Since by Grace, Why the Church?

Date: May 1, 2002-Wednesday Evening Sermon
Speaker: George Bailey (during a Gospel Meeting April 28 through May 1, 2002, at the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Main Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-10

This week, we’ve been talking about grace. “By grace have you been saved through faith, that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast,” [Ephesians 2:8-9]. Does that leave man’s part out entirely? Is everything done by God? Is everything done for us by God? If so, why then, in verse 10, two verses later, did He say we are “created in Christ Jesus,” (not out of “good works,” because that wouldn’t be grace), but He said we are created “unto good works,” and that means that we have a responsibility, even though it is “by grace we are saved.”

Faith is something that we have to engage in, but that doesn’t earn, it doesn’t deserve, it doesn’t repay what God by grace gave, because grace cannot be earned, deserved, or repaid! There isn’t anything we could ever do that we don’t already owe to God. In one of our lessons, we talked about that “by grace…Jesus…tasted death” for every man [Hebrews 2:9]. And the reason He came to earth was that He was to be made like unto us, that He might sit where we sit (in Ezekiel’s case, in Ezekiel 3:15), and, based upon Philippians 2, verse 6 to 8, that He might do what we haven’t done and couldn’t do.

You see, every living creature in the universe owes God perfect obedience! Nobody has given that, Romans 3:23, Romans 3:10, and 1 John 1:8 to 10. And since nobody has given perfect obedience, and since sin “separates man from God,” Isaiah 59:1 and 2, we’ve all been separated from Him. That means that before we can be saved, there has to be a reconciliation. What I have been saying so far is a review, as we come to the last of our services tonight. Before there can be any propitiation, there has to be something extra. There is no propitiation without something extra. But we didn’t give God what we owed Him in the first place—we owed Him perfect obedience and we didn’t give that, we owed Him perfect submission, complete surrender, and we didn’t give Him that—based on these passages just mentioned. That means we don’t have anything extra at all to give. Yet, unless there is something extra, there can’t be any propitiation [Propitiation: an offering, or atonement, to win the good will of; to appease]. And without propitiation, there can’t be any reconciliation, and without a reconciliation, there just can’t be any salvation. So no wonder David said to go to the Lord for help, Psalm 46:1, and “vain is the help of man,” [Psalm 60:11, Psalm 108:12]. And no wonder he said, “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” Psalm 3:8.

Had it not been for what God provided for us, outside of our own selves, that we call “grace,” there wouldn’t be a hope for anybody. But here’s where Jesus comes in. He became a man, and as man and for man He gave God perfect obedience. He never sinned! He never deviated! He never did anything but what God wanted. And then over, above and beyond, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, He was made “to be sin for us.” He wasn’t made to be a sinner, He wasn’t made to be sinful, but He was made “to be sin.”That means He bore the brunt of sin. Whatever sin called for, whatever predicament sin had put man in, He stepped in and was made “to be sin for us.” Sin deserves punishment, so He was ready for the punishment. The Bible said, “The wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience,” Ephesians 5:6. But He wasn’t disobedient! But He was made “to be sin for us,” and He bore what really all of us should have borne. Otherwise, there would be no hope at all!

So, grace is something that we cannot do for ourselves. It’s something we cannot earn, we cannot deserve, and we cannot repay. We shouldn’t have sinned, but we did! How’s that sin going to be handled? How’s it going to be taken care of? Go back to Romans 3:23 to 25, where Paul talks about grace. Then he talks about God being “just” in condemning sin, and yet at the same time, becoming the “Justifier” of him who had sinned. Only through the cross could that possibly be.

I heard of this man and wife who were divorced. They were both called to the bed-side of a dying child. The father stood on one side of the bed holding one little hand, and the mother stood on the other side holding the other hand until the child died. When death came, they let go of the hands of the little one, and they reached across his dead body and they clasped hands. Through the death of a child, mother and father were united. Mother and father were brought together again [reconciled].

Think of our Lord on the cross, with one hand that seemed to reach up and take hold of Heaven, and with the other hand that seemed to reach down and take hold of earth. Through the death of our Lord, Heaven and earth clasped hands again! Heaven and earth came together again! And yet the Bible said it’s in the church—it’s in the body—that we are reconciled unto Him, Ephesians 2:16. The church was in God’s eternal purpose. It wasn’t an “after thought”; the church wasn’t something that God thought up later because nothing else worked. No! All along, He never failed in His purposes. Ephesians 3:8 to 11 let’s us know that the church is a part of His eternal purpose. No sooner had man sinned than He began preparing the world for a Savior.

Do you know the first reference to blood in the Bible? Not when Cain killed Abel—even before that! See, after Adam and Eve realized that they had sinned, they were ashamed of their nakedness. In Genesis 3:21, the Bible said “God made coats of skins” to hide the shame that sin had brought about. Several hundreds of years later, on a little hill—it could scarcely be called a mountain: “Golgatha,” “Calvary” in another language—innocent blood was shed. The innocent blood of the precious Son of God was shed so that a covering might be provided to the shame what sin had brought about. As the result of all of that, God has a called-out people—the church, or the Kingdom. The word “church” and “kingdom” are used interchangeably. In Matthew 16:18, the “church,” and verse 19, the “kingdom,” refer to the same. Used again in Hebrews 12:23 is the “church,” and in Hebrews 12:28, the “kingdom,” referring to the same. Or Colossians 1:13, the “kingdom,” and Colossians 1:18, the “church,” referring to the same people. Now, when you come into the “kingdom,” you come into the “church.”When you come into the “church,” you come into the “kingdom.”