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"We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain."
The grace of God is the opposite of the justice of God. It is the grace of God that God DOES NOT give you what you deserve. And it is the grace of God is that God DOES give you what you do not deserve. What you deserve is to be punished for your sin, disowned by God and cast out of His Kingdom and suffer eternal death. But that He does not give you.
What you do not deserve is to be called 'sons and daughters of God,' 'saints,' 'my beloved,' and 'heirs of all the treasures of heaven.' You do not deserve to hear your Creator say to you, "I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you always." But that He gives you.
The grace of God is perfect grace. There are no strings attached. No preconditions necessary to qualify. And no half measure of grace that depends on you to do your half. The grace of God is the fullness of God's love poured out on you for no other reason than God loves you and wants to do it. As soon as you start looking inside yourself for a reason for God's grace to you, you've missed the whole thing.
The justice is of God is the opposite of the grace of God. The justice of God is that God GIVES you what you deserve. And the justice of God is that God DOES NOT GIVE you what you do not deserve.
The justice of God is perfect justice. No partial justice. No leniency. There is no grace in God's justice. There is no mercy in God's justice. The guilty one gets everything that that he deserves and he gets nothing that he does not deserve.
But if you want to see God carrying out His perfect justice, you still can't look inside yourself. You've got to look at Jesus. He has received everything that we deserve. Jesus received the perfect justice of God by the cross, where He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried.
You have received the grace of God by the waters of holy baptism where you were born again as a child of God. You continue to receive the grace of God through the word of absolution where God officially pardons you, "I forgive you all of your sins." And you continue to receive the grace of God through His Holy Supper where you are given the holy things for the holy ones.
You have received the grace of God. We appeal to you not to receive it in vain! Do not let it go to waste. Do not let it be for nothing that God has done this FOR YOU.
The parable of the minas applies well to what we're getting at here. As Jesus tells it, a nobleman gave 10 of his servants a mina each to use while he was away. Upon his return he asked what they had done with what they had received. One used his mina to make 10 more and another to make 5 more. The nobleman congratulated both of them. "Well done, good and faithful servant." But there was one servant who did nothing with what he had been given. He just wrapped it up and was afraid to use it. The nobleman had some pretty harsh words for him. "You wicked servant." And he commanded that what he had been given be taken away from him. (Luke 19:11-27)
"We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain."
I suppose we could make a pretty long list of the ways that we receive the grace of God in vain. We have been given what we do not deserve – forgiveness for all of our sins. But we receive it in vain if we will not use the forgiveness that we have received to forgive those who trespass against us. We deserve nothing but God's wrath and punishment, but He gives us daily bread and all that we need for this body and life. But we receive it in vain if will not share what we have been given with those who are in need. I'm sure we could continue like this for quite awhile.
This morning I'd like us to focus our attention on just one way that I'm afraid we are prone to receiving the grace of God in vain. It comes from our gospel text for this morning.
The disciples are sailing across the Sea of Galilee to the other side. Somewhere in the course of the journey, the wind kicked up, stirring up the water. The waves came crashing over the side of the boat and the boat started filling. These experienced sailors and fishermen are afraid, so you know it had to be bad.
We ought not criticize the disciples for being afraid. We'll leave all judgment to Jesus. Instead, we should commend the disciples because they did not receive the grace of God in vain. They called upon Him who by grace, was with them and could save them. Right there with them, in the midst of the storm, was the One who "shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, 'thus far shall you come and no further." (Job 38:8-11).
They would have received the grace of God in vain had they never woke Jesus and asked Him to help. We can only imagine Jesus saying to them, "I was right there with you but you never called on me? Did you not believe I was with you or was it that you didn't believe I could help you?"
By the grace of God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is with you too. "I will never leave you nor forsake you," He says. Do we not receive the grace of God in vain when we fail to call upon our Lord who is with us, that is, when we do not pray? He says, "call upon me in the day of trouble; and I will deliver you." (Psalm 50:15) How often do we receive this grace of God in vain?
In your baptism, God has given you what you do not deserve. He has given you His own name. "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
When His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, Jesus told them to pray by saying, "Our Father…" "Our Father…" Think about that. Jesus is the Son of God. But He tells us to call His Father, Our Father. Jesus gives us His own name to use with His Father. We come to God the Father as sons and daughters through faith in the Son. And the Father is pleased to hear all that His Son speaks to Him on our behalf and all that we speak to the Father in the name of Jesus.
We implore you, "do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." To take God's name in vain is to waste this precious gift you have been given by not using it. Use God's name for the purpose He has given it to you. Not to "curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by His name." But to "call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks."
"We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain."