Reckoned of Grace – Romans 4:1-5

 I have no proof of this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some computer determined that I use the word “grace” somewhere in eight or nine of every ten messages that I preach. Lately, in addition to the two occasions that the word is used at the end of Romans 3 and beginning of 4, we have seen that “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” We sing the song: “Marvelous Grace of our Loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary’s mount out poured, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sins.” We sing: “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that save a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” We sing: “Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sins. How shall my tongue describe it…. We sing a dozen songs that extol the glories of the grace of God. And we sing a dozen, dozen songs that praise the Lord for the wonders of His grace whether they use the word or not. We call it WONDERFUL grace, we call it MARVELOUS, we call it GREAT grace. And what saith the scripture about Abraham? He “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Abraham didn’t work for some spiritual reward, because that would have made it a debt. But the testimony was that he “worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Abraham was saved by grace through faith.

What makes grace so great and marvelous? If you begin to think that you’ve heard all these things before, well, you probably have. But the grace of God should be one of the things to which the heart of the Christian longs to return. It is quite obvious that the subject is high in the heart of Paul. He mentions it 20 times in the Book of Romans and many more times in all his other epistles. And if it were not for grace we’d BE nothing, we’d HAVE nothing, and we’d NEVER have anything.

Think about the Lord Jesus’ allegory of the grace of God – nicknamed: “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.” A certain man had two sons, the younger of which demanded his liberty at his fathers expense. At the earliest opportunity he fled to a far country and wasted the beneficence of his father on riotous living. When his money was gone, his friends disappeared as well. He got a job as a bar tender, or a dishwasher, or as a male prostitute until he came to the end of himself. Eventually, he repented of his sins against his family and caught a bus towards home. From the bus station he called his dad, who upon hearing a hesitant “hello,” told his son to stay where he was, because he was getting in the car to pick him up. The father of that profligate prodigal, instantly forgave his son of all his sins, took him home and gave him a welcome party fit for a conquering hero. That is a limited, and somewhat shallow picture, of grace.

What is the grace of God all about? It begins with no hope, and it ends with no doubts.

God’s grace is marvelous because it begins with NO HOPE.For three chapters Paul has been beating the stuffing out of us. He has told us over and over again that we are worthless, no good wasters, prodigals and profligates. He slapped us about the face, the place of our greatest pride. And then he picked up the stick of the law of God and started beating on our souls.

Despite what mankind wishes down in its heart… Despite what all the man-made churches teach in order to satisfy the cravings of the soul… Despite the whispers of Satan and the lies of the psychiatrists… You and I have no way of preparing perfection sufficient to please our Creator and Judge. He is too holy and absolutely perfect.

Moses was about as removed from most kinds of sin as anyone might have been, living on back side desert. But as he approached the bush that burned with the presence of the Holy God, the Lord demanded: “Take your shoes off.” In essence the Lord said that the best that man has is not fit enough for God. If David had to be saved by grace, and had the Lord’s righteousness given to given to make him righteous, then that is also what we need. If Abraham was saved by grace through faith, then there must be no other way. If Elijah and John the Baptist were saved by grace, then without grace WE all are hopeless. The Apostle John, John the Beloved, John the Apostle of love, tells us that without the grace of Christ we remain under the wrath of God.

Because we are hopeless without grace. The very best that man has to offer the Lord is not nearly as good as we think that it is. But not only that, we have a very corrupt impression of the nature of the Lord as well. He is infinitely greater and more holy than even our most sanctified imaginations can picture Him. One of the many problems with the modern style church and worship is that it degrades the image of God. I don’t think that the Lord is pleased with slovenly apparel in the House of God. I don’t believe that Lord is pleased with the decadent and secular music found in most houses of worship. I don’t think that the holiness of the Lord is magnified in the preaching of the Word of God as it should be, and I’m thinking of mine as much as that of others. A casual worship service implies that we have a casual God, which, of course, is a lie. God is a spirit, and He accepts only worship that is presented in spirit and in Truth.

Grace is great because we are all so removed from His Holiness that without it there would be no hope.

