I Believe According to the Scriptures: I Am Saved by Grace Alone - Ephesians 2:8-9

In this episode Dr. Larson explores the riches of God's grace, reminding us through Ephesians 2 that we are saved by grace through faith as a free gift in Christ Jesus alone. Join us as we unpack this amazing grace, which is available to all, received by faith, and ours for eternity.

Information about The American Association of Lutheran Churches (TAALC) can be found at www.taalc.org

Transcript

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In the cascading layers of noise in our ever-changing world, discovering a space for reflection and inspiration is increasingly rare. Welcome then to Faith Comes by Hearing, a unique podcast series that cuts through the clamor, carrying the timeless messages of the gospel into our lives with renewed relevance. Join Dr. Carrie Larson, the presiding pastor of the American Association of Lutheran Churches, as he ventures into the challenges of everyday life and the deep need to hear the truth that we are saved by grace, through faith, through Christ Jesus alone. Each episode is an invitation not just to listen, but to truly hear and embrace the good news of Christ Jesus for you and for all.

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And for the most part, um we've been talking about the word and we've been kind of a little heavy on the law, because it seems like sometimes we forget about the law. And in our Lutheran understandings, the word of God needs to be properly, properly understood as a combination. It's not a 50-50, but a proper distinction of law, and we just said it in the Psalms. It is good. His commandments are holy, right, and pure. But we can't forget about the gospel, the good news. Or perhaps for today, we'll call it grace. Let us pray. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Dear brothers, dear sisters in Christ's grace and peace, you're from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen. Well, long ago, long before I was a pastor, I would on a Saturday night, I would be watching Saturday Night Live. I'm in bed well before Saturday Night Live is on, so I don't watch it anymore. And they used to have one of the characters who did Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. Now, I don't remember many of them, but one that really impressed upon me that it's horrible, and it goes like this if a kid asks me where rain comes from, I think it's a cute thing to tell him it is God crying. And if he asks, why is God crying? Another cute thing to tell him is probably because of something you did. That's horrible. It's satire, but it's horrible. But as I reflect upon that, there are people who believe this is God. God is an angry God. God is just waiting to smite you, He is punishing you, and doggonic, he's so disappointed in you that he weeps. And it's not satire. When you don't have to go very far, especially on the internet, do a search on the search engine, and you will find Christians who are boldly standing on two feet saying, This pandemic and this rioting and all the chaos and the problems in this country are because we have abandoned God. It's punishment, you see. God has taken all his punishment on his son, on our Savior, on cost on the cross of Calvary. Make no mistake, it is a time of repentance. But God's total wrath went out on his son. And so this gives us an opportunity to repent in grace. And so let's focus on grace. I read this last week to you, and I'm going to read it to you again, so if you don't mind repeats, here we go. Second chapter of Ephesians, verses 4 through 10. But God being rich in mercy, because of his great love, 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 that is not your own doing, it is a 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. So what is amazing about this grace? With my grandchildren, we read storybooks that have, you know, A is for apple, B is for ball, etc., etc. So let's play that same kind of word tool, that word memory device with grace. G is for gift. Again, for it is by grace you have been saved. It is a gift of God. Grace is totally a gift from God. Totally. Do you get that? Totally a gift. But you will ask people, how do you get to heaven? And it's really kind of interesting. I've had these kinds of conversations. Well, just work real hard and try to do your best. And if you're really good, get your good things out there, and hopefully you do more good things than bad things. And if that be the case, God will say, You're a good egg. Come on in. Holy Scripture is very clear. There isn't a chance you're going to make it to heaven on your own efforts. Not one thing. You just can't be good enough. Because good enough in the sight of God is be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. It's a pass-fail system. God does not grade on a curve. Either you're perfect or you're not. Now, some of you might think you're perfect, but I'll ask your spouse and they'll have a different opinion. We can never accumulate enough points. We cannot get enough credit to wipe away the debt in which we've incured just by one sin. One