ONLY AND ALWAYS
GRACE: SOLA GRATIA
DR. JIM DIXON
JULY 15, 2012
EPHESIANS 2:1-10
The words “charis,” “chara,” and “charisma”—this group of Greek words are considered the most beautiful words in the Greek language. Certainly, the concept is more beautiful than any other concept. It is the concept of grace. “Charis” is the Greek word for “grace”; “chara,” the Greek word for “joy”; and “charisma,” the Greek word for “gift.” Today, we look at grace. The Bible says we are saved by grace, “sola gratia,” not by works.
For decades and centuries, Christians have sung songs and hymns about grace because it is precious to us. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found; I was blind, but now I see.” That song was written in 1779 by John Newton, the former slave owner who accepted Christ, became a pastor, and joined with John Wilberforce to bring about the eradication of slavery in England. What a great hymn, “Amazing Grace.” There are other grace hymns like, “And Can it Be that I Should Gain,” written 41 years earlier in 1738 by Charles Wesley. It is all about grace. I love the part of the hymn where we sing, “My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. Amazing love! How can it be, that thou my God would die for me?” When you sing that great hymn in a cathedral with a pipe organ it is rapturous.
In 1753, Robert Robinson wrote another great hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” We have sung it many Sundays in this church. This hymn is 250 years old. It is special because of the man who wrote it. Robert Robinson was 22 years old when he wrote the hymn, just a kid. He was a young Christian. In the years that followed, he fell away from Christ and the Christian faith. He began to wander into a worldly life. Finally, he was in France where he saw this beautiful woman. He asked her out on a date. She said, “I don’t even know you, but I am going to a Bible study tonight; if you come with me, maybe I will get to know you.” He thought she was really cute. He didn’t want to go to a Bible study; he hadn’t been to one in years. But he thought she was really cute, so he said yes.
He went to the Bible study. It began with a little singing. The first song they sang was the song that he had written when he was 22, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” I particularly love the third stanza where he writes, “Oh to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.” It is an incredible song about God’s grace.
In 1911, you have this hymn: “Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all my sins.” I remember as a kid singing that song again and again when I was at church. Even as a little kid, I knew something was very precious about this word “grace.” I knew I needed grace. I hope that grace is just precious to you. I hope, this morning, you know in your heart that you have been saved by God’s grace.
As we look at Ephesians 2:1-10, there are really three simple concepts. The first concept is this: grace delivers us from death and the devil. That is the first concept in the first five verses of Ephesians 2. Grace alone delivers us from death and the devil. Look at those words. It says, “You He made alive, when once you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among the sons of disobedience. Among these, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, so that we were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace you have been saved.” Those first five verses are talking about grace that has saved us from death and the devil.
You might be thinking, “Well, wait a minute. I didn’t see the devil mentioned in those first five verses.” As is often the case, the devil is in the details; you really need to look at the phrases there, and you will know that it is referring to the devil. Who is the prince of the power of the air? It is the devil. Who is the spirit now at work in the children of disobedience? It is the devil.
You actually have this incredible image in these first five verses of Ephesians chapter 2; it is the image of the earth covered by demonic powers. When the devil is called “the prince of the power of the air,” it is not the normal word for “air.” In the Bible, when Jesus speaks of the birds of the air, the word for “air” is “ouranou.” “Ouranou” can refer to the atmosphere, which is the first heaven. It can also refer to the second heaven, which is cosmos. Or, it can refer to the third heaven, which is the dwelling place of God. “Ouranou” is a very flexible word. Normally when folks in Biblical times spoke of the air, they used the word “ouranou.”
This is a different word here. The word that is used here is the word “aer.” It is actually “alpha,” “eta,” “rho.” When you transliterate it from Greek to English, it becomes a-e-r, like the British “aeroplane.” This was a very special word. It was used to refer to the air extending from the surface of the earth to the moon. In Hellenized thought, in the Greek world, that was the domain of demonic powers. So, the devil was called “the prince of the powers of the air.” It may be that Paul was just wanting us to understand that the devil was operating spiritually and not just physically.
