Grace

October 17, 2021

Randy Hageman

Agape love is

to accept someone for who they are and sacrificially working for their good.

Agape love is a choice, a decision, that we make, even when we don’t

it, in order to obey Christ and live as his followers.

Jesus: ‘So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love (agapao) each other. Just as I have loved (agapao) you, you should love (agapao) each other. Your (agape) love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.’ —John 13:34-35 (NLT) – emphasis & Greek added

God’s decision to love us and offer us salvation is purely an act of

, because through our sins we certainly don’t deserve it.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. —Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT)

Grace is God’s

favor, based upon His love, to offer us more than we deserve, including salvation through Jesus Christ.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. —John 8:2 (ESV)

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.’ —John 8:3-4 (ESV)

‘Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ —John 8:5 (ESV)

This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. —John 8:6 (ESV)

Whatever Jesus said, the religious leaders thought they had put him in an

position.

Then the king answered and said, ‘Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.’ And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. —1 Kings 3:27-28 (ESV)

In even seemingly impossible situations, “the wisdom of God” offers true

.

And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. —John 8:7-8 (ESV)

Jesus is not

what the Law of Moses says or even the justness of the punishment for this woman, but whether her accusers have any right to judge her.

Jesus: ‘Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. —Matthew 7:1-5 (NLT)

Amazing grace is that we, who have

, are given a second chance because of God’s agape love for us through Jesus’ atoning death on the cross.

Jesus is calling us to live lives filled with love, mercy and grace because that’s what He’s offered to

.

But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. —John 8:9 (ESV)

Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’ —John 8:10-11 (ESV)

Implicit in Jesus’ statement of no condemnation is his

, but whether she receives it or allows it to change her is up to her.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. —Romans 8:1 (ESV)

God’s grace can give us another chance, especially when we don’t

it.

Jesus isn’t dismissing sin or minimizing her sin – rather he’s putting it in the context of what

would do.

The phrase “

grace” is often associated with German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book The Cost of Discipleship, published in 1937.

Cheap Grace is the deadly enemy of our church. It is grace without price: grace without cost!… Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Grace is free, but it’s not

because it cost God His Son on the cross.

When we fail to take seriously what Jesus did for us so that we could experience God’s grace, we’ve

his grace.

If we truly believe what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, then the last thing we want to do is take that grace for

, dismissing what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Next Week’s New Series – A Profound Mystery: Conversations About Sexuality