27^th March 2012

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 18 March 2012

Lessons -- Psalm 103:1-13; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:16-21

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your
own doing. It is the gift of God -- not because of works, lest
any(one) should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9)

This text should be engraved on our hearts and minds. It declares the incredible truth that we are members of the Church solely because, in Christ, God has freely and undeservedly forgiven us. Luther, Calvin, Wesley and others delighted in preaching this Gospel. They knew that 'having faith' in God's mercy embodied 'in Christ' means 'being saved' -- not from hardship but from alienation from God. 'Salvation' means that flawed people, like us, who do not naturally love God or their neighbours, are reconciled to God.

This central reality of the Christian life is hard to hear today. The language of 'salvation' and 'grace' has become inaccessible to many of us -
- if not unbelievable! We have forgotten what and who is at 'the heart of the Gospel'. The word of 'salvation by grace through faith' is now an embarrassment to the Church.

If 'grace' means anything today it means 'accepting everybody and everything'. The Gospel of God's 'saving grace' in Christ has been distorted by the false idea that, because 'all is of grace', we can get on with life without thought for the miracle of God's love for our broken world or for the cost of discipleship.

We forget that sin is serious. It is what happens when we dishonour God and demean other people as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ. We all participate in evil by what we say and do and by what we do not say or do. We curse God for our lot in life and wish others would not make claims on us. We blame others, such as family or society, for our faults or choices. We try to overcome our little failings by willpower, but ignore the fact that, in big and small matters alike, we have alienated ourselves from God's will embodied 'in Christ Jesus' (1:1,2).

The situation is so serious that Paul says that all of us are 'children of wrath by nature' (2:3). In polite Christian circles talk of the 'wrath of God' is thought unworthy of a loving God and dangerous to our well-being.
Abuse of the 'wrath of God' by loveless fanatics is reason to fear that others will be condemned and God's all-embracing mercy will be ignored. It is much hated in an age where acceptance of all beliefs and lifestyles has become the 'new faith'. Any attempt to eliminate the 'wrath of God' from the Christian story would also erase the 'love of God'! If God did not become 'angry' at what we do to make him in our own image and deface his image in others, he would not be the God whose righteousness-and-mercy have been disclosed to the Hebrews and 'in Christ Jesus'. Such a 'god'
would not be the God whose hatred of sin and love for sinners is embodied in Christ's life, death and resurrection. In him God's wrath-and-grace is displayed.

'Whatever "salvation" means, in all its dimensions, it must deal with
our profound alienation from the God who made us and to whom we must
give an account, the God we [strip of dignity] by our thoughts and
words and deeds; otherwise it is "salvation" in only the most
superficial senses. That this salvation comes about because the God
who is against us is also the God who, in full compassion, is for us
is almost too wonderful to take in.' (DA Carson, 'The Wrath of God',
in Engaging the Doctrine of God: Contemporary Protestant
Perspectives, ed Bruce L McCormack, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids
Michigan 2008.)

What a pity that once powerful, moving words like 'grace' and 'salvation'
have lost their ability to inspire, challenge and renew the Church. What a pity that they have been torn out of the story of God's implacable hatred of evil and reconciling love for those who hate him, and pasted in to a very different story -- a story about a bland, benign and doting deity.
What a shame that the cost of God's mercy and of faith in Christ has been dismissed in this 'new faith' that is shamelessly promoted by many preachers today!

Nevertheless, the 'dead language of grace' can come to life and become a word of freedom: freedom from alienation from God. Paul here warns his fellow-Christians about two equally serious forms of enslavement that are opposed to God's 'saving grace': hedonism and moralism.

* Freedom in Christ is to be distinguished from a life devoted to
self-indulgence (2: 2,3). Thinking that grace means that we are free to
do our own thing, many seek pleasure, not in glorifying God's embodied
grace but in glorifying our bodies and minds. The emphasis on sport,
fitness, beauty, sex and intellect is a sign that many people are
trying to save themselves by glorifying themselves, not relying on
God's 'saving grace'.

* Freedom in Christ is also to be distinguished from a life devoted to
decency (2:9ff). Thinking that grace means that God has left us to do
our best, many try to save themselves by their 'good works', not
relying on God's 'saving grace'.

Neither passion to indulge ourselves nor passion for good works is a substitute for faith in God's grace. In Christ's life, death, resurrection and ascension we see the seriousness of sin and the magnitude of grace.
God's 'saving grace' embodied in him, liberates indecent and decent folk alike.

The magnificence of grace is exuberantly expressed by Paul in the opening chapters of Ephesians. The sovereign purpose of God, so brilliantly displayed in Christ (1:1-14), is to restore our flawed, strife-torn humanity to God. God is 'rich in mercy' (2:4). In love God has destined us to be sons and daughters of grace and brothers and sisters of Christ (1:5). He has 'loved us with a great love' (1:4), embodying the 'immeasurable riches of his grace in Christ Jesus' which he 'lavished upon
us' (1:7).

Such is the 'salvation' that has been accomplished by God's 'sovereign grace' (Charles Wesley, Australian Hymn Book 50 v2). Such is the pleasure that we can freely enjoy and the tasks we can freely exercise when first we honour God as God and serve our fellows as brothers and sisters of Christ. Thus our good works and pleasures are responses to God's magnanimous love 'in Christ', not the means by which to earn God's approval. Everything that the Church does, therefore, should spring from gratitude that, 'in Christ', God is revealed as the God of wrath (who hates idolatry and inhumanity) and the God of mercy (who loves sinners and restores them to communion with him).

The Church exists solely to acknowledge and declare the 'everlasting love of God' (Australian Hymn Book 142 v1) 'who came to this world to save everyone' (Australian Hymn Book 105; John 3:16,17). We do not exist to spout our 'good works' but to worship the God whose redemptive love has been illuminated in the flesh of Jesus Christ. We have been called into existence for the sole purpose of 'praising God's glorious grace which he has freely bestowed on us in the Beloved' (Ephesians 1:6,12,14). That is why membership in the Body of Christ begins and ends in adoration. That is why worship of God is at the heart of the life of a Christian community.

It now becomes clear why the refusal to worship with our fellow-Christians or to rely on our good works alone is to refuse to honour God's gracious calling. It is also clear why members of the Body of Christ must protest when God's grace is presented falsely as benign indulgence. For God's presence in Christ reveals God's implacable opposition to evil (wrath) and God's love for sinful humanity (grace).

The story of 'the riches of God's mercy' embodied in Christ must be kept alive by the Church. This is particularly necessary today when 'grace'
and 'salvation' have become alien to those who think that they are free to do their own thing (because God is gracious) or that they can save themselves (by doing good works).

Despite the difficulties of preaching and uncertainty about the future shape of the Church, members of the Body of Christ are called together to acknowledge and celebrate God's 'saving grace' in Christ. We have been called to hear the word of God's 'saving grace' and to live in the light of God's unmerited love, so that everybody in our flawed and strife-torn world may rejoice in the hope that has come into our midst in Christ.

Therefore, in everything we do as members of the Body of Christ, let us honour God by worshipping him, opposing forces that diminish his glorious grace, and seeking the restoration of the lost to communion with God. Let our pleasures and 'good works' flow from the abundance of grace in our lives. And let us always be mindful that it is 'by grace that we have been saved through faith; and this is not our own doing. It is the gift of God
-- not because of works, lest anyone should boast'.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of
Confessing Congregations within the UCA.

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