The High Cost of God's Grace - Grace for Today, Pt. 4

In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, the high cost of God's grace. Well, grace is free, but it is not cheap. And there's a difference between being cheap and being free. You see, the cry of cheap grace is man's attempt to defend this prideful insistence on doing something to help God or to add to what God has done for him. You see, grace is God's goodness and graciousness toward us without regard to merit or worth on our part and in spite of what we deserve. But there is something inside of us that somehow feels better if we think that we can help God or if we think that we made a contribution or that it wasn't just all of him, but that somehow we helped him. When it comes to forgiveness of sin, salvation, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, there's not a single solitary thing we can do. And so, people who are sort of legalistic in their feelings and people who think that the way you get accepted in the eyes of God is you live up to a standard or you live up to rules and regulations, and if you live up to those, then God will accept you. If that is your approach to the Christian life, you'll have a very, very difficult time with grace. And secondly, what you'll do is you'll say, well, this idea of grace that it's all of God and none of me, that makes it too easy. Well, for example, if you were to say to a lost person or if a lost person were to say to you, you mean to tell me that in order to be saved, all I have to do is to believe in Jesus? You mean to tell me that there's nothing I can do or that I should do? What about going to church and reading the Bible and praying and giving all that money? What's that got to do with it? Nothing. Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that I can be saved by simply believing, right? You mean all I have to do is to believe, correct?

I don't have to do anything else, no. What kind of salvation is that? Free. What kind? It is free. Well, how can it be so free? That's what I want to talk about in this message, the high cost of the grace of God. Free to us, but not free to him. No cost to us, but a high cost to him. It isn't cheap grace. It's free grace, but given at a high cost. And Paul describes this in one single verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. So if you'll turn there, listen to what he says in this ninth verse. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. I want to read that one again. Look at that. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty may become rich. The grace of God is all about God pouring out the riches of his blessings in your life and my life that have nothing to do with whether we deserve it or not. It has to do with the goodness and love and graciousness and kindness of God. He says, for by grace you are saved through faith, that not of yourselves, not even the faith is of us, not of works, lest any person should boast. The reason he said that is because he knew that it is human nature for us to want to be able to get a little bit of credit, to think we did something that contributed to our salvation, that contributed to our forgiveness, not a thing. And so for the person, and I repeat this on purpose, for the person who feels like well you just got to do something, no you don't because you can't. Spiritually dead men and women can't do anything.

And so this human effort and human works is to no avail. Can't contribute to salvation, can't contribute to being filled with the spirit, can't do any of that, can't contribute to forgiveness. That is the work of one person at one time in history on the cross, Jesus Christ at Calvary. Now cheap to us it appears, not cheap, free, but what did it cost him? So let's think about it for just a moment. When he says he was rich, Jesus was rich in four areas of his life through which he became poor in order to make us rich in those same areas. And that's what grace is all about. First of all he was rich in his possessions, well what in the world did Jesus own? Before he came into this world friend, he owned it all. Look if you will back in John chapter 1, I want you to look at a couple of verses here. In John chapter 1 in the very beginning of this gospel, notice how John begins his gospel talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and talking and referring to him as the word, the word of God, the living word of God. He says in verse 1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning. with God, all things came into being by Him. Apart from Him, nothing came into being that is come into being, that is, He created it all. Colossians chapter 1, look at that 16th verse. Wonderful passage here in the 15th and 16th verse about Jesus, and he says in the 16th verse, by Him, that is, by Christ, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, where the thrones and dominions are rulers, authorities. All things have been created by Him and for Him, that is, nothing that exists exists apart from the creative power of Jesus. Now look, if you will, in Psalm 24. Well, back in the Psalms, he reminds us whose name is on the title deed of everything, who owns it all. Chapter 24 of the Psalms, verse 1. The earth is the Lord's, all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. So when we talk about what did Jesus own, the truth is He owned it all. He was the creator and sustainer and owner of it