There is a literal image here of an enveloped earth. It is an image of an earth that is literally surrounded by this atmosphere that is odorous, demonic, and dark. Really from God’s view, as He looks at this world, that is what He sees.
Why do we have gangs in Denver? Why do we even have gangs? There are a number of gangs, and gang members are growing. Why is it that in order to be initiated into a gang in Denver, you have to rob somebody, rape somebody, or kill somebody? Why is it that gangs are virtually in every major city in the United States of America? Why are youth gangs found all over the world? Why are more and more people addicted to drugs? Why are addictions on the rise globally? Why do we have drug cartels? Why do we have two-thirds of the planet immersed in poverty? Why is it that two-thirds of the world are virtually starving, some living in abject poverty? Why is it that 41% of our babies in the United States are born out of wedlock? How can that be? Why is that? Why is “Fifty Shades of Grey” the number one best-selling book in America right now with its borderline s&m and porn? Why is pornography a multi¬-billion-dollar business that is growing on the Internet, in video production, and in print production all over the world? How can this be?
It’s because we live on an earth that is enveloped in a demonic atmosphere. That is God’s view of the world. Here is the deal: we all breathe that air. Even those of you who look in the mirror and see yourself as relatively righteous, you are breathing the same demonic air. We are all fallen.
You can’t help but think of a Calvinist theological doctrine called “total depravity.” The doctrine of total depravity that is taught in Calvinism and extracted from the Bible is not the belief that there is no good in us. It is true there might be a few double-predestinarian, supralapsarian Calvinists who believe there is no good in anybody; they are really fuddy-duddies. Most Calvinists believe there is good in everybody. The “imago dei,” the image of God is at least residual in all of us. Even in this world, enveloped in the demonic, there is a little good in everybody. When we talk about total depravity, it simply means that the taint of evil, the taint of sin touches every aspect of our being.
When you look at Jim Dixon, there is no aspect of his being that is not tainted by this air we breathe and by the taint of sin. My motives are not pure. The taint of sin is on my motives. The taint of sin is on my thoughts. The taint of sin is on my desires. The taint of sin is on my actions. There is no area of my life that is free of the taint of sin. This is what Calvinists mean by total depravity. That is why “All we, like sheep, have gone astray. There is none righteous, no not one.” Before a righteous God, all of our righteousness is like filthy rags. That is what the Bible says. This is a fallen world, and we are fallen. That is the first image in Ephesians 2:1-5. It is not a very good image.
Suddenly, the scene switches to God. “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He has loved us even when we were dead in our sin, dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace we have been saved.” These three words—mercy, love, and grace—are found in the same couple of verses. The world is just covered in this demonic darkness, but God is filled with mercy, love, and grace. What an image. Mercy, love, and grace. Only that grace can pull us out of that death and darkness of the devil. Only His grace.
The grace of God is not just unique to the New Testament. The same God who is the God of the New Testament and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament. We see glimpses of His incredible, amazing grace even in the Old Testament.
In 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33, you have parallel accounts of the life of Manasseh. Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, was the king of Judah who reigned from Jerusalem. Manasseh was the king of Judah, but he was one of the most evil and debauched men in the history of Jerusalem and the history of Israel. Manasseh was a man who murdered his own children. The Bible tells us that Manasseh was a man who, in the worship of the pagan deity, Moloch, sacrificed children. He gave himself over to child sacrifice, and he sacrificed kids in the Valley of Hinnom outside the city of Jerusalem. This is part of the reason why later, our Lord Jesus called the Valley of Hinnom, “Gehenna,” and used it as a synonym for hell.
Manasseh was a polytheist, a pluralist, a syncretist, and all the things that enrage a Holy God. He brought in all of the pagan gods of the world, and he built shrines to them in the high places. He built temples to Baal and to Asherah, the fertility goddess. In those temples were prostitution and all kinds of sexual immorality. Manasseh was into this stuff. Manasseh oppressed the poor and thwarted justice. This was an evil man.