sin. The sin of rebellion, the sin of hurtful words, the sin of selfishness, the sin of not loving the one that we ought to love as we love ourselves. You and I cannot be perfect. And so we got a problem. And if we think we can achieve perfection, let me remind you that we talked about it just moments ago that if you think you do not sin, then you deceive yourself, and the truth is not in you. There's only one way that you can find yourself walking with God. If you want to call it a relationship, knock yourself out. If you want to call that you should honor, serve, and obey God only, that's great. Romans 11, 6, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. In other words, what Paul is saying here to the Romans and to you across time, grace must come to you freely as a gift. Or it's not grace. G is for grace, a gift to you. R is for receiving. It is to be received by faith. The Bible tells us that we must receive grace by faith. And the funny thing is, and I said this last week, the funny thing is a gift is a gift without doing something for it, otherwise, it's not a gift. Another funny thing is about a gift, it's not a gift unless it's received. If it's your birthday today, and I got this wonderful gift sitting on the table, it doesn't matter if it's for you until you receive it, right? So how does God deliver his grace? Is the next question. Does he call speedy delivery or some other delivery source? Maybe. Begins here with his word. And his word attached to water and and new life was formed in the Spirit. Word is used with bread and wine at his table, and you receive grace. The words that were attached to my words, you heard my voice, but it was Jesus who was saying, I forgive you all your sins. This is the delivery system in which you get the grace. There is not a Christian church in the land that doesn't talk about the blood of Christ, the blood of Christ, the redeeming value of the blood of Christ, but you have to receive it if it's gonna be of any value to you. And how do you get the goods? It has to be delivered. Word and sacrament. But there's also a secondary, not as important as the primary, a secondary way of God delivering the goods, delivering grace, and it involves you. Lutheran reflecting the Romans text said that we as Christians ought to be little Christ to our neighbor. God brings his grace through you, family and friends, and to this nation. This community thrives when we have good business. Whether you work in the business or not, this world thrives because of the people of God. Whether they believe or not, this is the grace of God in this time. We receive grace by faith. Now, here's the strange thing, and I kind of did a quick touch and go if you caught it. Grace, the A in grace, is available. It is available for just the members of Christ the King Lutheran Church, right? Or just the Christians in Wasika, right? How about available for everyone? No, no, no, Pastor, you're talking about universalism. We don't do universal. No, no, no. We'll get on that in the next part here. Grace is available to everyone. When Christ died on Calvary's cross, he died for the world. He didn't die for the card-carrying members of Christ the King Lutheran Church. He didn't die for the Lutherans of this world. He didn't die for all the Christians of the world. He died for the world. So God so loved the world. Interesting thing in the Greek, the word is cosmos. We've heard that before, haven't we? And we a lot of times think cosmos. But cosmos, when we when we think about it in the Greek, is everything, everything, every person falls into the cosmos. Grace is available for all. Hear a lot of talk about privilege today, don't you? Here's the thing: all people are privileged to receive, and it is available this wonderful grace, this amazing grace of God. Grace is available for everyone. Okay, what about C? Hmm? Hmm? C is for Christ. Christ alone. I'm reading a book. It's called Seculosity. How's that for a mouthful? Seculosity. It's a play off secularism and religiosity. And in its titled Seculosity How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, Romance became our new religion and what to do about it. Written by a man named David Zale. Zale's thesis is that even though institutional religion, aka the Christian Church, has lost ground in the United States and it's it is a shocking thing. In the last two years, there's some crazy things have happened in terms of faith, and it's not good. Secular religiosity, that Zel will coin seculosity, or replacement religion, such as political ideology, or parenting styles, or special diets, or work, success, technology, romance fulfillment, have become our focus. And the object in which we self-justify or self-righteousness, it's the assurance that our lives matter. It's the assurance that I'm okay. According to Zale, America's replacement religions are where one relies not for meaning or hope, but he turned coins the term enoughness, enoughness. The church, which is so desperately desiring to be that popular girl that she once was, latches hold to this as her only hope. And the secularity of the church is when