Sermon -- 4th Sunday in Lent (March 14, 2021)

EPHESIANS 2:1-10

BY GRACE I’M SAVED.

 In the name + of Jesus.

      Every Christian denomination teaches people to confess: “By grace I’m saved.”  How could it be any other way?  Scripture plainly teaches it.  In fact, it is in our reading from Ephesians twice: “By grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5,8).  However, you will find that definitions of grace vary from place to place.  It would take a long time to sift through all of them, but most have one thing in common—they refuse to let grace be the way you are actually saved.

     I suppose the question you might ask yourself is this: “Does it really matter?”  If you want to have certainty that you are saved, if you want to find comfort when your sins plague you, if you want to have confidence that you have not messed something up—then, yes, it matters.  If certainty, comfort, and confidence don’t matter to you, then this teaching doesn’t matter either.

     The doctrine of grace gets distorted when we fail to recognize our own sinful condition for what it is.  It is like a ship that sails from San Francisco to Hawaii but is one degree off course.  At first, it doesn’t matter.  Chances are no one notices.  But after days of sailing, they are miles away from their destination.  In fact, they would never even see Hawaii.  In the same way, if you do not understand the sinful condition, your understanding of grace will be off just as badly.

     Our sinful condition and its severity are a matter of faith.  The only way we believe we are as bad as we are is because God tells us.  Through St. Paul, he says, “You were dead in your sins.” (Ephesians 2:1).  Dead people cannot get better.  Their condition is never going to change.  But that does not mean the sinful condition is neutral, as if you were a rock or stump.  No, it is worse.  St. Paul also says, “You once … (followed) the prince of the power of the air…  We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind” (Ephesians 2:3).  In other words, the desires of your body and your mind are controlled by your sinful passions.  Everything the sinner thinks or wants or feels is corrupted and controlled by sin.  The sinful passions are at the mercy of Satan, who has no mercy.  So, you and I were hostile to God and rebellious against his word.  To this day, we struggle with this. 

     The world has its own definition of sins.  It should not surprise us that it is a corruption of God’s definition.  For the world, sins are bad only when someone suffers harm.  This is one reason the victim card works so well.  If you accuse someone of harming you, even if it just your feelings, you can force them to apologize, to keep silent, to change their behavior, or even to compensate you.  If someone harms you, even if it is perceived, you get to demand satisfaction.  

     Now, there is some truth to this.  The second table of God’s Law is “You shall love … your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).  God forbids you from harming your neighbor and directs you to seek his good.  These things are necessary for an orderly society.  However, the first table of the Law gets despised.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27).  Rebellion against God’s word is not considered sin.  The world argues that God has the problem, not them. A young couple might move in together and share a bed without any marriage plans at all.  God calls this fornication and condemns it.  The couple argues: “Everyone does it this way.  Besides, who are we hurting?  This is none of your business.”  And many other actions are defended this way.  The sinful condition adopts Satan’s defiance against God’s word.  This is why people defend sin and vilify those who oppose it.  To the sinner, what God calls evil is good, and what God calls good is evil.  This is the sinful condition in all its ugliness, bitterness, and stubbornness.  The result should be expected: We “were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).

     This is a far cry from people who say that there is good in us all, or that sin has left us merely wounded or weakened.  Even Christians who want to do good still sin.  We even defend our sins and call them good.  That is how bad it is.  Now, if you don’t get this teaching correct, you will end up miles away from the certainty, comfort, and confidence God’s grace gives.

     By grace I’m saved.  Grace is a gift.  Unfortunately, we don’t get that right either.  A gift is what you get on your birthday.  But you expect it.  You will feel ripped off if you don’t get a gift.  You will probably get nasty or mopey if you don’t get a gift.  If that is the case, how much of a gift is it?  It is more of an obligation, isn’t it?  If that is how we regard God’s grace, then we believe that God owes us.  And if God’s grace and salvation are an obligation, then they are no longer grace.

