El alto precio de la gracia de Dios - Gracia para estos tiempos, Pt. 4

The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Therefore, go around the world teaching and preaching the gospel to every creature, to the last of the earth. En Contacto, the biblical teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Today on En Contacto, the high price of God's grace. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. There is a difference between cheap and free. To speak of cheap grace is the human attempt to defend his proud insistence to do something that helps God, or to add to what God did for me. Look, grace is His kindness and mercy towards us, without considering our merit or worth, and despite what we deserve. But there is something here within us that somehow feels better if I think I can help God, or if I think I made a contribution, or that everything did not come from Him, but somehow I contributed. If it is forgiveness of sins, salvation, the fullness of the Spirit, there is not a simple thing that we can do. There are people who are legalists in their feelings, and others who think that to be accepted in the eyes of God, you have to live according to a standard, or live according to rules and norms. If one lives according to that, God will accept him. If that is your approach to Christian life, you will have many difficulties with grace, and then what you will do is say, well, this grace that everything comes from God and nothing is mine, makes it very easy.

For example, if I told an unbeliever, or that unbeliever told you, do you want to tell me that to be saved, all I have to do is believe in Christ? Do you want to tell me that there is nothing I can do, or that I should go to church, read the Bible, pray and donate money? What does that have to do with anything? Wait a minute. You want to tell me that I can be saved simply by believing, right? You want to tell me that I just have to believe, right? I don't have to do anything else, right? What kind of salvation is that? Free. No more, no less. Free. How can it be free? That's what I'm going to talk about in this message, the high price of God's grace. Free for us, but not for Him. It didn't cost us anything, but it did cost Him a lot. It's not cheap grace. It's free grace. But it implies a high price. And Paul describes it in just one verse, in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Let's go there. Listen to what he says in verse 9. Because ye have already known the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who for love of you became poor, being rich, that ye may be enriched with his poverty. Let's read it again.

Listen. Because ye have already known the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who for love of you became poor, being rich, that ye may be enriched with his poverty. Right? The grace of God is that God pours out the riches of his blessings into his life and mine, which has nothing to do with whether we deserve it or not. It has to do with the goodness, the love, the grace, and the favor of God. For by grace ye are saved through faith, and this not of you, nor of our faith, not by works, that no one may be glorified. And Paul said it because he knew it was in human nature to want to obtain some merits because we did something that contributed to our salvation or contributed to our forgiveness. None of that. And for the person, and I repeat this on purpose, for the person who feels, well, I have to do something, it is not so because they cannot. The spiritually dead, men and women, cannot do anything. Effort and human works are in vain. They cannot contribute to their salvation nor contribute to being full of the Spirit. They cannot do it nor contribute to forgiveness. That is the work of a person in a moment of history, on the cross, Jesus Christ on the Calvary. Well? It seems cheap to us.

It is not cheap. It is free. But how much did it cost? Let us think about it for a moment. When he says he was rich, Christ was rich in four areas of his life in which he became poor to make us rich in those same areas. And that is what grace is about. First, he was rich in possessions. And what of the world could Christ possess? Before coming to this world, look, he possessed everything. Join me now, John, chapter 1. I would like you to see a couple of verses John, chapter 1, at the beginning of this gospel, notice how John begins his gospel speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ and speaking and referring to him as the word, the living word of God. It says in verse 1, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him nothing that has been done was done. That is, he created everything. Colossians, chapter 1, verse 16. A beautiful passage about Christ, verses 15 and 16. And it says in verse 16, because in him, that is, in Christ, because in him were created all things, those that are in the heavens and those that are in the earth, visible and invisible, be they thrones, be they dominions, be they principalities, be they powers, everything was created by him and for him.

That is, nothing that exists, exists separate from the creator power of Christ. Now look at Psalm 24. There in the Psalms we are reminded in the name of whom all things are, who is the owner of all. Psalm 24, verse 1. Of Jehovah is the earth and its fullness, the world and those that dwell in it. Thus, when speaking of what Christ possessed, the truth is that he possessed all. He was the creator, the sustainer and owner of all. The Bible says here that he who was rich, for love of us, became poor. And then what did he do? Jesus Christ left aside all possession and all his riches in glory, and came to this world as a baby, without having or possessing anything. He discarded his ability to possess and to have, and was born in the world as any other baby, except that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was the owner of all, he created all, he possessed all, and yet he had nothing. I will explain it again. I have said it many times. Here is the heart, the essence and the soul of the New Testament, just in Romans chapter 3, when this question is asked. How can God remain just and declare the sinners completely innocent? Forgive their sins when his law says,

