May God bless you this week and continue to show you the extremities of His grace—and its true effects on your standing before God.  Last week I began to deal with the subject of the “extremities of the grace of God.”  This week I want to continue commenting on this topic by addressing what exactly happened to us the moment that we received the grace of God when God revealed Himself through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  What       happened in that moment is so important in helping us grasp what our relationship is to God and what God is seeking to do in our lives after we receive His grace.

     One of the clearest passages that describe for us what happened when we received God’s grace is found in Romans chapter 3.  It reads, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”  (Rom. 3:21-24 —NASB)  Here is what this passage is telling us.  Note the section of this verse I’ve highlighted.  This section speaks of us being “JUSTIFIED” as a gift by His grace . . .” 

     It is vitally important that we understand what this word “justified” actually means.  The reason for this is that some of the current preaching of today does not accurately define this word.  The word “justified” is the Greek word “dikaioo” and it means, “to declare righteous.”  This means when God did a “justifying” work at the point where He saved us.  So what does that mean?  It means that God, as an act of pure grace, declared us righteous in His sight. 

     According to 2 Corinthians 5:21 the “amount” of righteousness we receive is equal to the total righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself.  This passage says that He made Him who knew no sin (only Jesus fits that bill) was made sin on our behalf—so that we might become the righteousness of Christ in Him.  This is astounding—because what it says is that God in a single historical act (at the moment of us receiving His grace) gave to us the very righteousness of Christ—so that in His sight we are just as righteous as Jesus Himself. 

     Some might argue that this verse says that we might “become” as righteous as Jesus—meaning this is a process (requiring growth and continued obedience).  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The word “become” here (ginoami) is a punctiliar aorist Greek verb.  This speaks of a single act in the past.  Thus we see here that Scripture tells us that in a single moment—the very moment of our salvation—we were declared just as righteous as Jesus by a gift of God’s grace.  Truly this is an astounding thing—the extreme of God revealed to us is that by grace—we stand in God’s sight—just as righteous as Jesus Christ Himself.  None of this is due to our performance—but is a gift given to us by God Himself—pure, unadulterated, undeserved grace poured out on the most unworthy of creatures by its Creator, Who alone paid the full price for sin by the death of His Son on the cross.  This, dear ones of God, is given to us at our salvation—in a moment when we repent and put our faith in what Jesus accomplished by His death, burial, and resurrection.  Marvel saints . . . marvel at the extremities of God’s grace—and the glorious results in your standing before a Holy God!

     Ours is a world of compromise.  That is because ours is a world in which no human being (outside of the God-man Jesus Christ) can claim absolute authority, absolute knowledge, or to be honest—any kind of absolute anything.  Thus we have to compromise with one another on things—trying to not take an extreme position—but finding “middle ground” upon which to work.  The interesting thing though is that with God and the issues of salvation and grace—there is no middle ground—only extremes.  Let me explain this statement further this week.

     Charles Simeon, a preacher from the 1800’s wrote the following.  “The truth is not in the middle and not in one extreme, but in both extremes.”  In making this comment he was referring to Romans 11:22.  This verse says, “Behold then, the kindness and the severity of God. . . .” 

     When it comes to the matters of salvation—sin and its consequences—grace and the manifestation of God’s grace—God’s response is extreme wrath and extreme kindness.  His response to our sin is not something somewhere between wrath and kindness.  His response to sin is wrath.  The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.  That is not a compromised position—it is an extreme one.  This is not to say God is acting wrongly—for He is not—truly we deserve the fullness of His wrath.  But when God grants to us salvation through Jesus Christ—again there is not a managed compromise—He offers complete forgiveness and grants to us the very righteousness of His Son.  When He had to remedy sin, He did not make any compromise.  He had to have His Son bear the full punishment for sin—and had to pour out the full measure of His wrath. 

     Grace is not about compromise—it is about the extremes of what HAD to happen for God’s wrath to be satisfied—and for us to be made righteous.  It is about understanding the very nature of salvation itself.  We infinitely cheapen grace when we do not note and grasp these extremes.  We try to make God infinitely less than Who He truly is when we try to take the “edges” off of the gospel.  The gospel, dear saints, is an extreme thing.  It was an extreme act by an infinite God to redeem absolutely ruined mankind from an infinite fall into ultimate rebellion.  It is love without bounds reaching down wickedness without measure and choosing to absolutely redeem it by paying a price beyond our imagination.  Oh saints of God, do not cheapen grace by compromising the extremes of this magnificent act of God that brings us the glory of our salvation!

