Grace for living in the real world

I like big long words. My favourite long word of all time is ‘serendipity’ – the joy of discovering the unexpected unexpectedly. You go to open a box expecting something and you find something tons better and you go ‘wow’! I guess there will be a lot of serendipity as our shoe boxes are opened at Christmas time!

I also like little short words. In fact, I like little short words a lot better.

One of my favourite passages in all the Bible comes in Roans 3:21-26. In lots of translations it contains two little short words that are all important. And three big, long words

But now God's way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it. 22 God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:
23 everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence. 24 But by the free gift of God's grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. 25-26 God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people's sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.
27 What, then, can we boast about? Nothing! And what is the reason for this? Is it that we obey the Law? No, but that we believe. 28 For we conclude that a person is put right with God only through faith, and not by doing what the Law commands. 29 Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is. 30 God is one, and he will put the Jews right with himself on the basis of their faith, and will put the Gentiles right through their faith.

31 Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.


The first short word is the word ‘sin’. How do you understand ‘sin’? Doing wrong things. Doing what you shouldn’t do. One of the best explanations I have seen spots what the middle letter is ‘I’ I – me. Sin is where you put I – me at the centre of everything. And you push other people and God out.

Paul reckons that that’s something everyone does. We all do things wrong. We all do things we shouldn’t do. And we all put ‘I’ – ‘me; at the centre of things too.

Everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence.

Some other translations say something a bit different – since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I like that even better. It brings into my mind a picture of shooting with a bow and arrow at a target. It’s more difficult than you think. The arrow falls short of the target. God’s glory is wonderful. He wants us to get everything spot on … but sadly we each of us fall short in some way or other – maybe in things we say or do, or things we think, or sometimes words we say that hurt other people.

Then hard on the heels of that tiny little word, comes another little short word. It is the word ‘grace’.

How can we get the better of this sin?

Verse 24 by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him throough Christ Jesus.

Realising the significance of grace was for me a turning point in my understanding of what Christianity is all about. What caught my imagination about Christianity first was the way of life it set out in the ten commandments especially as Jesus summarises them in his teaching Love God, love your neighbour. Help everyone. Bring care and love into everyone’s lives. Love even your enemies. This is a great way of life. What a difference it can make – in individuals, in families, in society at large in the world as a whole. That’s soething to work at, to struggle for, to aspire to. And it can make a difference.

But somehow I always fall short. That’s where this wonderful second word comes into its own. Grace. The free gift of God’s love. God’s love reaches out to us first of all before we do anything to deserve it. God doesn’t say, if you change then I’ll love you. He loves us first with a free gift of love. That’s incredibly transforming. And it has been for me.

Then in some translations you notice the big long words Paul goes on to use to sum up just the difference that grace can make. Justification. Redemption. Atonement.

Those are big long words. And difficult to understand and explain. They are really long, religious words. But for Paul they were not big long technical religious words. They were words drawn from the ordinary every day life of the Romans he was writing to.

It was great being in Leicester last week – it’s a Roman city, with Roman remains. We walked down an ancient Roman road into the city centre, the New Walk. Saw a book all about life in Roman Leicester. You can find out about Roman life anywhere – and it’s much the same throughout the Roman Empire. Here in Glevum where the streets in the city centre were laid out over 1900 years ago by the Romans and they are still in the same layout.

The first long word, justification, takes you to the law courts. Rome valued law. Rome was built on a system of law. It’s as if Paul invites you to imagine that you are brought before the law, you are filled with remorse and know that you have fallen well short of all that you should have done. And then you are set free by a kindly judge. That’s what the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is like.

We have fallen short – but we are forgiven – we are put right with God by all that Jesus Christ has done – and that’s something so wonderful.

The second word ‘redemption’ Takes you to the slave market. Rome was built by slaves, and slaves play a large part in Roman life. Go to Chedworth Roman villa once the renovations are completed and it will be one of the finest roman sites in the whole country. And there you will see how the slaves kept the toilets clean, stoked the boiler to keep the water warm in the baths and were taken for granted. Bought and sold in a slave market.

