services, and sometimes hear some troubling things. One of my first was a difficult funeral for a young child. As we planned the funeral, I remember the child’s grandmother trying to comfort her daughter. She said God must have needed another angel in heaven. I remember wondering whether to say anything or not. I could let it slide as a harmless attempt to make someone feel better – but what happens when she learns that humans never become angels? What happens when she gets angry with God for stealing her child for his “personal collection”? I decided the gospel was even better news to share than this sentimental idea about children becoming angels, and told her about the gospel or good news of Jesus instead. Ultimately that is news that will last and will transform her life, not just nice ideas that don’t hold water. Remember this passage we explored on Tuesday? 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 1 Thess 4:13-14 Paul said all this stuff to the Thessalonians to encourage appropriate Christian grief, not the wild wailing of pagan funerals. He wants to give them confidence, and assurance that death is not something to fear. The number one reason: they have hope. One person who follows Redeem the Commute is preparing for the death of a family member. She said to me that her family members are upset, then looked at me and said, “We see it differently, right?” She struggled for words about heaven, resurrection, how it’s not the end yet, all the while still trying to figure out if she was allowed to be sad. And I simply said, “It’s okay to still be sad. We’re not sad about the death, but about the lost life.” Followers of Jesus should communicate that hope as they deal with death – it’s sad to lose time with a friend or loved one now, but the death itself isn’t the sad part. Everything communicates. Christian tradition was long to be buried intact, and in many cases facing eastward (at least in Canada) to be facing Jerusalem. The ideas was to communicate you were ready for the second coming. Was this a law, that you must be buried this way or God can’t raise you? No way. It was simply a way to communicate hope in God. There are many ways to communicate this hope when you die – from the songs people sing, to scriptures read, to how they distribute their estate. Challenge: Write out some funeral plans. What do you want to be communicated about you? About Jesus? About God?

Related Topics: Death, Funerals, Reset, Resurrection | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Reset"

When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again? The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate. What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives: Reset: Goals Reset: Time Reset: Money Reset: Work Reset: Body & Food Reset: Sex & Marriage Reset: Family Reset: Compassion Reset: Nature Reset: Society Reset: Death Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.

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