Scandalous Grace, Message Three: Understanding God's Free Gift of Righteousness

Scandalous Grace, Part 3: Understanding the Free Gift of God’s Righteousness June 20, 2010

Church in the Boro 1 | P a g e

Scandalous Grace, Part 3 Understanding the Free Gift of God’s Righteousness

Romans 5:12-19 and Selected Texts

Sunday Morning June 20, 2010 Church in the Boro Rob Wilkerson

Introduction I’m pretty horrendous at golf. I often joke around that when I play I have to rent a Park Ranger to come with me because I’m in the woods most of the time. The next to the last time I played, I lost thirteen balls in one game, some to the water hazards, but most to the woods. That’s why when I play golf I love playing what is known as “best ball.” Here’s how it works. All four people on the team take their shots, but the ball that fell closest to the hole is the only one that counts. Everyone else goes and gets their balls and drops it where the best ball landed. So everyone else gets to shoot from the best position of the best player on that hole. Naturally I always put my ball where the other guy hit his. I think we might have used my ball in one out of eighteen holes. I affectionately call this “imputation” golf. “Imputation” is a theological word that means, “to ascribe or attribute something to someone else.” Surfing Dictionary.Com you’ll find the following listed there for this word.

Bible Dictionary

Imputation definition

is used to designate any action or word or thing as reckoned to a person. Thus in doctrinal language (1) the sin of Adam is imputed to all his descendants, i.e., it is reckoned as theirs, and they are dealt with therefore as guilty; (2) the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them that believe in him, or so attributed to them as to be considered their own; and (3) our sins are imputed to Christ, i.e., he assumed our "law-place," undertook to answer the demands of justice for our sins. In all these cases the nature of imputation is the same (Rom. 5:12-19; comp. Philemon 1:18, 19).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/imputation



The doctrine of imputation simply means that when Adam sinned, the penalty for his sin got imputed to me. Likewise, when Christ obeyed God and died to pay the penalty for sin, those actions got imputed to me also. So the imputation of Christ’s obedience and death had the effect of reversing the imputation of Adam’s sin to me. Let’s turn to Romans 5 for an overview of how this works, and then I’ll follow up with some applications on what this means for you and what it looks like to live it out. This is crucial to understanding God’s grace.

Overview of What it Means to be “In Adam” and “In Christ” (Romans 5:12-19) Being In Adam = condemnation

o He led all humanity into sin o All humanity are born with hearts of stone and disobedience o All humanity are born under God’s wrath and judgment

Being In Christ = justification o He led humanity into salvation o All humanity born again are born again with hearts of flesh and obedience o All humanity born again are under God’s favor and salvation.

In Adam and In Christ are about “position.” This is what is really true of me when it all comes down to it. You are who you really are based upon what God has said about you, and not about what you have done or have not done. The scandal of the gospel is seen in this, that you, being an ungodly person, one of His enemies, and completely helpless, was allowed to go free and never again be judged for your sins. How scandalous would it be today if a judge were to allow a criminal who was guilty of multiple rapes, murders, and child molestations walk out of the courtroom completely scot-free? It would be outrageous! So what do you think it would be then if the judge expunged that criminal’s record and he was as free on paper as he was in the verdict? That would be absolutely scandalous! The people of the community if not the entire country would be hating this judge and seeking to do everything they could to have him removed. But the good news of the gospel is that you are that criminal, and God is that judge. And how is it that a just God could have let you go free? That’s part of the good news, too.

There was a swap that took place. And it was all worked out before you ever stepped foot in the courtroom. On one side of the courtroom, you and every single other human being who has ever lived or ever will live is standing behind the table labeled, “Defendant.” And you are all are seen by the judge as having been guilty of disobeying every single thing God has ever commanded. James 2:10 teaches, “For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws” (NLT). Romans 6:23 teaches that the payback for sin is eternal death. And that’s what you face as a criminal before God….eternal death. And all of this is true of you because of something someone else did that you could not help. You see, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought



death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned” (Rom. 5:12, NLT). So even though you weren’t even there in the Garden of Eden, you inherit both a sinful nature and the death penalty for it from Adam. On the other side of the courtroom, behind the table labeled “Plaintiff,” there is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who completely and entirely and perfectly obeyed every single thing God ever commanded in the Old Testament. Jesus is the only one in this courtroom of whom it was written: “Until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved” (Matt. 5:17, NLT). Jesus is the only one of whom this is true: “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:17, NLT). And a person like this deserves nothing but the highest honor and title and position in the universe. Yet here was the scandalous swap that was made before you ever entered the courtroom. The judge stands up and orders you and Jesus to swap places. The judged ordered Jesus to the Defendant table, and he ordered you to the Plaintiff table. The judge then stood up, pointed to the Defendant table, and declared his sentence, “I find the defendant…guilty as charged, and I find the Plaintiff innocent of all charges.”