the soul that sins will die. The payment of sin is death. Each person, we all sin against God, we all have the death penalty on us. Then God, living the absolute, total and defenseless condition of humanity, if he were to fulfill his own decree, it would mean that each one would have been born in this world, would have lived and died, and would be separated forever from God. So grace did this, and that is what grace is about. And that is why Christ came, and what we say about grace is summarized in this passage of Romans, which says that for God to remain holy, just and in his own righteousness, he had to do something for it to happen, and thus save us, to provide the payment of the punishment of sin. Jesus Christ was and is the gift of God for all of us, who came into the world, gave up his life in Calvary, and paid our debt of sin. That is why he came, but it cost him, he had to discard everything he possessed, and he came into the world in poverty. Remember that he said that he would always have the poor with him, because he identified with the poor. That does not mean that Jesus is in favor of poverty,

it does not mean that he also blesses poverty, it does not mean that Christ blesses, blesses the need, but made it aside. Listen, it says Jesus Christ, being rich for you, became poor, and what happened? As a result of his coming to this world, it made it possible for God the Father to forgive our sins, to make us his children, and made us rich. Even in the next chapter, in chapter nine, verse eight, listen to what it says. And powerful is God, to make you abound with all grace, so that having always in all things enough, you abound with all good works. It says that it is the grace of God that makes it possible for all of us to have what is necessary, and often many things that we desire. It is the grace of God. And look, when he goes and asks for something, and says, Lord, I know that I do not deserve this, he does not have to say it, he already knows it very well. He already knows that I do not deserve it. We come to him as sons and daughters

to a heavenly Father with our need. That is what the throne of grace is about, to come to him in times of need, in search of mercy and grace for the appropriate aid. The second thing it says, look at this, it says, for love of you, he became poor, being rich. He became poor not only in what he had, he discarded his wealth, but the Bible says that he also discarded his person. Who was he? Look. The most important knowledge that I need, the most important information of all life, is who this Christ is. Listen, when you truly understand who He is, He wants it. When you truly understand who He is and how incapable He is, He wants it. This Christ, this person, what did He do? He says He became poor in His person, that is, who He was. Let's go back to John chapter 1 and listen to what it says. In the first verse, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word, speaking of Christ, was God. Jesus Christ is God. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 1, a beautiful verse about the Lord Jesus and who He is.

His description of who He is, look at this. Chapter 1 of Hebrews, speaking of the Lord Jesus, it says, the one who, being the radiance of his glory, that of the Father, and the image itself of his substance, and who sustains all things with the word of his power, having done the purification of our sins, speaking of his coming to the earth to die for sins, he sat at the right hand of the Majesty in the heights. Look, if someone says, who is Christ? Go to Hebrews chapter 1 and read this verse. Jesus Christ is the radiance of the glory of the Father, the true God, and the image itself of his substance, who sustains all things with the word of his power, and having done the purification of our sins, he sat at the right hand of the Majesty, where he still is today, interceding for us, and listening to the cry of the sinners, who ask the forgiveness of their sins. He discarded his human condition of all his glory, majesty, and honor. Come with me to Philippians chapter 2. This passage describes the incarnation that is, in essence, Jesus Christ, who was God, and came to earth, and put on himself human flesh, and became man. And look, he was tired like all men, he was tired like man, he was tempted like man, he was tested like man, he slept like man. His human nature never, listen to this, never displaced his deity.

He was always God, but he was man, and also God. He felt everything that men feel. And so in Philippians chapter 2, listen to what it says here in verse 5. Paul speaks to us and says, Behold, in you this feeling that was also in Christ Jesus, now he describes it, which, being in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God as a thing to cling to, willing to discard his human condition of equality with God the Father, that is, willing to descend here in human flesh and live among men. He says, but he stripped himself, taking on the form of a servant, made like men. And being in the condition of man, he humiliated himself, becoming obedient to death, and to the death of the cross. He stripped himself. What does that mean? He stripped himself of the mantle of his glory, and came to this world, listen, as a servant, say the Philippians, listen, taking on the form of a servant, the one who receives the guest at the door, he takes off his sandals, and washes his feet. Think of this. He was seated at the right hand of the Father

