Grace enough and to spare God could never forgive me. I ve done some awful things in my life. How often have we thought that? How many people, because of their guilt over past sins, believe and say things like this: Woe is me, I m done for, I ve had it, I m through, there s no way God could ever love me or forgive me. Sin is why we die, why Jesus died on the cross, the reason people will be in hell. If God were to put one half of one sin against us, it would be enough to damn and doom us forever. Paul said the wages of sin is death, not the wages of sin is a bad mood or a hard day or a bout with depression, but death sin is fatal. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death NKJV Our struggles in life can be very discouraging, and our guilt and inability to forgive ourselves can be debilitating. If we don t understand the whole story, we can get so discouraged that we can drift away from God forever! The private thoughts of the prodigal son in a pig pen gives us some hope: Luke 15:17 But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. NKJV That hungry prodigal knew that his rich father would not go to bed without supper that night. The more he thought of it, it dawned on him that nobody on his father s farm would fall asleep with a growling stomach - he would! Since the father in the story represents God, we can draw some interesting conclusions from the phrase bread enough and to spare. God has never been stingy with His blessings: Matthew 5:45 He gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. NLT Romans 8:32 Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave him up for us all, won t He also give us everything else? NLT Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. NLT God freely gives His children everything they need to live. But what about mercy and forgiveness and grace? With God, there is always grace enough and to spare. Is your case a difficult one? Do your sins shock you? Do you have a tough time saying no to temptations? Are your particular spiritual struggles strange and complex? Do you struggle with guilt over something you did in the past? Consider God who made the earth, stretched out the heavens like a tent to dwell in, Who has unlimited power, knowledge, and presence. In all of creation, God has never failed at anything do you think His first failure will be to save you? Is your case too strong for His omnipotence, are your problems so complex that God s omniscient mind can t figure it out; do you think you have been so bad as to be unlovable by God s omni-benevolence? If God made you (Genesis 1:28), He can remake you (2 Corinthians 5:17). If He claims you (2 Corinthians 6:18), He can cleanse you (Acts 22:16). Isaiah 59:1 Listen! The Lord s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. NLT 1
No matter what you have done, no matter how long you have struggled, there is still grace enough and to spare on God s table of grace! Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that He may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for He will forgive generously. NLT Psalm 86:5 O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. NLT Romans 5:20 God s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God s wonderful grace became more abundant. NLT 2 Corinthians 4:15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. NLT Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. NLT Let s put this abundant grace to the test in a real world of really bad sinners. Does God really live up to His promises? David and Bathsheba: 2 Samuel 12:13 Then David confessed to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan replied, Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won t die for this sin. NLT The publicans and sinners were notorious transgressors of God s law. Yet when they came to Jesus, they always found grace enough and to spare: Mark 2:15-17: Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, Why does he eat with such scum? When Jesus heard this, he told them, Healthy people don t need a doctor sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners. NLT Take the case of the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50 who Simon called a sinner, and the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8:1-11. Could God s grace cover the scandals of their lives? Yes! What about a traitor one of the inner circle who forsook the Lord with his eyes wide open, even after he had been warned (Matthew 26:34)? Peter was all these; he denied Jesus three times, he cursed and swore that he did not even know the man (Matthew 26:72). When he realized what he had done, he went out and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:75). Could grace cover such a horrible sin? Yes! Jesus forgave Peter. But surely he was on probation; surely God considered him second-rate, damaged goods. No, less than two months later, Jesus tapped him to be the keynote speaker at the greatest revival of all time (Acts 2). Jesus featured Peter as the key character of the first half of the Book of Acts, used him to write two Bible books, and placed him as an elder in a local congregation (1 Peter 5:1-2). 2