all. So the Bible says here that He who was rich, yet for our sake He became poor. So what did He do? Jesus Christ laid aside all of His ownership and all of His wealth of glory and came into this world as a baby, owning nothing, possessing nothing. Laying aside His capacity to possess and to own and being born in this world as any other baby except conceived by the Holy Spirit. He owned it all, created it all, possessed it all, and yet He owned nothing. Now let me explain again, and I've said this many times, here's the whole heart and the core and the soul of the New Testament wrapped up in this third chapter of Romans. When the question is asked, how can God remain just and declare sinners no longer guilty, forgive us of our sins when His law said, the soul that sinneth it shall die. The wages of sin is death. Every single person, all of us have sinned against God. All of us have the penalty of death resting upon us. Then, God seeing the absolute, total, helpless condition of mankind, that if He fulfilled His own decree, that would have meant that every single one of us would have been born into this world, lived our life, died, and been eternally separated from God. So, here's what grace did, and this is what grace is all about. This is why Jesus came and everything we say about grace is wrapped up in this one passage in Romans. And that is this, in order for God to remain holy, just, and the righteous God that He is, He had to do something to make it possible, if He were going to save us, to provide for the payment of the penalty of our sin. So, Jesus Christ was and is God's gift to you and to me, who came into this world, who laid down His life at Calvary, who paid our sin debt in full. That's why He came, but it cost Him. He had to lay aside all that He owned and come into this world in poverty. And you remember, He said He would always have the poor with Him because He identified Himself with poor people. That doesn't mean that Jesus is for poverty, doesn't mean that Jesus blesses poverty, doesn't mean that Jesus blesses just being in need, but He laid it aside. Listen, He says, Jesus Christ, though He was rich, yet for your sake,

He became poor. And what happened? As a result of Him coming into this world and making it possible for God the Father to forgive us of our sins and make us His children, He has made us rich. Even in this next chapter, chapter 9, verse 8, listen to what He says. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. He says it is the grace of God that makes it possible for you and me to have what we need and oftentimes many things that we want. What is the grace of God? And you see, when you go to Him and ask Him for something and say, Lord, I know I don't deserve it, you don't have to tell Him that. He already knows that. He already knows you and I don't deserve it. We come to Him as sons and daughters to a heavenly Father and make our need known. That's what the throne of grace is all about, coming to Him in time of need, seeking mercy and grace to help in time of need. The second thing He says, look at this. He says, now, He was rich, yet for your sake, He became poor. He became poor not only in what He owned, He laid aside His wealth, but the scripture says He laid aside also His personhood. Who was He? You see, the most important knowledge that I need, the most important information I need in all of life is who is this Christ? Listen, when you really understand who He is, you want Him. When you really understand who He is and how helpless you are, you want Him. This Christ. This person, what did he do? He says he became poor in his personhood, that is, well, who was he? We'll go back to John chapter 1, listen to what he says in that 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. Turn to Hebrews chapter 1, a beautiful verse about the Lord Jesus and who he is in his description of him here. Look at this. Chapter 1 of Hebrews. Talking about the Lord Jesus, he says, and he is the radiance of his, of the Father's glory, and the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, speaking of his coming here to earth and dying for our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Listen, if somebody says, who is Jesus? Just turn to Hebrews chapter 1 and read in this verse that Jesus Christ is the radiance of the glory of the Father, the one true God, and the exact representation of his nature. He upholds all things by the word of his power. When he's made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, where he is today, making intercession for us and listening to the cries of sinners who are asking for the forgiveness of their sins. He laid aside this personhood of all of his glory and majesty and honor. Look, if you will, in Philippians chapter 2. This passage best describes the incarnation,

which is, in essence, Jesus Christ, who was God, coming to this earth and taking upon himself human flesh and being a man, and I mean getting tired like men, weary like men, tempted like men, tried like men, sleepy like men. His human nature never, listen to this, never displaced his deity. He was always God, but he was man as well as God, feeling everything that men feel. And so in Philippians chapter 2, listen to what it says beginning in verse 5. Speaking to us, Paul says, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now he describes him, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, willing to lay aside his personhood in equality with God the Father. That is, willing to come down here in human flesh and live among men. He says, but he emptied himself, taken the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, found an appearance as a man, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross. He said he emptied himself. What does he mean by that? He laid aside the robe of his glory

and came into this world, listen, as a bondslave, back to Philippians, listen, taken upon himself the form of a bondservant, the one who meets the guest at the door, takes off their sandals and washes their feet. Think about this. Here he was seated at the Father's right hand in all of his majesty and power and glory in heaven, all the angelic hosts singing and praising and bowing down and worshiping him and honoring him. What is he doing? Washing dusty feet? Who is this man? This is God in the flesh. Rich, listen, rich in his personhood. Every angel of the heavens bowing down before him. All of the earth is full of his glory, the Bible says. And what is he doing? Being born in a mother's womb. Now he's washing feet as a servant. He said he was the servant of God, the servant of mankind. He said, I didn't come into this world, listen, I didn't come into this world to be served. I came into this world to serve. I came into this world to give my life a ransom for many. Here he was serving a servant, a bond slave, emptying himself of his glory. He says, listen, he was so willing to work in your behalf and mine.