in all his majesty, power, and glory in heaven. All the angelic hosts sang, praised, prostrated, adored, and honored him. And what did he do? He washed his filthy feet. Who is this man? He is God incarnate, rich, look, rich in his human condition. All the angels of heaven bow before him. All the earth is full of his glory, says the Bible. And what does he do? He was born in the womb of Mary, and now he washes his feet as a servant. He said he was a servant of God, a servant of humanity. He said, I did not come, look, I did not come to this world to be a servant. I came to this world to serve. I came to give my life in rescue for many. Here I was serving a servant, a servant taking refuge in his glory, and he says, listen, that he was willing to work in our favor. Part of his poverty was this, that he, he, he, he said he did not want to hold on and cling to being equal to God. And although he never ceased to be God, he took refuge in himself, in the last of his people, and came to this world as the God-man to do what? He became poor so that we could be rich.

He became poor, says the Bible, so that we could be rich. For the love of you, he became poor, being rich, so that you could be rich. us with his poverty was enriched, that is, the grace of God is the kindness, the love and the undeserved favor of God towards us through the person of Jesus Christ. And listen, grace is not cheap, free, but not cheap. The most valuable thing we have in the grace of God, look, his undeserved, unmerited, look, unmerited, immeasurable, unfathomable, infinite love, poured into us, without reserves, except this. God knows what is good for us, that is ours, his poverty made us rich. It is not something that is considered cheap because he paid everything and we receive everything, well no, it is cheap, but it was gloriously expensive for God the Father. But notice what he says, he says, For the love of you, he became poor, being rich, rich in possessions, he gave them up so that we might be rich and prosperous in him, and he renounced his person so that we might be rich and prosperous in him. He also renounced his position, and what does that mean? It means that he was poor, and he was a friend, although he said he was God, he only said it to clarify his identity, and when he thought about his identity and thought about his power, the power that was his, infinite, absolute, complete control of everything, we see that he was absolutely infinite in his power, but he discarded it. He reached this stage of poverty in terms of power. He allowed himself to be a little, a little, a little meat in the mother's womb. He grew up like a baby, and was born like any other baby, but conceived by the Holy Spirit. He grew up like a child, like a boy, he grew up like a man, with all the things that children face in life, but without sin. When he grew up, he had to work in the carpentry like any other man. He got tired, he got exhausted, he was not infinite, he did not struggle, he could not, he could not, he could not make furniture twenty-four hours a day, he got tired, he slept, he rested, he also got exhausted. Do you know why?

Because he discarded that infinite power that was in him and the glory that he had with the Father to become a man and suffer like a man. And listen to this, he did not do any of this out of obligation, he did it voluntarily. Think about the power that Christ needed to surrender himself to bad and cruel men whose only purpose in life was to have the plan of redemption. Imagine the power that he needed to let the Roman soldiers beat him over and over again until his back was flesh and blood. And he did not say a word. When he could have annihilated them in a single blink, they would have gone. Imagine when he was on the cross and he let them take some nails and nail them into his hands and his feet, being able to stop them at any time. Imagine the power he needed to surrender the deity to humanity, the holiness to evil, and not say a word. Look, it is wealth that becomes poor. to make us rich. That's what grace is about. That's what salvation is about. That's what Paul talks about when he says, Jesus Christ, being rich, became poor, so that in his poverty we may be rich in the grace of God Almighty. And they call it cheap? Free, yes. Cheap, never. The father cost his son. The son cost everything. His possessions, his person, his position, and his power. And why did he do it? Because God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son,

so that all who believe in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life forever. And what must we do to have it? To put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal savior. That means to believe that when he went to the cross, he was thinking of you. It is the grace, the kindness, and the love that God poured out. It is not cheap. It is free. We will never be able to deserve it, not even living a million years, we would deserve it. It is the kindness, the love, and the mercy that God poured out because he loves us. And look, what does that say? That it does not matter how sinful you have been. It does not matter how bad and how guilty you are, and what your past is. The grace of God brought into the world by the person of Jesus Christ, who became poor so that you would become rich, proposes to forgive your sins and cleanse you, and make it possible for you to come to him to forgive and to cleanse you, and to fill your needs, no matter what they may be. It is the grace of God. And if you do not believe in him as your Savior, then your life has not begun. Listen to this. Existence could end before you begin to live. Because you see, Christ is real life.

It is full life. There are problems, burdens, tests, tribulation, adversity, difficulties, failures, and sins, yes. But if you have Christ, everything is different. And a grace sustains it, which you will only know until you try it by faith.