It would be hard to imagine anybody today that could be worse than someone who killed Jesus! Yet the very people who killed Jesus were told Acts 2:38 - Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. NKJV 3000 did, and the Bible says Acts 2:47 - the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. NKJV What about sexual perverts and child molesters and murderers, etc., are they welcome at the Father s table. Yes, provided they obey the gospel. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. NKJV Saul of Tarsus was public enemy #1 in the kingdom of heaven without a doubt he tested the grace enough and to spare principle like no one else ever has. He was a blasphemer of God and murderer of innocent Christians. He was involved in the mob killing of Stephen (Acts 7). Surely, Saul would find that grace could cover only so much and that he had long ago crossed that line, the point of no return! No, he too found grace enough and to spare! Years later he described himself as the chief of sinners: 1 Timothy 1:13-15: I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus. This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I am the worst of them all. NLT Is it any wonder that Paul wrote more about grace than all the other New Testament writers combined? I don t deserve God s grace it will take me my whole life to make up for what I ve done to Jesus! What I did was unforgivable! No - what Jesus did on the cross was meant to take what was unforgiveable and make it forgivable. It s not about you, it s not about me! It s always about Jesus! That s God s grace! Can God forgive you? Yes! Will God forgive you? Yes! The only question that remains is, Do you really want to be forgiven? Are you willing to come to God on his own terms? I. God s terms There are three responses we should make because of our sin three stages of repentance we must go through in order to return to God! First, we must acknowledge our sin: Psalm 38:17-18: I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain. But I confess my sins; I am deeply sorry for what I have done. NLT 3
Psalm 51:1-4: Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. NLT The sinner must reach a point where he says to God, I have sinned against You, and I turn to You in deep repentance. David laid everything before the gracious eyes of God. Psalm 38:9-10: You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh. My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind. NLT Psalm 38:15 For I am waiting for you, O Lord. You must answer for me, O Lord my God. NLT The longer you deny your sin and say, It s no problem, it s not a big issue, I can deal with it, I can handle it, the harder it will be to repent (hard heart/seared conscience). Second, we must ask for forgiveness! Asking for forgiveness should be the main object of the prayer of the broken and contrite Christian. As we ask, we must never, regardless of how bad the situation, lose our faith in God. He is full of lovingkindness and will come to our aid if we ask Him to do so. Psalm 51:7-11: Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me now let me rejoice. Don t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don t take your Holy Spirit from me. NLT Psalm 130:1-5: From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help. Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word. NLT John gave us the everlasting assurance of forgiveness in these words: 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. NKJV Later, John reminded us that, when we sin, we are to turn our hearts to two truths - what Jesus did on earth and what Jesus is currently doing in heaven! 1 John 2:1-2: My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. NKJV God does not want us to sin, He knows what sin does to our lives and to our relationship with Him. However, God has made provisions for those times when we do sin. He sent Jesus into the world to die on the cross, to be the propitiation for our sins; and He has put Jesus at His right hand to be our intercessor: Romans 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. NKJV 4
Third, we must accept God s forgiveness! God has made promises to His people; and when the conditions of His forgiveness have been met, He will keep His promise to forgive! God is reliable and faithful; but we must be trusting, gratefully accepting the forgiveness that He has given: Psalm 32:1-5: Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord. And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. NLT In His great and merciful grace, God always forgives sinners when they truly repent. However, true repentance isn t about saying the right words, it is about a change in life: 2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. NKJV The one who truly repents will prove it by their actions: Acts 26:20 I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God and prove they have changed by the good things they do. NLT II. The day grace happened to you If you are a Christian, that means Christ took away your sins. He not only endured the nails of the Romans, the mockery of the crowd, and the spear of the soldier for you, but the anger of God! God didn t overlook your sins, lest He endorse them. He didn t punish you lest He destroy you. He instead found a way to punish the sin and preserve the sinner. Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you the credit for Jesus perfection. Precious as it is to proclaim, Christ died for the world, even sweeter it is to whisper, Christ died for me! For my sins He died. He took my place on the cross. He felt my shame and spoke my name. Grace is God s best idea. Grace is everything Jesus! Thank God for the day Jesus took your place, for the day grace happened to you! III. Closing thoughts There is no road block, no obstacle placed by Satan, there is no mountain of struggle that is too big, too powerful, or too overwhelming to overcome the grace of Almighty God! Those who are saved by the grace of God cannot be overcome or snatched away from the Father s hand by an outside force. What God s grace has done for us in the past, we can count on to do for us all the days of our lives until it safely leads us home! God s grace reaches down to the lowest sinful life it even reaches me! 1 Timothy 1:15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I am the worst of them all. Can God forgive us? Yes, His grace is greater than our sin! 5