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Content type: Sermon Poem / Prayer Service / Tribute Incomplete Biography
Body: Cane Creek Friends Meeting 9/08/24. Note: I used the sermon by Ray Pritchard called, “Martin Luther’s Highway to Heaven” Spoken “from the shoes of Martin Luther” www.keepbelieving.com. Good morning. I’d like to tell you a little about my story. I grew up knowing about God but when I was 21 years old, I had a life-changing experience. One day I was out walking on the road during a thunderstorm and was struck by lightning. I knew I wasn’t living like I should and believed that God was trying to get my attention, so I left everything and joined a monastery. Life as a monk was anything but easy. We’d get up about 2:00 a.m. every day. As soon as we crawled out of bed we would pray and sing, followed by a time of meditation. We’d then pray some more and sing some more. Next, we’d have breakfast and then morning prayers. We’d work all morning and then after lunch we had another time of prayer and singing followed by a brief nap. Then came more prayer and singing and meditation, after which we had supper. In the evening we’d pray some more and sing some more and then meditate one last time. My life was filled with religious ritual, ceremony and solitude, penance and poverty. I was willing to live like this because I was on a desperate search for peace. Some days I felt that all these rituals were helping me but most of the time I was gripped with fear that I wasn’t doing enough. I knew I was a sinner, and that God was holy and that I would never measure up. But I kept trying my best. In fact, my brothers referred to me as “a monk of the monks.” When praise and prayer didn’t rid me of the dread in my life, I started confessing every sin I could remember. This might be hard for you to believe, but there were times I would spend six hours a day in confession! This only led to more guilt and despair because I knew I couldn’t remember all my sins. And if I couldn’t remember all of them, how could I truly be forgiven? My transgressions were tearing me up and my wayward heart was wiping me out. The turning point in my life came when my friend Johann asked me to teach the Bible. Ironically, I had never really studied the Bible before. It was when I was studying the Book of Romans that I came across this phrase in the first chapter: “The righteous will live by faith.” I was both excited and yet skeptical because it all seemed too simple. Allow me to read from my journal: “My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage Him… then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through **grace** and sincere mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into Paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning…this passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven” (Roland Bainton, “Here I Stand,” 49-50). “The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.” Martin Luther. Please turn to **Romans 5:20-21**: “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” I see three facets of grace in the closing verses of **Romans 5**. First. Grace is greater than our sin (20). Follow along as I read the first part of verse 20: “The law was added so that the trespass might increase.” Surprisingly, the Law does not restrain or subdue sin. Rather, it excites and increases it. When God gave the Law, it was intended to be secondary not primary. It was given not to make us sinners, but to show us the depth of our trespass. One writer said it well: “The Law makes little Adams out of us all.” As Paul says in **Romans 7:7**, the 10 Commandments convince us that we are sinners: “…Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law…” We can’t get right with God by keeping the Law because it’s actually impossible to keep. It won’t commend us because it condemns us. We see this in **Romans 3:20**: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” God’s commands convince and convict us of sin, and that’s a good thing. **James 1:23** refers to God’s revelation as a mirror that reflects what we’re really like. Phillip Malanchthon, Luther’s young helper during the Reformation, expressed his exasperation with trying to keep all the commandments with these words: “Old Adam is too strong for young Phillip.” Notice the word “trespass” is singular. I believe this is still referring to Adam’s sin and thus to our very nature, or condition as sinners. The word “trespass” refers to crossing the line, or breaking God’s boundaries while the word “sin” means to miss the mark of God’s standards. Let’s look now at the second phrase of verse 20: “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” It’s difficult to get the full meaning of this verse in the NIV because the two uses of “increase” are not the same word in the Greek. The first “increase” speaks of addition. But when he says “grace increased” he uses a prefix that means multiplication. Where sins are added one by one, grace is multiplied a thousand times over. Sin abounds and adds up but grace super-abounds and expands exponentially. Check out these words from the hymn, “Grace Greater Than My Sin.” Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. Corrie Ten Boom once said: “There is no pit so deep that the love of God is not deeper still.” It’s been said that Christianity is supremely a religion of grace. And that is certainly true. But, even so, grace is not well understood and often not embraced. We use the word a great deal but rarely think about what it means. Words like favor, beauty, thankfulness, gratitude, delight, kindness, benefit— all come from the same root that gives us the word “grace.” It is easy to see why grace as a concept gets so diluted. Webster’s New World Dictionary alone gives six different definitions. Grace literally means “a free gift” and is defined as the unmerited favor of God. But grace is more than that. God’s grace causes Him to pardon guilty sinners who deserve damnation and a home in Hell. In his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” Phillip Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of grace itself. Grace is scandalous. It’s hard to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers. It is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners. Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in our salvation. Jesus did all the work when he died on the cross. Jerry Bridges once said, “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.” In the end grace means that no one is too bad to be saved. God specializes in saving really bad people. Do you have some things in your background that you would be ashamed to talk about in public? Fear not. God knows all about it, and His grace is greater than your sin. Grace also means that some people may be too good to be saved. That is, they may have such a high opinion of themselves that they think they don’t need God’s grace. God’s grace cannot help you until you are desperate enough to receive it. Friends, we need to put the “amazing” back into grace. This passage shows us that grace is multiplied a million times over and is exceedingly greater than our sin. It’s surprising and amazing and utterly unexpected because by its very nature it is underserved. Paul never got over grace and neither should we. Listen to his words in **1 Timothy 1:13-14**: “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man…the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly…” Let me make two related points. • Grace is great but sometimes sin still has consequences. After being made right with God, we often have to make things right in other ways. Faults can be forgiven but consequences still come. Grace is amazing but wrong actions often come with a reaction. We need to strive for the balance of grace and truth, following the example of our Savior. **John 1:14** says that Jesus was “full of grace and truth.” Pastor Dick share that one of his students at Moody really struggled with memorizing Scripture and doing well on tests because of drug abuse before he got saved. He knew he was forgiven by God’s grace, but the truth part was that his mind would forever be affected. • Don’t presume upon grace and just do what you want. Why not just sin more if grace is going to abound anyway. Look with me at how Paul addresses this issue in **Romans 6:1-2**: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” **Romans 6:12-14**: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” Sin is still a sinister force for the believer; don’t play around with it! Grace reigns through righteousness (21a). We see the purpose behind the multiplication of grace in verse 21: “So that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life...” The word “reign” means to rule as a king with absolute authority. Paul is reminding us, one last time that apart from Christ, you and I are “in Adam” and therefore are controlled and ruled by the reign of unrighteousness. In his book “The Ragamuffin Gospel,” Brennan Manning writes: “Though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace, many Christians live as if only personal discipline and self-denial will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing. In this curious process God is the benign old spectator in the bleachers…” But here’s the really good news. Just as we were automatically placed “in Adam” at birth, when we are born again, we are transferred to a different domain, where grace has the highest place. Before you know Jesus Christ, sin is your master, and you are handed over to the domination of death. At conversion, you are granted grace, and you are placed “in Christ.” Grace is given so that it rules and reigns in your life and brings you to eternal life. **1 Corinthians 15:54-55**: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Someone has said that “grace gives us something and takes us somewhere.” For the believer, eternal life begins at conversion, as Jesus longs for us to live the “abundant life” referenced in **John 10:10**: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” The reign of grace, properly understood, does not lead to a sloppy spirituality that minimizes sin. In fact, according to **Titus 2:11-12** grace empowers us to avoid sin: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It [grace] teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” The puritan Thomas Brooks put it this way: “As heat is opposed to cold, and light to darkness, so grace is opposed to sin. Fire and water may as well agree in the same vessel as grace and sin in the same heart.” Grace then, is not some static principle but rather a dynamic life-changing reality. It can be argued that grace is not just a presence or a principle; it is a power that reaches out to save the perishing and sanctify believers so that we become more like Christ. Grace comes through Christ (21b). If you are a born-again believer, you have given nothing to God and you have gained much. Notice the last phrase of verse 21: “Through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It’s as if Paul can’t resist saying the name of Jesus one more time! This section comes to an end with an emphasis on Jesus Christ, through whom we are granted grace, if we but accept His invitation. Did you catch that Jesus Christ is “our” Lord? He is not a generic Jesus; He is the only way, the only truth and the only life. He will share His throne with no one. Jesus is the King of the kingdom where grace reigns. It really has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul said it this way in **Colossians 1:16-17**: “All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Allow these truths to penetrate and percolate through your soul: • Grace is greater than our sin • Grace reigns through righteousness • Grace comes through Christ Are your sins piled before you? Are you burdened and broken by the bondage of sin? If so, make a place for God’s grace in your life. It’s time to embrace the grace of God that comes only through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now back into the “shoes” of Martin Luther” It boils down to this. You can continue to follow a performance-based religion like I did for way too many years and end up in a ditch of despair. Or you can enjoy a pardon-based relationship and embrace the grace that is yours in Christ. I used to come back to this phrase many times: “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” I would also tell people who wanted to put off a decision for Christ that they were on dangerous ground. As I recall I said this: “How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never.’” Receive the grace of Christ right now. Ask Him to forgive you and cleanse you and make you into the person He wants you to be.
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