In the course of time, Manasseh was conquered by the Assyrians and taken into exile in Babylon. He was incarcerated and thrown into a dark dungeon in the city of Babylon. You would think that God would have to have been saying, “Finally, here is what you deserve.” In that dark dungeon, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 33, Manasseh cried out for mercy to the God of his fathers, to the God of Hezekiah, to the God of Israel. He repented and acknowledged his sin. He asked for God’s grace. What did God do? It is one of the most amazing accounts in the Bible. God was moved to mercy and grace. God gave Manasseh unmerited favor. God forgave him, returned him to Israel, and restored him to the throne. This is in the Old Testament. That is grace.
I remember when Franklin Graham came and spoke here a few years back. The Sunday morning he spoke was an incredible morning. Part of what he focused on was the story of Manasseh. At the end, he gave an altar call. He invited folks from our congregation to come and receive the grace of Christ and find forgiveness of sin, to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. I remember that morning over 1,000 people came forward from our congregation. Afterwards, I was having lunch with Franklin Graham. He said to me, “What have you been doing?” It was a good question. I said, “I have been preparing the way before you.”
That grace that God gave to Manasseh is available today. That is what the gospel is all about, that is what our Lord Jesus Christ is all about. We know that through the years, many of you have asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior in our church services and in our other ministries. We know that on that Sunday with Franklin, most people reaffirmed their faith in Christ. It is grace.
When you look back in the Old Testament, even the call of the Jews, the election of Israel was grace. The fact that Israel represented God’s chosen people was grace. The Bible makes it clear that it was unmerited favor and unconditional election. It wasn’t based on anything. There was no merit in the Jewish people. The Jews were not better than the other people. Everyone in the world was the same. The Jewish people were not better or worse. It was unmerited grace. God chose them by His grace. We know that wherever the Gospel is preached today . . . . wherever people hear about God’s grace and forgiveness and the cross of Jesus Christ . . . when people come in faith, we know that God’s grace flows down from heaven. It is truly an amazing thing. That is the first message in Ephesians 2: only by grace are we rescued and delivered from death and the prince of the power of the air, rescued from death and the devil. We are only rescued by grace.
The second teaching is this: only by grace are we elevated to heaven and its eternal rewards. He not only delivers us from death and the devil, but He elevates us to heaven and the eternal rewards of heaven. In verses 6-7, it says, “He has raised us up with Him to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages He might continue to show us . . .” (It is a present continuous tense of the Greek.) “In the coming ages He might continue to show us the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith.” It is grace that not only lifts us out of this planet with its demonic air, but it is grace that lifts us up to sit with Christ in the heavenly places and to receive eternal rewards. What an amazing promise. What an amazing statement. Grace lifts us to heaven and to our heavenly rewards.
Just last week, I said that Christ has the key to heaven. Only Christ has the keys. He has the keys to the treasures of heaven, and He has keys to heaven itself. Christ is the key. I told a couple of stories about my propensity to lose keys. That was last Sunday. Then, on Monday, I was meeting a friend for breakfast over at Mon Ami. This friend is Everett Dye. Everett used to be on our staff here. We are good friends and have been friends through the years. I prayed for Everett and his kids, and he has prayed for mine. I have seen his kids come to Christ, and he has seen my kids very early in life come to Christ. We have prayed for their marriages, and I prayed for Everett when his wife had cancer. We went through that together when Helen died. Then, he fell in love again and married Joyce.
Everett and Joyce are moving back to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. We were having our last breakfast before Everett moves. When we were done with breakfast, we gave each other a hug, and Everett took off in his car. I went to my car and reached in my pocket for the key—nothing. There was no key in my pocket. I try the door to the car, and it is locked. I am thinking, “Gee, I must have locked the key in the car.”