Outrageous! Then the judge does one better. He continues standing and passes sentence. He says that the Defendant will receive the death penalty, and that the Plaintiff maintains his current status in life. But the difference, of course, is that you are now standing behind the Plaintiff table and you get to live the life Jesus Christ would have resumed after the whole deal was over. And Jesus Christ is left to receive the death sentence penalty that you would have received after the whole ordeal was over.

Insane! Then the judge does one even better. He continues standing and passes the restitution part of the sentence. This is usually the part of the sentence where the judge tells the guy who’s guilty what he has to pay back to the guy who’s innocent. But since you’ve swapped places, the Defendant, now Jesus Christ…the real innocent one declared guilty because of the swap, has to pay restitution to YOU the guilty one, now declared innocent because of the swap. The judge says that everything the Defendant owned and possessed was to be given to the Plaintiff as restitution. Included in this declaration was the total and complete expunging of your record so that you are no longer looked upon or viewed by society as the guilty one. You’ll never be prevented from getting any job, serving in the military, or any other privilege normally denied those who’ve been charged as a criminal in a court of law.

Scandalous! Somehow, this whole ordeal has gotten turned on its head! It’s all been turned backwards! Jesus Christ gets what you deserve. And you get what Jesus Christ deserves.



An innocent man walks out of the courtroom a guilty man, and the guilty man walks out of the courtroom an innocent man. The innocent man gets the death penalty and the guilty man gets to live life as the son of a king! The innocent man gets handcuffed and is led out of the courtroom in a processional throng where he’s beaten, tortured, screamed at, mocked, punched, kicked, and his beard and hair pulled out by the handfuls. And the guilty man is led out of the courtroom as if he were royalty. Yet no matter how loudly or clearly the judge says it, reality tells us that this man will never be viewed as innocent. The innocent man gets nailed naked to a wooden crossbeam in public where he’s tortured and mocked even more. Meanwhile, the guilty man gets escorted away in complete protection and a throng of praise and honor. Yet no matter how loudly and clearly the judge declares this man guilty, reality tells us that this man will always be viewed as innocent.

In God’s courtroom of heaven, all of this really happened. If you follow Jesus, this whole thing has already happened for you. Except, this is where the earthly analogy breaks down. For on planet earth, the guilty man is really still guilty man who’s treated as royalty, and the innocent man is really the innocent one who gets the shaft. But in God’s world, the innocent man is mysteriously but genuinely made to be the guilty one. 2 Corinthians 5:21 teaches,

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (ESV).

Likewise, in God’s world, the guilty man is mysteriously but really and truly now an innocent man who IS in fact royalty. You are really and truly an innocent person now. Your record is expunged. The wealth and royalty of heaven is yours. And you are free to go. No matter what anyone says about you…no matter how anyone treats you. Here’s how he did it.

“The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared in end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us…” (Rom. 8:3-4, NLT).

In short, trying to obey God’s Law was never, ever going to be able to save you or rescue you from the fact that you were a guilty man. So God Himself did what you could not. He sent part of Himself, Jesus Christ, to live on this earth in a body like ours. And as a human being He perfectly obeyed all of God’s laws. That perfect record was swapped for your rap sheet. You got what Jesus deserved, and Jesus got what you deserved. This fulfilled the requirement of God’s law, which says that the soul who sins should die. When Jesus Christ did this, the control that sin has over a person is finished…completely. God’s laws were satisfied by Jesus Christ. You get what was coming to Him. He got what was coming to you. You’re forgiven for all of your sins, past, present and future. And you are actually declared, from this



day forth, as innocent and as royalty. This is God’s gracious gift to you…simply because He loves you. Paul put it like this.