it turns yet into another location. You got it otherwise, and now you come into church, and what you want to do is feel enough, and so you get busy in church because busy is good, busy is enough. Trouble is, is enough, this is heightened in the church. When this is where we ought to come to be told we are enough in Christ alone. And so the very institution that is the sole purpose in his existence, its sole purpose of its existence is to proclaim that we are justified by grace through faith through Christ alone, doesn't do it. It's more concerned about global warming or social justice, not about the only one that can save. If we abandon scripture, we will know nothing that is important. We will not know God's grace. Timothy is warned by St. Paul of this very thing, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, and sound teaching is always connected to the scriptures, always connected to Jesus Christ, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers who will suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off to myth. You hear it all the time in the introduction to the sermons, and I pray that you never find yourself weary of it, that Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, the life. And it isn't like a way, a truth, a life. It is that is it, the the. And we find ourselves enough and filled enough with him. If you don't have scripture, you don't have Christ. If you don't have Christ, you have myth. And the only thing that myth delivers is eternal death. Grace comes through Christ alone. Rounding the bend, coming to the end. E. E. Grace is eternal. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6, 23. The results of God's grace is going to go on and on and on. We sum it up as an in a doxology, the Lord's Prayer, forever and ever, as if forever isn't long enough. We have a wonderful thing ahead of us. We get glimpse of it here where we have just a keyhole view of this eternity that we will know forever. When we hear the name of God in the invocation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there's less than a hundred of you, but there's a megachurch going on now. Because all the hosts of heaven are here, and those who have died in Christ are here. Because Christ is here, and those who've died in Christ are asleep in Christ. So where your Christ is, there are those who fall asleep and believe in him are here. Isn't this great? Move over. You gotta make room for your loved one that is with the Lord. And this eternal life is gonna be good. The Bible gives us enough about it. We we have to end abruptly our Bible study series between services about heaven. And I know that you've really enjoyed that, those of you have been able to attend, and we'll we'll pick it up where we left off, or maybe do it on Zoom. I don't know. But it's it's better than we can even think about. The Bible gives us enough, enough to know that it's gonna be great. We got a grand reunion in front of us. Summer's the season of reunions. I don't know if we're carrying them off or not. But we have a big one ahead of us. A big one. And better yet, with that grand reunion, we're gonna have eternal life. And I don't know what this is gonna be like because I only know this life with sin and decay and injustice and death. I can't imagine a life without this. No sin, no death, no decay, the justice of the Lord will roll like a river. Isn't that sweet? Well, let's just kind of end it now and get on with it. No, no, no. We got work to do. We have work to do. And it's not just this Yahoo up here. We have work to do. The harvest is rich and the workers are few. And so you go where he has sent you. We call that vocation, where we serve our Lord. But we always know that we have a homeland ahead of us, another country, in which Hebrews talks about, the everlasting home of heaven. Can't wait. Perish the thought that I might have family, I might have friends who will not be there with me and with you, and so there is work to do. Pray, O Lord, that the Spirit gives us words so that we may be part of the harvest. Now, if some may think, and it could be you, if I truly come to the Lord, I I wow, my life is messed up. You don't know the things that I have done. You, if I am open to the Lord, I am gonna get nothing but accusation. I don't need that. Well, you don't. Because the law is doing what it's supposed to do. The law always accuses. And if all you come here and hear the law, I ask that you would open your ears and hear this. Jesus, God in the flesh, the word made flesh, loves you. Loves you. And it died on Calvary's cross. And as far as the east is from the west, so he has moved your sin. He has paid fully for your sin. That doesn't seem to compute, but it's true. He has paid fully for all your sins, and you have heaven everlasting by faith in him. And it's all a gift of God. So what's amazing about grace, huh? Comes as a gift. It's received by grace through faith. It's available for all people, it's through Jesus Christ alone, and it doesn't just last for a season, it lasts for eternity. Grace G-R-A-C-E. And it's yours, and it's amazing, and it never expires.