************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 59-61 ************
Doctrine: right with God by grace through faith
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on May 13, 2001
Q & 59-61
Ephesians 2:1-10
"Right With God"
I I Am Right With God - Q & A 59
A We are finished now with our study of the Apostles' Creed. With the church of all times and places we have confessed our faith in God the Father and our creation, God the Son and our redemption, and God the Spirit and our sanctification.
Have you noticed what the Catechism does throughout the Creed, how it stops to ask us over and over again, What's the use? What's the profit? What good does it do you? For instance, "How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us?" (Q 28). "How do the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you?" (Q 36). "What further advantage do we receive from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross?" (Q 43). "How does Christ's resurrection benefit us?" (Q 45). "How does Christ's ascension into heaven benefit us?" (Q 51). "How does Christ's return ... comfort you?" (Q 52). "How does 'the resurrection of the body' comfort you?" (Q 57). "How does the article concerning 'life everlasting' comfort you?" (Q 58).
Today we conclude our study of the Apostles' Creed by answering this question: "What good does it do you ... to believe all this?" What's the benefit? What's in it for you?
It isn't wrong to ask questions like this. We ought to ask ourselves often what is the profit in going to church and studying the Bible. We ought to be able to state the benefit of a particular belief or of a certain sermon. We ought to be able to tell ourselves and others the good that comes out of Christian education. We ought to be clear on the advantages of our kingdom and covenant theology. These benefits and advantages, however, can be seen only by those who have spiritual discernment. The Apostle Paul says,
(1 Cor 2:14) The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
B What good, then, does it do you and me to believe the revelation of God summed up for us in the Apostles' Creed? What is the benefit or advantage? The Catechism's answer:
In Christ I am right with God
and heir to life everlasting.
This answer is disappointing to many people. You see, being "right with God" is important only to those who are convinced that there is a God and that we, by sinful nature, are not right with Him. However, if we are not certain whether creation has a Creator and humanity a Lord, if we are not sure that there is life after death, and if we have never realized that we justly deserve God's awful punishment, then this answer counts for nothing.
This answer is also disappointing to the materialists of our North American culture. In this time and place many cannot think of goodness and happiness without thinking of things. I'm afraid that even Christians in our society tend to seek and expect material benefits of believing in God and His revelation. On any given day, for instance, I can listen to radio or TV preachers and hear a materialistic gospel. "Believe in Jesus," we are told, and "you will stop drinking and smoking, your temper will get under control, and you will no longer be moody and irritable." "Accept Jesus," we are told, "and your business will prosper, your career will advance, your children will be obedient, your marriage will be fulfilling, and your self-esteem and self-confidence will improve." "Give," we are told, "and the Lord will give you a hundred-fold in return." "Pray The Prayer of Jabez," we are told, "and watch how it releases God's favor, power, and protection in your life." It's not all that uncommon today to hear of how baseball games, golf tournaments, tennis matches, and boxing championships are all won by the power of prayer. Our materialistic society takes note of things like this. It wants and loves a faith that pays off in materialistic dividends.
C But that's not the message of the Bible nor of the Catechism. If I believe the revelation of God, says the Catechism, then
In Christ I am right with God
and heir to life everlasting.
The Biblical background to this answer is that by nature I am not right with God and am bound for hell. As Paul puts it in our Scripture reading, "you were dead in your transgressions and sins ... by nature objects of wrath" (Eph 2:1,3b).
Our only hope, our only way out, is by way of God's loving solution: Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice upon the cross. And, if we only believe, if we only have faith, then
In Christ I am right with God
and heir to life everlasting.
II I Am Right With God By Grace - Q & A 60
A Do you know what the two most important questions in the world are? The first question is, "Am I saved?" This is an intensely personal question. It is a question that every person here at one time or another has to answer for themselves. No person here can see the hidden depths of your heart or mind. Only you know the secrets locked deep with. So I ask you, "Are you saved?"
There is a second question, a question even more important than the first one. This question is, "How am I saved?" In Q & A 60 the Catechism asks this question: "HOW ARE YOU RIGHT WITH GOD?"
B The Catechism begins its answer with a humble admission of guilt: "Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned ..."
My conscience is like a little man on my shoulder. It constantly whispers in my ear that I don't deserve to be set right with God. It convinces me that I am evil. Like Adam and Eve, I want to hide the shame of my sin and flee from God.
I am sure that every person here has heard the voice of his or her conscience at one time or another. Still, though, it is hard to pin down exactly what the conscience is. Many unbiblical things have been said about it. Some people have even gone so far as to contend that the conscience is an infallible guide enabling everyone to know the difference between right and wrong at all times. "Let your conscience be your guide," they say. Such people forget or deny that sin-darkened people have a sin-darkened conscience. Only the Word of God can be our trustworthy, infallible guide.
God has provided all men with a conscience so that no person can hide behind the cloak or cover or excuse of ignorance. Each person instinctively has a sense of rightness and wrongness; each man has been given the ability to discern between justice and injustice; every one knows deep down that there is a moral order to our universe and that man has been created for a purpose.
What do people do with their God-given conscience? Some try to keep their consciences quiet. Others have an elastic conscience that has been stretched to the point where nothing is seen as wrong or immoral. And still others listen to what it tells them.
Have you ever heard the voice of your conscience? Has it ever condemned you for the wrong you have done? Don't ignore it. Listen to what it tells you. It has been placed there by God. It tells you that things are not right between you and God.
It isn't only our conscience that accuses us of "having grievously sinned." There are other accusers as well – accusers that also let us know that everything is not right between us and God. One of these is Satan. That may seem highly unlikely to you, but it isn't. In the Hebrew language the name "Satan" means adversary or accuser. Satan, this very moment, is in heaven accusing God's people. Satan tempts man and leads him into sin and away from God. And then he runs to God and delights in accusing us of the very sin he has led us into. Consider, for example, what Satan did with Job. Or, consider the vision of Zechariah: he sees Joshua, the high-priest, standing before the Lord in heaven; Satan is also there and points at Joshua's filthy clothes as a symbol of the sin of all the people Joshua represents (Zech 3). Satan delights in accusing God's people because he relishes their punishment. And, in Revelation 12, Satan is mentioned as "the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night" (Rev 12:10b).
Another accuser is the holy law of God. The outcome of this accuser's testimony is simply devastating. The Catechism speaks for each one of us personally when it says, I have "grievously sinned against all God's commandments," "never having kept any of them," and "I am still inclined toward all evil." When we look at the law we realize we cannot keep it. When we measure ourselves against the standard of the law, we realize how sinful we really are. Of all the accusers before the great Judge, the law is the most severe one. No one can escape it, no one can meet its demands. It measures our guilt relentlessly, because it measures so deeply. It shatters all our hope in ourselves. It lets us know that things are not right between us and God.
C Having stripped us of any pride or self-confidence, having shown us the nature and extent of our sin, the Catechism – based upon the Word – can now proceed to tell us the answer to its question, "HOW ARE YOU RIGHT WITH GOD?" Or, to put it another way, "HOW ARE YOU SET FREE FROM YOUR SIN?" Or, "HOW ARE YOU SAVED?"
There are many Christians who believe that salvation is up to man to accept or reject. You ask any of these how they are saved and they will give such answers as:
-because of my brush with death in the car accident
-because of the sermon of the preacher
-because of the evangelistic outreach of the church
-because my parents raised me as a covenant child
Anyone of these may have been used by God to lead them to Christ, yet none of these have saved them.
When asked, "HOW ARE YOU RIGHT WITH GOD?" "HOW ARE YOU SAVED?" there is only one answer you can give: "By grace!" That's the only answer to the most important question in the world. The Apostle says in our Scripture reading, "it is by grace you have been saved" (Eph 2:5). And, the Catechism says,
without my deserving it at all,
out of sheer grace,
God grants and credits to me
the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and
holiness of Christ ...
God is like a bookkeeper. He credits to our account the work of Jesus. When you get a credit slip from a bank, or a store, you have money added to your account. God credits to us the work of Jesus on the cross. And this He does out of "sheer grace"!
"By grace" means that we do not and cannot save ourselves. God saves us through Christ Jesus. With Christ I died, and with Christ I arose. That's how I am saved, and that's how you are saved.
"Grace" is God's undeserved favor. We do not get what we deserve. In fact, we get exactly the opposite of what we deserve.
"By grace" means that salvation is free – not cheap – but a gift nonetheless. God's way of salvation makes a joke of all man-made efforts and all do-it-yourself religions.
Surely we cannot fathom how great the grace of God really is. His grace is so great that it is
as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner,
as if I had been as perfectly obedient
as Christ was obedient for me.
God knows we are sinners. God realizes full well we are not perfectly obedient. Yet God treats us as if we are not sinners and as if we are perfectly obedient. Though I am undeserving, I am declared righteous. I earn and deserve nothing. It remains Christ's righteousness, not mine. God may credit my account, but the earnings are still Christ's. I accept this credit but can never think of it as really mine. It is all "as if." I remain what I am, an undeserving sinner and yet – oh greatest of miracles – I become as right with God as if I myself am perfectly obedient.
I, then, am right with God by grace – His beautiful, undeserving, wonderful grace.
III I Am Right With God By Grace Through Faith - Q & A 61
A "HOW ARE YOU RIGHT WITH GOD?" We don't give the complete answer if we say, "I am right with God by grace." For the Scriptures and the Catechism immediately add, "through faith." The Apostle says, for instance, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith" (Eph 2:8).
We have to make a careful distinction here. We are saved by grace and through faith. Let no one ever say that it is faith that saves us! For it isn't. It is grace and grace alone that saves us. The Catechism wants to emphasize this when it says, "It is not because of any value my faith has that God is pleased with me." Faith is not itself some kind of good work. God does not look at our faith and say, "How unquestioning! How firm! What a nice faith! That pleases Me!" God looks with pleasure only at the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. "Only Christ's satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness make me right with God." Our own faith is valueless. It's worth nothing in and of itself. But when it looks beyond itself to Jesus, it becomes the way, the only way, through which we are right with God.
Faith is only an instrument. It is the means whereby we accept God's grace. It is faith that the Catechism has in mind when it says, "All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart." It is faith which accepts, believes, and receives the gift of God in Christ.
B Even the faith through which we are saved is not our own doing. Like grace it also is a gift of God. In our Scripture reading the Apostle can say, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8). We can't take credit for grace. We can't even take credit for faith. We look to God for both. The reason, as Paul puts it, is "so that no one can boast" (Eph 2:9).
C "By grace through faith." This is one of the most comforting of Christianity's teachings. It frees us from that terrible burden of trying somehow and someway to please God. It opens for us the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, freely given, thankfully received.
By grace through faith I am right with God. What a relief! What a joy!
Conclusion
Are you saved? Only you can answer that.