I tried to see if the key was in the ignition, but I really couldn’t see it because the steering wheel column was in the way and the windows are dark. I thought, “I probably dropped it somewhere.” I began looking in the bushes and tracing my way back into the restaurant at Mon Ami. Inside the restaurant everybody started looking, and we tore the booth apart. We literally took the booth apart three times looking for the key. Never did find the key.
I called Judy here at the church, my administrative assistant. She said, “Well, you know your appointment is here already. I will just send him over there to you.” This is a 22-year-old young man who just graduated from Texas A&M. He is moving to New York where he is going to work in the financial industry. He had a couple of questions, and he wanted to talk with me about the Bible. Ryan came to meet me at the restaurant. He saw my situation and the way I have lost my keys many times. He said to me, “Boy, I am beginning to think your stories are really true.” They really are true. Hard to believe, but it is true.
Jesus is the key, and He has the keys. You don’t want to be locked out of heaven. It is all by His grace that “He has raised us up to sit with Him in the heavenly places.” He has raised us up with Him. In the Greek, it is in the aorist tense. It’s punctiliar. It’s already happened. The moment you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are already lifted up to sit with Him in the heavenly places. The promise is sealed. It is a done deal. Your ticket is punched. This is an amazing thing when you come into His grace.
Think back to Matthew chapter 20 or Mark chapter 10 where you have the parallel accounts of the mother of James and John coming to Jesus, falling down before Jesus, making her plea for her sons. Jesus said, “What can I do for you?” That is a key moment when the Son of God says, “What can I do for you?” She says, “Lord, grant that my sons may sit one at Your left hand and one at Your right when You come into Your kingdom. Grant that my sons may share in Your reign. Grant that my sons, James and John, may share in Your authority.” The other disciples are jealous and enraged. Jesus has to give a little lecture on humility and servant-heartedness.
The irony is that through the gospel, Jesus has already offered to share His authority. He has already offered to share His dominion. He has already offered to share His reign. He has already lifted all who believe. He has already sealed the deal, so that you will be lifted up to sit with Him in the heavenly places. In eight different passages in the New Testament, you see this promise: we will reign and rule with Christ for ever and ever and ever. You can say to me, “What exactly does that mean to reign and rule with Christ?” I don’t know the answer. There is a lot of mystery.
In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul said, “Now we see in the mirror dimly . . .” The Greek word is “enigmatically.” The future looks like a puzzle. “Now we see in the mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now we know in part, then we will know fully even as we have been fully known.” There is much that is mysterious to us now. I don’t know exactly what heaven is going to look like. I don’t know what it means that we are going to reign and rule with Christ. I don’t know what it means that we are going to share His dominion. I do know this: in the Bible, sometimes heaven is portrayed botanically as a paradise, a place of great beauty. Sometimes, in the Bible, heaven is portrayed as a celestial city. Sometimes, in the Bible, there is this urban view of heaven, the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem with streets of gold, gates of pearl, this incredible, majestic, massive city. Sometimes there is that image of heaven.
Sometimes, in the Bible, heaven is portrayed cosmically. “Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, a new cosmos in which righteousness dwells. You will rejoice and be glad in all which I create.” There is an image of heaven that is cosmic. All the works of God’s hands will be encompassed within the ultimate heaven. It occurs to me: as God once shared His dominion on earth with His creation, as God once said to mankind, “I will give you dominion over the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea,” so in the life to come, Christ is going to share His dominion with His people over everything.
The dominion that God shared with us on this earth has been abused. Don’t you think that is fair to say? We have probably abused our dominion on the earth that He has shared with us. You see, in the world to come, Christ has lifted us up to sit with Him in the heavenly places, and He is sharing His authority with us over the whole of the creation, the whole of the cosmos. I don’t know what that is going to look like, but I think that it is going to be pretty wonderful and crazy amazing. I think it is going to be incredible. It is all grace.