“And the result of God’s gracious is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam’s sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:16-19, NLT).

So here’s the skinny now. Jesus Christ really was made to be sin when He was innocent. And YOU have really been made right with God when you were guilty. You really are right with God now, and nothing can ever change that…nothing will ever change that. It’s as true of you as anything else you can touch and smell and see and taste. It is a FACT. And it’s called justification. Would God have been a just judge if He had decided to punish you for your sin? Of course! So is God a just judge when He decided to punish Jesus for your sin? Of course! Because the payback for sin is death, and in God’s mind the focus is on the payback. God’s holiness has been offended by your sin. But as long as the sin is paid back and His holiness defended, in God’s world He’s completely happy dying in payback for you. In our world, if you owe a creditor say, $500,000, it matters little to the creditor whether you pay it or someone else pays it all back for you. As long as they get their money, they’re happy, right? Similarly, there is a payment for sin to be made to God. But unlike the illustration, it matters A LOT to God whether you pay it or whether HE pays it, because it cost Him the life of His own SON to pay for sin. Likewise, it should matter a LOT to YOU, because you’re being given freedom…and you’re paying absolutely nothing for it! And when that freedom is given to you, it really and truly belongs to you. God isn’t going to take it away from you, because HE is the One who GAVE it to you! Forgiveness is really yours! Yours for the taking…yours for enjoying…yours for living out. God will never, EVER again view you as a guilty person…because you are NOT a guilty person. Your sins were REALLY forgiven. It wasn’t a dream. This isn’t a game. God is NOT playing around here. He is as serious about this as He was when He gave His only Son to pay for your sin for you. He’s deadly serious. And my point in all this is simple. If God has gone to such extravagant and scandalous lengths of killing His own Son to satisfy His justice and giving you the inheritance he’s given His Son…if He’s gone through all of this to ensure that you are truly forgiven and free, then it seems that the biggest sin you can commit as a Christian is not living like this is true of you.



In other words, when you live as a Christian not knowing whether or not God is really pleased with you, whether or not you have God’s favor, and whether or not you are really right with God, we are essentially calling God a liar. He has made it plainly clear to us that HE Himself has made us right with Him, that He Himself has brought us into His favor, and that He Himself has made eternally sure that He is pleased with us. But there are two ways in which we live like God is a liar in this respect. The first is one I’ve already stated. We live our lives everyday wondering whether or not God is truly pleased with us, always in limbo about whether or not we are truly made right with God. The second is listening to, embracing, and swimming in guilt, discouragement, despair and depression over some sin we’ve committed. Being really forgiven means God has really forgiven us for this and doesn’t condemn us for it. Being really made right with God means God has really made us right and nothing we do can make us wrong with Him anymore. Let me give three examples God has given us in His Word that I think will help show you how you are to respond to accusations of guilt, when God has declared you NOT guilty.

Isaac and Jacob

o Jacob wore animal skin on his arm and doused himself with smells of the fields and woods so that he would feel and smell like his older brother Esau.

o He did this so that when it came time to give the final blessing and inheritance HE would get it instead of his brother.

o When Isaac did bless Jacob with the final blessing and inheritance, it made Esau furious because he knew it was something that could never be undone for the rest of their lives.

o Esau didn’t live the rest of his life as if his younger brother was a cheat. He lived the rest of his life knowing that his younger brother had in fact received the blessing and inheritance. That was the way it was and it could never be changed.

o Application 1: so when you go to the heavenly Father, are you going to Him in prayer feeling and smelling like yourself? Or are you going in feeling and smelling like Jesus Christ? Are you going to the Father through Jesus Christ or through your own efforts that day to make Him happy?

o Application 2: Paul wrote in Galatians 3:15, “Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case” (NLT). When you read what God says about you, are you living like it is absolutely and unchangeably true? Or are you living like you really don’t know where you stand? Are you living like you believe that God could take all of this away any second because of how you’ve sinned? Esau is like Satan. No matter how loud he screams and yells at you, he can’t change the reality of what’s happened to you.



Old Testament Sacrificial System

o The one offering the sacrifice was not judged based upon how he looked, dressed, smelled, or spoke…but simply and only upon the condition of the lamb he was offering to be sacrificed.

o That lamb had to be perfect, with no cuts, scrapes, bruises or wounds of any kind.

o Application: In same way, God does not judge you based on how you look, dress, smell, or speak…but simply and only upon the condition of the Lamb of God who was sacrificed and has taken away your sin.

Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3

o Verses 1-3: Satan’s accusation 1 Then the angel showed me Jeshua* the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD. The Accuser, Satan,* was there at the angel's right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, "I, the LORD, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire." 3 Jeshua's clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel.

o Verses 4-10: God’s provision

4 So the angel said to the others standing there, "Take off his filthy clothes." And turning to Jeshua he said, "See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes." 5 Then I said, "They should also place a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the LORD stood by. 6 Then the angel of the LORD spoke very solemnly to Jeshua and said, 7 "This is what the LORD of Heaven's Armies says: If you follow my ways and carefully serve me, then you will be given authority over my Temple and its courtyards. I will let you walk among these others standing here. 8 "Listen to me, O Jeshua the high priest, and all you other priests. You are symbols of things to come. Soon I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. 9 Now look at the jewel I have set before Jeshua, a single stone with seven facets.* I will engrave an inscription on it, says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, and I will remove the sins of this land in a single day. 10 "And on that day, says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, each of you will invite your neighbor to sit with you peacefully under your own grapevine and fig tree."

I recall October of 1991 like it was yesterday. Earlier in the summer of that year I had began pursuing a relationship with Sherri. She had broken up with her boyfriend, and I was in hot pursuit. But in August I had to leave for college. Wanting to go to college somewhere else besides the one that was 4/10 of a mile from my house, but being forced to only go to a place I could afford (since my parents couldn’t afford to pay for my college), my choice was narrowed down Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola, FL.



It was a place I disaffectionately came to call Pensacola Christian Penitentiary, because of the intense and immense legalism I was subjected to while there. By mid-term exams I had taken all I could stomach. I went home in October of 1991 just before mid-terms, my first trip there since starting school. There was all kinds of legalism surrounding my effort to go home that weekend, not the least of which was my desire to see Sherri, because the school didn’t want me going home if there were going to be other women there besides my mother. No kidding. The Dean’s Assistant really said that to me. Like they ever had any control over that part of my life anyway! But that’s just exactly how legalism seems to operate isn’t it? Always trying to illegimately tell us what we can and can’t do, when it has no authority over our lives.

So I visited home, met with Sherri, fell in love all over again with her, and went back to Pensacola determined to leave and come home. So I did just that. I drove back on a Sunday night, withdrew myself from school on Monday, and packed my car ready to head back home the next day.

Monday night was pretty awesome. I was officially withdrawn from school. So I wasn’t officially a student any longer. Normally the rules were that students had to be in bed with lights out at 11 PM. But that night I was huddled in the bathroom, sitting on the tank of the toilet, calling Sherri to tell her the good news. She was shocked to say the least.

Suddenly the RA walked into the room, and told the other guys to turn the lights off in the bathroom and get in the bed. They told him I was in there. So he heard me talking, opened the bathroom door, and told me to turn get off the phone and get in the bed.

Oh what joy there was in my heart at that moment. Perhaps you can relate to it. I smiled with great joy and declared the following truth to him: “I am no longer a student here, so your rules don’t apply to me, which means I can stay up and talk on the phone as long as I want.” He looked at me with a puzzled look on his face and had only a one-word response: “Oh.” I loved that moment! I was talking to my beloved, my betrothed, and nothing or no one could legitimately stop me from doing so! And what an awesome illustration it is of the whole matter of the gospel.

I am no longer under the law anymore. I am no longer a slave to sin or Satan. I am no longer under the authority of the Law, sin or Satan. I don’t report to them any longer. I am not a servant to them. They can’t tell me what to do. I have only the utter delight of looking at all three and simply saying, “I’m sorry, I see your lips moving but I can’t hear what you’re saying because I’m dead to you all.” Or, as my friend is famous for saying, “Talk to the booty, cause the hand’s off duty!” When you talk to your beloved, your betrothed in prayer there is nothing that can legitimately stop you from enjoying Him, His favor, His presence, His love for you. Absolutely nothing.

o Application: Perhaps you can relate to Joshua? Satan is at my doorstep regularly pointing

out sins I’ve committed, accusing me before the Father because of my failures. But his accusing mouth is closed when God declares afresh what He declared before He created the world. “Rob isn’t wearing any filthy clothes any longer! He’s wearing new fine clothes! He’s got a clean turban on his head! He’s one of my servants. He’s a jewel to me. I’ve removed Rob’s sins! He’s at peace with me!” That’s how we need to preach the gospel to ourselves…everyday.



Final Applications Here are three things I would leave with you in light of this truth of God’s gracious gift of Christ’s righteousness given to you.

1. Make your best defense God’s best offense in Christ.

“Be strong in the Lord and in HIS mighty power” not yours. “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil….Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:10-17, NLT). This whole armor thing is about justification by faith. It’s about the righteousness of Christ that really and truly belongs to you. It’s about using this truth to defend yourself against the accusations and attacks of the devil, who will stop at nothing to make you disbelieve what God has really and truly said to you and about you. You can only defend yourself with truth. But the moment you stop and listen to him and his accusations, that’s the moment you are no longer a useful warrior and servant in God’s kingdom. You are only useful so long as you actually believe what He has said about you and said to you.

2. Don’t slip back into following the Law as a way of staying close to God.

“After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?...It is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life” (Gal. 3:3, 11 NLT). Too often people are led to Jesus by someone else with the real gospel, only to be immediately led back into legalism by being told what they must do now in order to maintain fellowship with God. o Read your Bible everyday, preferably with a plan that will have you finished in a year. o Spend a certain amount of time praying everyday. o Consider changing the style of your clothing, or cutting your hair. o Consider changing how you spend your time. o Consider discontinuing the practice of entertainment, like going to see movies, playing poker, etc. o Don’t drink beer or alcoholic beverages anymore. Terry Virgo has nailed it when he wrote, “The rules vary from place to place and church to church, but in reality many people on the day of their conversion meet with a mixture of freedom and implied bondage, the lightening of their load, quickly followed by the imposition of a new load. Yes, you have found freedom but you have also found a lot of new rules to live by. Sadly for many, they sense that their enjoyment of Christianity will have a lot to do with their ability to keep the rules. The new Christian quickly becomes acquainted with the burden of unworthiness and inadequacy. In many churches this is very much the norm among existing Christians. Unless a church has been invaded by clear teaching on the grace of God it can often breathe an atmosphere that lacks joy and seems far removed from the ethos of the early church” (God’s Lavish Grace, p. 34).



3. Enjoy your freedom and be slow to add principles and rules.

“So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?...Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things…So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law” (Gal. 4:9, 12, 5:1, NLT). If you’re new to following Christ or if you’re new to embracing scandalous grace, take time to enjoy it. Taste your new freedom and enjoy it. Don’t be scared of it. And here’s the marker you will come to at some point which will tell you that you are enjoying the real gospel: you will be scared at some point of whether or not you are using your freedom as a license to just enjoy sin. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the most famous preachers in the 20th century at Westminster Chapel in London, once wrote,

“The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel. Let me show you what I mean.

“If a man preaches justification by works, no one would ever raise this question. If a man’s preaching is, ‘If you want to be Christians, and if you want to go to heaven, you must stop committing sins, you must take up good works, and if you do so regularly and constantly, and do not fail to keep on at it, you will make yourselves Christians, you will reconcile yourselves to God and you will go to heaven’. Obviously a man who preaches in that strain would never be liable to this misunderstanding. Nobody would say to such a man, ‘Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?’, because the man’s whole emphasis is just this, that if you go on sinning you are certain to be damned, and only if you stop sinning can you save yourselves. So that misunderstanding could never arise . . . . . .

“That is my comment and it is a very important comment for preachers. I would say to all preachers: If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again, and you had better make sure that you are really preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of God. There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation.”

(D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: The New Man: An Exposition of Chapter 6, Banner of Truth Trust, 1972, pp. 8-9).



Conclusion Last night we had the joy of celebrating the coming birth of Hannah Edmiston at a church-wide baby shower. One of the games we played involved placing a necklace around our necks with some baby charm, like a pacifier, baby stroller, or rocking horse. The rules were simple: don’t say “Hannah”, don’t say “Baby”, and don’t say “Girl”. If you said one of these words you had to surrender your necklace to the person who tricked you into saying one of the forbidden words. The one who was left standing at the end of the evening with the most necklaces around their neck won the game. I was tricked pretty quickly by Alan Ballard. I said the forbidden word, “Baby.” But can I tell you what I felt afterwards? Complete and utter joy. Do you know why? Because for the rest of the night I felt completely and utterly free to say those words all I wanted to! And I did! I walked around and said them with such confidence and boldness because I had no fear of any consequences. I had absolutely nothing to lose. When I would say a forbidden word, someone would look at me and act as if they caught me doing something devious or perverse, and say, “Ahh! I caught you…gimme your necklace!” I just responded, “I’m not under law!” This is the way legalism works in our lives. It adds rules, principles, laws and standards upon us that Jesus does not. It makes us feel special when we have more of them hanging around our necks. It makes us feel like we’re winners. But when we mess up and break some forbidden rule, we lose the necklaces and charms, making us feel that we will have somehow lost fellowship or relationship with God if we do those things or if we don’t refrain from those things. The reality, however, is that you and I are free from these “charms” around our necks. And we are free to enjoy God’s grace however we choose, without any fear of consequences, because we have nothing to lose. No one can take our right standing with God away from us, just like no one could take away my joy of saying the forbidden words yesterday. Don’t let anyone take away your joy and freedom in scandalous grace. When I was in High School a lady in our local church was teaching me how to paint with acrylics. The first day was especially difficult. I had chosen a cool wildlife scene I wanted to paint. It was a mallard duck flying over some river vegetation. But the first task seemed almost too simplistic for me. All I had to do was paint the background. I chose a mixture of colors to match the blue sky in the picture, and painted it on the canvas as my teacher instructed. Then, when I finished, she hopped from her chair and said, “Alright! Great job! That’s it for today!” I remember feeling strange and gypped…like I’d been ripped off. “I have to wait until next week’s lesson to finish painting the picture?”, I asked. She responded by explaining that we had to wait for the background to dry completely before painting anything else on it. If I didn’t wait, but tried to go ahead and apply the colors for the duck, it would all blend together and make a mess, not to mention create an unrecognizable finished product. But because I was a meat head, I took it home, didn’t wait for it to dry, but went ahead and began sketching my outline of the mallard duck anyway…right on the wet paint…and basically ruined the painting.



Too often this is what we do with grace. We hear the scandalous good news. But out of fear for the fact that it may lead us to feel like we have a license to sin, we begin immediately thinking it’s too good to be true. So we start sketching out the other rules and standards and laws we tell ourselves we have to follow. We feel rushed to complete the picture, before allowing the background to dry…before we let grace have a chance to set in and have its work in our lives. Don’t rush sanctification. Enjoy grace. Enjoy the freedom it brings and gives. Don’t give in to the rush to create all manner of standards, principles, rules, and laws to follow. Let the paint dry. Let the background of grace set in and have its way in your heart and mind first. Otherwise, grace will not be dictating what standards you set for your life. YOU will set those standards with your fear and impatience. Be patient. Let grace work. Enjoy it. And live in your freedom of this scandalous grace. I’ll close with the words of the hymn, “Before the Throne of God Above.”

1. Before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea.

A great high Priest whose Name is Love Who ever lives and pleads for me.

Who ever pleads for me.

2. My name is graven on His hands, My name is written on His heart.

I know that while in Heaven He stands No tongue can bid me to depart.

Can bid me to depart.

3. When Satan tempts me to despair And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look and see Him there Who made an end of all my sin.

Made an end of all my sin.

4. Because the sinless Savior died My sinful soul is counted free.

For God the just is satisfied To look on Him and pardon me.

Look on Him and pardon me.

5. One in Himself I cannot die. My soul is purchased by His blood, My life is hid with Christ on high,



With Christ my Savior and my God! Christ my Savior and my God!

6. Behold Him there the risen Lamb, My perfect spotless righteousness,

The great unchangeable I AM, The King of glory and of grace,

King of glory and if Grace.

Source: http://www.rvgrace.com/hymns/Before_the_Throne_of_God_Above.htm

Amen.

Scandalous Grace, Message Three: Understanding God's Free Gift of Righteousness

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Transcript of Scandalous Grace, Message Three: Understanding God's Free Gift of Righteousness