Part of his poverty was this. He said he would not grasp and hold on to his equality with God. Even though he never ceased to be God, he disrobed himself of the ultimate of his personhood and came into this world as the God-man in order to do what? He became poor so you and I could become rich. He became poor, the Scripture says, so you and I could become rich. Listen, he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor that you through his poverty may become rich. That is the grace of God is the goodness and the love and the unmerited favor of God bestowed upon us through the person of Jesus Christ. And listen, grace is cheap, free but not cheap. The most valuable thing you and I have is the grace of God. Listen, his unmerited favor. Undeserved, listen, undeserved, immeasurable, fathomless, love, infinite, poured out upon us with no reservations but only this, as God knows it is good for us. That's what we have. His poverty made us rich. It isn't something to be considered cheap because He did all the paying and you and I do all the receiving. That doesn't mean it's cheap. It means it was gloriously expensive to God the Father. But notice what He says.

He said, He was rich yet for your sake He became poor. Rich in His possessions, He gave it up in order that you and I may be rich and wealthy in Him. His personhood He gave up in order that you and I may become rich and wealthy in Him. He also gave up His position. And what in the world was that? Seated at the Father's right hand, ruling and reigning over all the earth, exercising absolute and total complete control over all things. And when you and I think about the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and how rich He was in that, in His eternal glory, go to John 17 for a moment because he mentions here His eternal glory with the Father and the fact that it's going to be restored. And in the fifth verse of that 17th chapter, He says, Now glorify Thou me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. And there's no way for human mankind to describe that kind of glory. Seated at the Father's right hand. And what does He do? He comes to be seated in the heart of sinful humanity. What a price to lay aside His position of the Father's Son to become the sinner's friend. He called Himself a shepherd. He was a friend. Though He called Himself God,

He only said that in clarifying His true identity. And when you think about His true identity and you think about the power, the power that was His, infinite, absolute, complete control of everything. You see, because He was absolutely infinite in His power, but He laid it aside. He came to this stage of poverty, power-wise. He allowed Himself to be a little bitsy-itsy-bitsy bits of flesh in His mother's womb. Growing up as a baby and being born like every other baby except conceived by the Holy Spirit. Growing up as a child, as a little boy. Growing up as a man. With all the things that little boys have to deal with in life and yet without sin. When He grew up, He had to labor in the carpenter's shop just like any other man. He got tired, weary. He wasn't infant. He couldn't saw. He couldn't make furniture 24 hours a day. He got tired. Had to sleep, had to rest. He became weary. You know why? Because He laid aside that infinite power within Him and the glory of the Father before in order to become man and to suffer like man. And my friend, listen, He didn't do that because He had to.

He did it voluntarily. You think about the power that it took Jesus to give Himself over to wicked, vile men whose one purpose in life was to stop God's redemptive plan. Imagine the power it took for Him to allow Roman soldiers to beat Him and beat Him and beat Him till His back was just flesh and blood. Never say a word. When He could have absolutely annihilated them with a blink of His eye, they'd have been gone. Imagine lying down on a cross and allowing men to take a spike and drive it through His hands and His feet when He could have stopped it at any moment. Imagine the power it took to yield deity to humanity, holiness to wickedness, and never say a word. Friend, that's wealth becoming poor to make us rich. That's what grace is all about. That's what salvation's all about. That's what Paul is talking about when he says, Jesus Christ, who is rich, became poor that in His poverty, you and I may be rich in the grace of Almighty God. God. And somebody called it cheap. Free? Yes. Cheap? Never. Cost the father his son, cost the son everything, his possessions, his personhood, his position, and his power. And why did he do it? Because for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life, everlasting life. And what does man have to do to get it? Place his or her simple trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as personal savior. That means simply to believe that when he went to the cross, he went to the cross with you in mind. It is the grace and goodness and love of God poured out. Cheap? It's not cheap. Free? Yes, it's free. Deserve it? We'll never deserve it. If you lived a million years, you couldn't deserve it. It is God's goodness and love and mercy poured

out because he loves us. And my friend, what does that say? It says no matter how sinful you've been, no matter how wicked, and no matter how guilty, no matter what your past looks like, the grace of God brought into this world by the person of Jesus Christ who became poor in order that you may become rich, has offered to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you, and to make it possible for you to come to him for forgiveness and cleansing and having your needs met no matter what they are. That's the grace of God. If you've never trusted him as your savior, then life hasn't really begun for you. Listen to me. Existence could come to an end before you ever began to live because you see Jesus is real life. That's life at its fullest. Troubles, heartaches, burdens, trials, tribulations, difficulties, faults, failures, sins, yes. But when you have Jesus, everything is different. And there is a grace to support you that you will never know until you try it by faith.