We are going to have new bodies that will serve this purpose. The thought occurs to me more and more as time goes by, that I need a new body. You are probably at an age where that thought doesn’t even come to you, but I could use a new body. I do have a new hip, but it is now the best joint in my body. I am noticing recently that I am having fingers that are starting to curl up. You don’t need to worry about me . . . my dad had the same thing. It is related to my genetics. Our family is from Scotland, but we have heritage that goes back to Scandinavia. Genetically, we have this deal where your fingers start to curl up. Now, I go to shake somebody’s hand, and my finger gets caught because it is curled up. Now, this index finger on my left hand is starting to curl up. I am thinking, “I could use a new body.”
The deal is this: that is what is promised to us. And it is all because of grace. When you get to 1 Corinthians 15, the new body is described. God gives us the words to describe the new body. The words are “epouranoi,” “aphtharsia,” “dunamis,” “doxa,” and “pneumatikos.” These words show that the new body will be fit for the heavens, “epouranoi,” all three heavens. It is in the plural. The new body will be fit for the first heaven, the second heaven, the third heaven—the atmosphere of the earth, the cosmos, and the dwelling place of God. These bodies are designed for earth, and the new body will be fit for everything. It will be unbelievable, indestructible, no longer subject to decay, powerful, glorious, governed by the Spirit, not dominated by the flesh—these are amazing promises. It is all grace.
There is a final thought here. The final thought is that by grace alone we are freed up for good works. That is an unusual thought, but that is how the passage ends. Paul says, “By grace you have been saved through faith; it is not by your own doing, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” It is an amazing conclusion on this grace deal. It is grace that lifts us out of this polluted, demonic planet and rescues us. It is grace that elevates us to sit with Christ in the heavenly places with all those promises. It is grace that also frees us up to good works now.
If you are working for your salvation, you are not really free. We have already seen how the religions of the world all have that same message: “You are going to have to save yourself.” We have seen how the religions of the world tell us that we are saved by works. It is not “sola gratia” as we saw last week; but rather, it is “o solo mio”—you have got to do it yourself. We have seen how this is true in Islam. It is true with Sharia law; it is true in the Quran; it is true in the Hadith; it is true when you look at “shahadah,” “salat,” “zakat,” “sawm,” and “hajj.” It is true in all the things that faithful Muslims do as they practice their ritualistic prayers five times a day, facing Mecca, prostrating themselves at the sound of the crier from the minaret. At the final day, at the judgment, they hope that their good works might be greater than their bad works so that they can somehow be saved.
You see this in Buddhism and Hinduism. It doesn’t matter what writing you read. In Buddhism, you could read the “Tripitika,” “the Three Baskets,” “the Basket of Higher Dharma,” “the Basket of Discipline,” “the Basket of Discourses”—the message is the same as the “Mahabharata,” the same as the “Bhagavad Gita.” The message is that you are basically saved through karma, saved through constant work on your karma. You are saved through the law of samsara, the never-ending wheel, the never-ending cycle of life, death, rebirth, life, death, rebirth. You must try over many, perhaps countless lifetimes to overcome sin and develop your good works to reach moksha or nirvana. It is all works.
Even in Judaism with the Pharisees and the scribes, it was works. Into this crazy world comes the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says, “Take this to the world. It is good news, ‘euangelion.’ Take it to every nation, take it to every tribe, take it to every people.” We are not saved by works. You are saved by grace and grace alone. “Sola gratia.” “You are not saved by your works, but by My works; not by your righteousness, but by My righteousness,” Christ says, “By My death on the cross in your place, for your sin, in substitutionary atonement.” It is grace. “Come to Me in faith.” It is grace. What an amazing God we have. What an amazing Lord and Savior. That is why the reformers, John Calvin and Martin Luther and Zwingli shouted to the rooftops, “sola gratia,” by grace alone.
Next week, I am breaking for a week and Lee Strobel is going to be here. It is going to be an incredible message on marriage. Lee and Leslie have been married for almost 40 years. What an amazing message it is going to be. You will want to come and be a part of that. I will come back the following week, and we will continue our “sola” messages. We will look at “sola fide” and “sola scriptura” and maybe “soli Deo gloria.” I am looking forward to that, and I hope you are too. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.