GRACE IN EVERYDAY REALITY, A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday After Trinity,
June 27, 2010, by David J. Miller, Vicar, Redeemer AOC, Loganville, Georgia.
Luke 6:30-36 30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. 32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. 33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. 34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
INTRODUCTION
Philip Ryken, in his masterful commentary on Luke’s Gospel, calls it “the Gospel of knowing for sure.” A good sub-title, for Saint Luke did all his careful investigative reporting to make sure his reader might, “know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:4). You and I are in the same place as Luke’s ancient friend, Theophilus; we are brought to this Gospel to have our faith confirmed, to know Jesus for sure and to be thrilled with the knowledge of the Almighty made known by Him.
Today’s lesson is from the same or similar sermon as Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7). It could be a different summary of that sermon recorded by Matthew, but I think it’s more likely that it represents the same basic material delivered on two separate occasions. Matthew mentions the “mount” to draw a connection to Mount Sinai, to show to his Jewish readers the parallel between Jesus’ speaking the law of the Kingdom and God speaking the Ten Commandments and Israel’s covenant laws from the heights of Sinai. Luke, on the other hand, tells us it was delivered at “a level place,” and does not emphasize that parallel (possibly because his readers are primarily Gentile, and that connection would not be as obvious), but rather, Luke is emphasizing the sheer personal and divine authority of Jesus’ words in themselves. It’s like Luke is presenting Jesus’ words for the purpose of eliciting from us the same reaction John records, in John 7:40-47, that the officers sent to arrest Jesus returned with the exclamation: “Never man spake like this man.”
“They could not help perceiving the utter difference between Jesus and all other teachers. His words were uniquely original, full of authority and perplexingly deep in content.” (Norval Geldenhuys, in his commentary on Luke).
This is so, by virtue of the words themselves, not due to any associations with any other literature, even the Old Testament. Matthew makes the connection with Sinai, not for validation, but to demonstrate that Jesus spoke with the same authority as the LORD God on top of the mountain. Luke leaves out the Old Testament connection because he wants us to sense the original, inherent authority of Jesus, for He speaks as the LORD God come in human flesh.
IMPORTANT INSTRUCTION EASILY MISUNDERSTOOD
What are we to make of our Lord’s words here? Jesus is expounding what He meant by “taking up your cross” in order to follow Him.
Luke 9:23-24 23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
But what does this actually mean? How are we to follow Jesus, specifically when we are faced with injustice or mistreatment? Recently the President of the United States quipped that if we really believed the Bible at this point, we would disband the Department Defence. Some Christian denominations have made it a point of faith that believers are never to even defend themselves or take up arms to defend the country. But are these misunderstandings? I believe they are.
Luke 6:29 29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.
How do we see this instruction worked out in real life? Let’s look at John 18:22-23
22 And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? 23 Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?
Here, when our Lord was struck on the cheek, He did not simply accept it and turn the other; instead He called the man to account on the basis of the truth. Jesus registers a protest. What’s the answer? Why does Jesus not apparently obey His own instruction?
Another example also seems to contradict this instruction:
Acts 16:36-38 36 And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace. 37 But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. 38 And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans.
The answer to these apparent contradictions is that we easily misunderstand Jesus’ words; He is expressing a principle that we are, as members of His Kingdom and followers of Him, to live by. That principle is GRACE. But not “grace” on anybody’s definition; the grace of God is not grace disconnected from justice and truth. It is not what Bonhoeffer called, “cheap grace.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said it well:
“How do we reconcile these things? Our Lord here in the Sermon on the Mount seems to be saying that invariably you must turn the other cheek, or if ever you are sued for your coat you must throw in your cloak as well. But He himself, when He is smitten on the face, does not turn the other cheek, but registers a protest. And the Apostle Paul insisted upon the magistrate coming down to release him. If we accept the original principle, there is no difficulty at all in reconciling these two sets of statements. It can be done this way. These instances are not examples or illustrations of either our Lord or the apostle insisting upon personal rights. What our Lord did was to rebuke the breaking of the law, and His protest was made in order to uphold the law. .. He did not say, “Why do you insult me?” He did not lose His temper or take it as a personal affront. .. But He was concerned to remind these men of the dignity and honor of the law. And the apostle Paul did exactly the same thing.”
This brings us to our second point:
WE ALWAYS NEED TO DISCERN THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE – IN LIGHT OF THE WHOLE OF SCRIPTURE.
As Christians, we are never to be concerned about personal insults and personal defense of our pride and egos. But we must be concerned to defend the law that ultimately derives from God and is an expression of His character. When we are involved in a matter of honor, justice, righteousness and truth, we must not be silent.