     After driving home to us how wretched our sinful condition is, St. Paul turns our attention to God.  He begins with the word “but.”  “But” means that God is not like us.  “But” means that God’s love is not determined by how we feel about him.  “But” means that God works contrary to our expectations.  God does not make concessions or compromises regarding our sins and his Law.  He will never change his Law to make it more agreeable or more doable.  Good and evil are not fluid.  God does not change, so his word will not change.  But God is gracious because he always has been.  He did not owe us our world, our families, our food, our abilities, our bodies, or our lives.  He gave them because he is good and gracious.  His goodness and his grace even moved him to act to save us from our sin and from the death we deserve for it.  By grace I’m saved.

     You are not saved by instruction, as if you just need to be told what is better.  You are not saved by incentives, as if you just need to be told to do better.  God does not enlist you to save yourself.  He is your Savior.  God takes action.  God does all the work.  St. Paul says so.  By grace you and I are saved.  “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” (Ephesians 2:4-5). 

     By grace I’m saved.  And while grace is freely given to you and me, it was won by Jesus at great cost.  Again, God does not compromise on his word.  Man must obey God’s Law for God to be pleased with mankind.  So God became a man.  Jesus is God in the flesh, and in his humble, fleshly state, he had to keep God’s Law.  There was no self-love or self-worship in Jesus.  There was perfect harmony with God’s Commandments, perfect willingness to live as they direct, and perfect fulfillment in his actions and attitudes.  God’s Law was not compromised in Jesus; it was fulfilled.

     By grace you and I are saved.  Jesus has given you the credit for this perfect obedience.  This is what St. Paul wrote later in Ephesians: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27)  By means of Holy Baptism, Jesus presents you before God with a spotless record.  You are not merely better; Jesus renders you blameless.

     But God’s grace goes further.  Once again, he does not make concessions on his Law.  He does not withhold his sentence of guilt on those who fail to keep the Commandments.  Rather than make concessions, he made satisfaction.  Just as he gave you his innocence, so Jesus took up your guilt.  He suffered and died for your sins.  This was not done as an obligation.  It was done because God is “rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:4-5).  So Jesus graciously died for our trespasses—whether great or small, public or private.  Jesus made himself a child of wrath.  All God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus so that no wrath remains for you.  Therefore, you and I are received into God’s family. 

     And if St. Paul has not been clear enough, he summarizes it again: “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” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Even faith is not something that you take or claim.  It is the gift of God, not your own doing.  So God gives you saving faith, and then God rewards you for what he has given you.  By grace I’m saved.

     So, you and I have nothing to boast about.  And that is the point of grace.  It is not about us.  It is about Jesus Christ and the certainty, the comfort, and the confidence that our Lord gives to us.  The work of salvation is God’s work, from beginning to end.  He lived to provide your innocence.  He died to take your guilt.  He rose to conquer death.  It is God who makes you alive in Christ.  Just as you did not contribute to your birth into this world, so also you did not contribute to your new life in God’s family.  God has completed all the work, so you can be certain that it was done right.

     By grace I’m saved.  And so you and I have the comfort that comes with God’s forgiveness.  You and I still struggle with our sins.  Past guilt still haunts us.  We still have shame to hide.  God knows all this.  Yet, he does not despise us.  He remembers the covenant he made with you in your baptism.  You are cleansed by the blood of Christ.  You have been made pure.  This is God’s doing and God’s promise.  This is your comfort.

     By grace I’m saved.  And this is your confidence that God’s favor remains on you.  God’s favor is not earned or won or bargained for.  It is given freely by God to all who believe in Jesus.  It is proven to you by the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It is sealed upon you in holy baptism.  It is proclaimed repeatedly in God’s word.  It is even fed to you in Holy Communion.  God’s promises are not iffy.  God’s grace is not given reluctantly.  So you can be confident of God’s favor now and forever.

     By grace you and I are saved.  This is a gift from our loving God.  Therefore, you and I have no reason to boast; but we do have many reasons to praise, to thank, to confess, and to rejoice.  God be praised; for he is gracious, and therefore, you are saved.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.