RESTORED Week 15 - Living By Grace Pt1

Watch the Video for Week 15: “Living by Grace (Pt.1)”

Scriptures Mentioned Today

• Romans 6:1...15-16
• Romans 5:8-21
• Hebrews 4:16

Your Notes from the Teaching

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me...(Captain John Newton)

The most celebrated hymn of the English speaking world, without doubt, is Amazing Grace. The story behind the hymn is as amazing as the grace this former slave trader experienced, ad God gave him opportunity upon opportunity to respond to His love and Good News.

John grew up a son of a shipping merchant and as an able seaman, had ample opportunity to thrive and prosper on the seas. His rebellious mocking ways, however, got him into a great deal of trouble, so much so that he was eventually pressed into service in the English Navy. He soon deserted the navy, was caught, and forced to serve on a slave trading ship, where he used his poetic talent to create songs crudely mocking the captain for the crew’s amusement. His foul language was excessive even among sailors, and he was known to be excessively brutal in his treatment of slaves on board his ships.

He so offended his mates that they left him behind in Sierra Leone as a slave himself, but even this was not yet his rock bottom. After his father showed mercy and paid for his release, he again sailed on another slave ship, where he had a moment of truth following a brush with death. After witnessing a wave in a storm sweep a fellow crewman overboard just moments after he himself had been standing in that exact spot, Newton promised God that if he survived the storm he would serve him forever.

Alas, though he did survive, he continued come in and out of faith for several years, pushing God away over and again. He did clean up his act enough to get married, become the captain of a slave ship of his own, and continue in the slave trade for several more years. God worked in his heart during that time, and he became a curate in the Methodist church. During that time of soul searching, he repented of all he had done in the slave trade, and in his overwhelming sorrow of heart gave us a treasure of a hymn that has inspired untold millions for the last 250 years!

Then...in a glorious feat of divine timing and providence, Newton became a spiritual mentor to William Wilberforce, who led the charge to abolish slavery in England — the first nation in history to do so! All because a man let the grace of God “save a wretch like him” — and all of us.

Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? (Romans 6:1)

We (like Paul) have chosen to err on the side of showing too much grace (if there is such a thing) rather than err on the side of judgmental legalism. And this is on purpose. Many a well- meaning saint has gone off the rails after failed attempts at living holy, judged and condemned by the devil and his own heart at every turn. Legalism is the devil’s playground, and is where he often succeeds in making us quit our walk — shamed into submission to the same darkness from which we were delivered.

The danger in emphasizing grace and mercy, of course, is that it can almost sound like God no longer has any concern over our sin. As if there were divine standards and a divine order to life that has now become old fashioned, buried with the Old Covenant. This is what we refer to as “greasy grace.” A cheap substitute for true grace that gives permission to sin rather than grace to overcome it. God is merciful, and God is also just. How can we find and live within that balance?

Thankfully, we find it within Jesus’ life and teaching on many occasions. Consider the infamous woman caught in adultery (found in John 8:1-11). A vengeful mob of legalists are ready to give this woman the punishment due her sin under the Law of Moses and are hoping to catch Jesus in a greasy grace trap. If He says, aww, just let her go — they have exposed him as dishonoring of God’s holy law. If he says, go ahead , you know what the law says to do — well, there goes his message of mercy.

With classic wisdom, he disperses the mob with a firm reminder — the one who is without sin cast the first stone…and since none could honestly do so, they left their stoned on the ground as they walked away. Now came this woman’s reckoning with the only righteous judge. Having set her free from the looming judgment, now He will set her straight: “Go and sin no more.”

And with those words Jesus answers Paul’s question, and brings balance to the real meaning of grace. The purpose of grace is not what the bible calls “licentiousness,” (a license to sin). No, it is something far greater — it is to elevate our behavior to the standard of what now lives inside us — the way, truth and very life of Christ. Now take that grace, and use it to empower your repentance today!

if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:10)

We empower whatever we put our faith in. I put my faith in the cab driver to get me to the airport in time, and empower him by sitting in his cab. I have faith in my employee to do his part on the job, and thus empower him to help me be successful in doing my job.

It works the same in spiritual faith. If I put my faith in the grace of God to work in and through me, I will empower it to transform me. But if I have more faith in my ability to mess things up than I have in His ability to transform me, I have actually empowered my sin to control me. I will actually sin by faith!

Of all the things in Christ that sound too good to be true, this may top the list: The life of Christ growing within us is MUCH MORE powerful to change us than the sin that lives in us is o ruin our walk with God.

It can sure feel otherwise, though, can’t it? Especially when we have an enemy whispering in our ears: You’re such a disappointment. God loved you and gave you grace when you were helpless in your sin, but now that you’re his son, you have no excuse. Now that you know better, you’re just another hypocrite…

As always when the enemy speaks, Nothing could be further from the truth! Soak in that verse above for a moment — now that you’re his son/ daughter, He is much more eager to bring you back to peace with Him (or, reconciled).

So, which will you empower today? Your failures and shortfalls as you strive against sin? Or the grace of God working within you to change you from the inside out? You know now which one has more power. Will you place your faith in it?