Ah, but it is great, too, because with grace there is NO PROBLEM.It doesn’t matter to what depths we have sunk, it doesn’t matter how odorous the sewage in which we stand. It doesn’t matter what sins we have committed, when the Lord’s grace is given, it is supreme. The summary of sin in chapter 3 is extensive, but the descriptions of sin in chapters 1 and 2 are disgusting. And yet Paul is teaching that grace is greater than all these sins.

What examples do we need? Paul was a murderer, but the Lord’s grace is greater than the blood on a man’s hands. Rahab had been a whore, but the Lord’s grace is greater than adultery. Lazarus was a dead man, but the grace of God is stronger than death. Levi was a tax man for a foreign government, but the grace of God knows no class distinctions. Cornelius was a Roman, but the grace of God is not confined to certain nations. Lydia was a secular, business-woman, but the Lord’s grace opened her heart.

We remember that it was the Lord who told the three stories in Luke 15. They are all illustrations of the Lord’s grace and saving ability. The lost sheep chose to be lost, but the Lord’s grace chose him to be found. The lost coin was so cold and dead that it didn’t know that it was lost, but it was valuable to the Lord, and He chose to go to great lengths to recover it. And the lost son was not worthy of father’s house, but grace restored him.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or how deep you have fallen, if you would cast yourself before the feet of the Lord, he will not spurn you.

Because the Lord’s grace comes with NO STRINGS attached.I know that when people first come to the Lord for His salvation, they know next to nothing about Him. Oh, there are times when those people think that they know much about God, but it’s usually mistaken. When a child comes to Christ they don’t know much about His deity, His eternality, or His righteousness. When a person believes on the Lord Jesus, they may not be able to explain the Lord’s Lordship. But I will not baptize a person, who claims to be a Christian, and who denies certain things about Christ. If that person denies that Jesus was Virgin born, then I can’t be sure that he or she is born-again. If that person denies that Jesus is God, then he definitely has never met the Lord who is certainly divine. And if that person refuses to permit the Lord to be his Lord, then it says to me that he’s never repented.

Despite these things, I don’t believe that the Lord demands specific promises from sinners before He bestows His grace. I would like to hear every new believer say that he wants to serve the Lord. I would like to hear that they want to do whatever the Lord wants them to do. I wish that they be willing to be missionaries, musicians, teachers or whatever, if the Lord should ask. But when the Lord graciously brings the sinner to His home, it is without demanding promises or making threats. The man in Jesus’ parable had a speech prepared to give to his father, and he was ready make big promises, but the father didn’t listen. Because salvation is not based on anything that sinners have done, nor is it based on anything that saints might do in the future. God saves entirely by grace, and entirely for His sake and glory, with no strings attached.

And lastly, the Lord’s grace is great, because there is NO DOUBT about it.When the thief was hanging on cross beside the Lord Jesus, it didn’t look like either one had much of a life ahead. But the truth of the matter is that despite the pre-existence and eternality of Christ… and despite the approaching death of the thief, in a sense, both had only started their eternal existences. It may have sounded ludicrous to an unbelieving bystander to listen to the Lord’s words to that man. But when the Saviour said, “Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise,” there was no doubt about it.

Please be aware that there was nothing worthy of grace in that dying thief. There is reason to believe that he was more than just a thief, and that he was well worthy of capital punishment. He could not reach back into his past and pull out things to present to Lord in order to buy His salvation. The man was saved by grace alone. “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” And the Lord said to that man, “Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.”

And the same might be said of Abraham. He was saved by the grace of God, and proof of that was seen in his ability to trust the Lord to save him. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” The reward, or the blessing of God, was reckoned of grace, not of debt. And then following that there was Abraham’s obedience.

I believe that Jehovah created our little world and this enormous universe. I believe that He actually spoke things into existence, when there wasn’t anything here before. I believe that sometimes He took rudimentary elements and made extremely complicated things out of them. But more than once He began with nothing and made something great. So when that Lord says to sinners, “Today, tomorrow, or next year thou shalt be with me in paradise,” I have no doubt that it shall be. And He has said things such as this over and over again.

“If you from sin are longing to be free – look to the lamb of God.” Whether you have reached bottom, or if you haven’t yet begun to sink, you still need the Lord’s grace. And that grace is perhaps the greatest thing in the Lord’s creation. It made a worthless man named Abram into one of the premier people of all human history.