SOLA
GRATIA- GRACE ALONE – Sunday June 10th 2012.
If
You, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord,
who could stand?
4 But there
is forgiveness with You,
That You
may be feared.
O Israel,
hope in the Lord;
For with
the Lord there is lovingkindness,
And with Him
is abundant redemption.
Psalm 130:3-4;7
Beloved in the Lord,
The 4th
verse of this 130th Psalm is very comforting indeed. The Psalmist
writes: “But there is forgiveness with You.” These words should evoke within
our hearts a great sense of gratitude. “But there is forgiveness with You.” Let
us consider for a moment how things would be if this were not the case. If
there was not forgiveness with God, then we would be living under the curse of
death with no possible recourse. In the previous verse the Psalmist writes: “ If
You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” The simple
but blunt answer to this is no-one. If the Lord should mark iniquities, if He
should hold us accountable for our sin, then we would all be condemned
instantly. There is no sinless person apart from Jesus.
Paul makes
this clear in Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God,”. The word “all” means ALL. There are no exceptions. All
of us are sinners and if The Lord were to mark inequities then we would all be
punished. The penalty for sin is harsh. We read in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death,”. This
is not simply speaking about physical death, but eternal death or Hell. Hell is
to be eternally separated from God, in utter darkness, with no escape.
Back to
our text: If You, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord,
who could stand?
4 But there
is forgiveness with You,
That You
may be feared.”
The words
that follow the “but” are very important. The words that follow describe our
God as a God of forgiveness and mercy and love. But with You there is
forgiveness. This same truth is spelt out in Romans 6:23 which we partially
cited earlier. This time the whole verse: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Here we
also have the “but” and as in the previous case the words that follow are very
comforting. Again they point to God’s love, mercy and grace. Yes it is true, if
God were to mark our iniquities and hold us accountable, then none of us could
stand. We would be condemned to eternal death. But God is love, and mercy and
grace. He does not desire to condemn us, He wants to save us. He wants to loose
us from the bonds of sin and grant us eternal life in His house.
But, God
could not and cannot and will not simply ignore sin. He cannot simply say: “I
will ignore it, pretend it never happened. God is just and true. His law states
that the wages of sin is death. His law states that without the shedding of
blood there cannot be the forgiveness of sin.
In order
to save us, but at the same time be true to His law God chose to place our sin
upon Jesus His Son and make Him bear the penalty in our stead. “16 “For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For
God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world
might be saved through Him.” John 3:16-17
This is
very good news, great news in fact. Jesus did not come to judge but to save.
Grace and grace alone. Jesus took our punishment, He bore our penalty, with His
own Holy and precious blood He made the sacrifice, once for all time, for all
people.
Because of
Jesus sacrifice, God does not have to mark our iniquities any longer. Jesus
blood is payment in full, for those who believe on Him.
To believe
is much more than mental assent, it is placing our trust totally and fully in
Him. It is understanding that only through the blood of Jesus can we be granted
a pardon.
We must be
absolutely clear that salvation is in no wise our merit or gain. We have not
earned it, we do not deserve it because we are honest and upright. Salvation is all from God. It comes Sola
Gratia – by grace alone.
For this
very reason we owe God our total praise and thanksgiving, now and on into
eternity.
Psalm 130
prompts us to fear the Lord. This means that we are to honour Him and to bring
glory to His name, We must live each day in the knowledge that we are alive
only because of His grace alone. Everything is totally dependent upon Him. We
should thank Him every day for His bountiful grace and mercy, demonstrated to
us through Jesus.
He has
saved/ rescued us from outer darkness and brought us into His glorious light.
He has saves us from being eternally lost. This is beautifully stated in Psalm
103:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all
that is within me, bless His
holy name.
2 Bless the
Lord, O my soul,
And forget
none of His benefits;
3 Who
pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals
all your diseases;
4 Who
redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns
you with lovingkindness and compassion;”
Did you
notice what it says here in verse three? He forgives all your iniquities, not
some – ALL! He heals all your diseases,
He saves your life from the pit. He does all these things through His Son
Jesus. It is because of Jesus blood that we have forgiveness.
There is
more: He crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion. There is enough
material here to keep us praising God, here and in eternity,
When was
the last time you stopped and thought about your life, your salvation? When was
the last time you thanked Him for His grace and mercy? When was the last time
you thanked God from the bottom of your heart and told Him that you love Him?
It is
vital that we do this often. It is so important to realise every day that we
live only by Hi Grace and love. The very air we breathe is His. The more we
meditate upon these truths, the more we grow in Him.
Israel’s
problems always came when they forgot God who saved them. They very quickly
turned away from Him and looked elsewhere.
The same
happens in our lives. That is why David writes: “Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all
that is within me, bless His
holy name.2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget
none of His benefits;
If we lose
sight of the fact that we live by Grace alone, we can very easily fall into
error and get off the right course. We so easily become arrogant and begin to
believe that God owes us something, because we are so special.
Paul
writes to the Ephesians:
“4 But
God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (
by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and
seated us with Him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show
the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For
by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:4-9
Over and
over again we are reminded of God’s lovingkindness – His grace. Salvation does
not originate with us, it is a gift from God. It is a gift of grace.
May we be
clear on thhis point and may we never even for a moment entertain the thought,
that we can have eternal life in Heaven apart from Jesus.
All things
are from Him, through Him and to Him.
Let us be
thankful everyday to our Heavenly Father for His grace and mercy.
As John
Newton so beautifully wrote:
Amazing
Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but
now am found was blind but now I see.
Amen.
Pastor Colvin S. MacPherson Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Sydney.
All Bible quotations taken from New American Standard Bible.