     It does not take long living in this world to realize the need for forgiveness.  God has placed within each of us a conscience that accuses us of having done something wrong.  For the vast majority of us that moment took place when we were very young.  A choice was made—and action was initiated—which then led to us having the sense in our minds that something was wrong.  An awareness of guilt arose in our minds and hearts that gave us a sinking feeling in the pit of our stomachs.  After this moment we were never the same.  There was a very real sense in which that moment convinced us that at some point we needed to be forgiven.  But that raised additional questions for us—questions that demanded answers.

     Our first question is this—Who has said that we did something wrong?  If forgiveness is needed—just who needs to forgive us?  Who is it that has such a sovereign reach over all mankind?  Who is this who has established in every heart a sense that a wrong has been committed?  Philosophers have tried for centuries to remove this sense of guilt from mankind with philosophies making man responsible to no one greater than himself—but to no avail.  Conscience continues to be a universal phenomenon—bringing all under a sense of guilt as well as a need to be forgiven. 

     Our next question dove tails with the first.  If there is a wrong that has been done, how can we be forgiven that wrong?  What is it that needs to happen in order for us to be forgiven?  Much of this depends on the answer that we give to the first question.  For most of history mankind has answered the first question by stating that there is a god and that this god is the one who has been offended by our actions.  Once man conceives of divine displeasure his actions are fairly predictable.  There must be some kind of payment—a way of appeasing the god or gods who are offended.  In history the religious nature of man has attempted a myriad of cures to this divine offence, but one thing is certain—man senses the need of obtaining forgiveness in some way—through some kind of payment.  Unfortunately for man—he has to rely for the most part on the religious gurus to tell him what to do—and if we were to be honest—they really are not in any better position to answer that he is.  If only we could know the mind and heart of God—through some kind of revelation given to us by Him.  Then we would know how to get forgiveness.

     That is where the Bible comes into our picture.  The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us.  It is the sure guide to the definitive answers on forgiveness.  It gives us answers to the questions that we have.  It answers the question concerning Whom we have sinned against.  Our consciences bother us because we've disobeyed God and His Law.  It also shows us the way sin has been paid for—as well as how God offers to us that forgiveness.  We learn from Scripture that God Himself has paid that price.  And the most amazing thing we learn is that after paying the price for sin through the crucifixion of Jesus, He now offers to us forgiveness for every single one of our sins as a gift of His grace.  It seems too good to be true—that forgiveness requires no payment on our part—because God Himself has paid the penalty for sin Himself through Jesus Christ.  But that, dear saints, is His grace.  It is God acting on the issue of sin and a compromised conscience—and solving them through the death, burial, and resurrection of His own Son, Jesus Christ.

May God truly establish you this day—this week—this year—the rest of your life on His grace and only His grace.

     Understanding and knowing God’s grace will change everything in your life.  It is this one truth that is more misunderstood yet is more needed than just about anything else in our lives.  God’s grace centers around the issue of our sin, our acceptability to God, and how we get there.  For the next couple of articles I want to begin to camp out on the grace of God.  Truly if we can “get” this doctrine—this truth active in our lives—it will indeed change everything for us.

     Let me begin with what we will have to grasp in order to understand God’s grace—and that is our         sinfulness and inability to stand before God in anything but His grace.  This may seem like a strange place to begin our journey together, yet it is often because of misunderstandings here that we wind up with             misunderstandings about the grace of God later.  A wrong view of our sinfulness will lead to a wrong view of God’s grace as well.  Our sinfulness before a holy God is absolute.  There is no other way out of our sin than the grace of God.  We do not have any alternative if we want to be in a right relationship with God and out from under His wrath that will be poured out upon sin as punishment for it.  Either it is His grace—freely given through the Lord   Jesus Christ and what He did to pay for sin on the cross . . . or . . . It is the horrifying specter of one day     facing that wrath on the day of judgment.  There is not a time in our lives, nor will there ever be one,  when our relationship with God is not entirely dependent upon His grace.  It is grace for our rescue from sin’s penalty, grace for our daily rescue from sin’s power, and grace from our ultimate rescue from the wrath of God on the day when all men will give an account to God for their lives.

     Too many view sinfulness and the ruin that comes with it as something other than our absolute inability to be in a right relationship with God.  They see it as a problem—but it is one “they” can work on in their own strength.  Christians see sin as a problem solved by getting saved—but then it is up to them to “keep-up”    salvation by their own obedient actions.  The truth from the Word though is that we do not need better       behavior, we need perfect righteousness at all times to stand before God.  Even if we got this initially at our salvation—we could never maintain it.  We would surely blow it—and that in short order.  The fact is that we daily depend (actually we depend on God’s grace every millisecond of every day) on God’s grace.  It is His gift of “declaring us righteous” as an act of His grace that EVER allows us to stand.  And it is that glorious grace that allows us to walk daily (millisecond-ly if you will) in God’s peace—knowing His acceptance of us based solely and completely out of the wonderful grace that is ours in Jesus Christ.