We are called to act as followers of our Lord, not out of any personal interest, out of a spirit of retaliation for a personal affront.
There’s a good example of what our Lord is speaking against back in Genesis, in the age before the Flood (and an example of what led to the Flood):
Genesis 4:23-26 23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. 25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
Here is a Lamech, who retaliates in kind and boasts that he has killed a man for wounding him. It’s like the code of ethics one finds in prison. The world is so dangerous, only fear and intimidation will protect you from attack. If someone treats you badly, you must put him in his place, if you want to be safe.
This is the spirit our Lord is speaking against; this is the spirit of retaliation for personal affront that is contrary to the grace of the Gospel, contrary to the spirit of our Lord who prayed for His crucifiers. This is not to deny that sin is sin, or even that its wages are indeed death – eternal death. But it is to live out of the extraordinary grace of the Cross, the message of Gospel grace. This is the message of the Cross.
Isaiah 53:3-6 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
WE ARE CALLED TO LOVE THE SAME WAY GOD LOVES.
Luke 6:35-36 35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
God showed this amazing love in sending His only Son to die for the very people who had rebelled against Him and indeed, hated Him. This is the extraordinary message of Gospel grace, that we are redeemed without deserving; we are brought from darkness and the just sentence of eternal death by the substitutionary death of the perfect Son of God, the just dying for the unjust.
2 Corinthians 5:21 – 6:1 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Here’s so much in this passage that we cannot expound it all today, but look at Luke 6:39-40
39 And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? 40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.
Here is out third point:
WE NEED, AS GOSPEL-DRIVEN PEOPLE, TO CAREFULLY CHOOSE WHO WE WILL FOLLOW AS OUR GUIDES, OUR TEACHERS.
Yes, we follow Jesus, but we also must have earthly human teachers, who help us understand the Word of God and guide us in applying it to our lives. Such people are not going to be fallible – and we have often stated that the fallibility of the Church is a cardinal point that we must never loose sight of – but it is imperative that we demand teachers who truly understand and can expound and apply in practical ways, THE GOSPEL.
This is not easy. I have heard good, evangelical preachers on the radio who truly preach salvation by grace, apart from works for entry into God’s Kingdom, but they always seem to slip back into legalism when they come to sanctification. As if we are justified by grace, but then perfected and grow in holiness by our own effort! This is very subtle. But grace is not just a principle that gets us in the door; it is the all-pervasive principle controlling all of the Christian life.
Any teacher of God’s people who is preaching the law instead of grace for the living of the Christian life is a “blind guide,” and he is failing to proclaim the message of the Cross in its fullness. This is why repentance and faith never go out of style in the Christian life. This is why our greatest need before we are Christians is the Gospel, but also the same is true after we become Christians! There is never any room for human effort; it’s all by faith.
But what about discipline? What is the place of human effort? We are not just to sit around and be lazy. No indeed; we must pray and work, but our effort does not arise from the motive of self-advancement and achievement; rather it arises out of gratitude and our apprehension of God’s love, His free, unmerited grace.
Philippians 3:13-17 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. 17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
Saint Paul calls us to follow his example, but not to lay a burden upon us, but to show us the way to follow our Lord. It all comes down to the state of our hearts. If we have been transformed by the Spirit of God, then it will be our heart’s desire to follow and please our Lord by obeying Him, not out of fear, but because we love Him.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
The Christian life can be compared to a warfare or an athletic contest, but it’s one in which we can say, with Eric Liddel, “When I run, I feel His pleasure!”
Blind guides miss this. They might preach moralism; they might preach license, as if “grace” meant that “anything goes,” and we cannot disallow any kind of behavior as unbecoming a Christian.
The blind guides miss grace, and so they also miss the essential matter of repentance. What judgment they do, is not preceded by a repentant heart, and so they are in the ludicrous position of trying to remove your splinter that’s in your eye, while they are carrying a log in their own (no wonder they are blind!). But the warning is made personal: Jesus puts YOU into the story: for we all have this tendency. We all see the issue as “my splinter, but your log!”
This is where the principle of grace calls you and me back to the cross; we must never wander far from that dear Cross! When MY heart and actions are controlled by the grace-principle, then I will be repenting, removing the log from my own eye, before I try to remove the speck from another’s. We must be careful who we follow, and be careful how we lead!
The practical application of all this is to follow Jesus by faith. And always read and find all we need to know about following Jesus in His Holy Word, the Bible.
Amen.
David J. Miller, Vicar, Redeemer AOC, June 27, 2010.
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