Imagine you were a slave and your owner decided to put you up for sale in a slave market. The bidding went up and you were sold – only to find the person who has bought you, not only sets you free, but he also sets you up with a living for life. That’s what Christ does when he sets you free.

It can feel as if you are a slave to all the wrong things that you do … but Christ sets you free.

And the final big long word is ‘atonement’. Every Roman settlement would have its temples, and every home its shrine. And in so many places sacrifices were made in the belief that they would get you on the right side of the gods. You can see one of the finest of Roman temples at Lydney and across the Severn at Uley they found literally thousands of sheep’s bones from the sacrifices made at the temple – and many of them are on display in the British museum.

Jesus went to his death on the cross and rose again – and he is the one who is a sacrifice of atonement – and restores us into the love of God.

The grace that results in justification and puts us right with God, the grace that results in redemption and sets us free, the grace that is a sacrifice of atonement draws us into the love of God, this grace is free.

But for Paul there is a problem.

If God’s love is free and so generous, if the grace f the Lord Jesus Christ is free – then it doesn’t matter what we do – we can throw away the Law and all it stands for.

No, not a bit of it Paul says. Actually God’s law – offers us a wonderful framework – so long as we recognise at its heart the grace that Jesus Christ has shared with us, the free gift of God’s love.

It is right to have a framework in law – but law that is administered must be administered in the light of grace – in a spirit of mercy and steadfast love. This is something right at the heart of the law Paul had grown up with in the Old Testament that for him was the whole of his bible. Law is important but law in a framework of grace.

That’s something we need to work out in our society. As people of grace we are not excused from the law – but as people of grace we are to understand the law in the light of that grace and that mercy that is at the heart of our understanding of God. This month our chosen charity is the Langley House Trust. That is a Christian organisation that works with ex-offenders in the whole work of rehabilitation. At times law requires that there be punishment – but the purpose of that punishment should be rehabilitation. It should be underpinned by a grace that seeks to make people better. Take grace seriously and it will prompt you in the direction of a restorative justice system that seeks to restore people. And that shapes an approach to justice and to law.

It took Christians a long time to see how a people of grace must reject slavery … but at long last with the likes of William Wilberforce they saw the light. But there’s another dimension to slavery in the Old Testament that’s far closer to home. And as people of grace I believe we have something to say as well. The Old Testament has a structure of law that is designed to deal with the problem of debt as it accrues and becomes impossible to pay. The framework of law provided that debts would not permanently enslave people. As people of grace what do we have to offer into the current financial crisis. I wouldn’t have liked to have been in the shoes of the staff of St Paul’s cathedral. But I couldn’t help but notice that as that developed a silver jubilee was marked. It is easy to imagine that the financial system that has so disastrously collapsed is an age-old one. But twenty five years ago came what was known as the Big Bang. When all the controls, the frameworks that applied to the banks I had grown up with until I was in my thirties were removed. The bid was made to make the City the centre of finance for the world in a way it had not been before by a massive removal of regulation. My hunch is that as a people of grace we should be recognise the failure of a system that lets anything go and we should be looking for ways of introducing a framework of regulations that keeps in check the excesses of a market gone wild. Far from being silent on such issues as some of the tabloid press has suggested, I think it interesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury has been suggesting the need for a new kind of regulatory framework – joining interestingly the Pope in advocating a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions.

A People of grace interestingly don’t abandon the framework and structures of law – but when it comes to the world finances to be true to the law that was valued by Paul and marked by a spirit of grace there needs to be an appropriate framework. A people of grace will work towards such a framework of law.

And a sacrifice of atonement – people of grace who know that the once and for all sacrifice of Christ on the cross has restored that reliationship with God that is so important will seek to live sacrificially looking not to the interests of themselves, but always to the interests of others.

Be a people of grace and who knows what surprises may be in store – as we discover unexpected things unexpectedly and maybe even revel in some measure of serendipity!