The Big Story – Grace + Justice = Salvation | Cornerstone Church

Series Review:

Week 1: The story you live in determines your purpose and how you process your pain
Week 2: God’s purpose for all creation is to take part in His Glory and for us to be reflections of that Glory
Week 3: God’s covenants with humanity demonstrate His faithfulness, culminating in the Life and Jesus Christ

Opposites attract

Cold day and warm soup
Hot brownie and cold ice cream
Sweet and sour candy
Spouses and friends

Sometimes opposites REPEL

Sometimes opposites COMPLEMENT
Looking at 2 seemingly opposite things that go together

Grace & Justice

Let’s define these two things… (what we think)

Grace = Getting a free pass

“You’re all right”
“We’re good”

Justice = Rendering to everyone that which is his due

“guilty”
“Pay your debt”

These things seem pretty opposite
In scripture, they work together to an important end
The “Formula of Scripture”

Grace + Justice = Salvation
Let’s see these terms from a Biblical idea…

1: Grace – Getting What You DON’T Deserve

Jonah 4:2

2 He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster.
What we need to know about Grace:

1 – Grace comes from God

Psalm 103:8

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.

1 Peter 5:10

The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.

2 – God’s grace has a hair trigger

Joel 2:13

13 Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and he relents from sending disaster.
James 4:6

6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

3 – Grace is not grace if it must be earned

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Romans 11:5-6

5 In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace. 6 Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.
<STORY>

John Newton

As a young man, life was spent at sea

He became part of the slave trade

Rising to the rank of captain & transporting slaves from Sierra Leone to the West Indies

In 1748, on board “The Greyhound”

A fierce storm arose off Ireland

Prayed and promised his life to God if he survived

Barley made it to land

Gave his life to the study of God

Became a Christian minister
Having fully realized the horrors and atrocities that he had been involved in

Became heavily involved in campaigning for the abolition of the slave trade

Wrote a song that started this way…

1 Amazing grace (how sweet the sound) that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

2 ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!

2: Justice – Getting What you DO deserve

Exodus 34:6-7

6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:

The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
Sin separates and Sin destroys

Sin has a COST
Romans 6:23a

For the wages of sin is death…

Sin’s payment is death
Who is going to pay for that?

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sin cannot exist in God’s presence

Dark cannot exist where there is light

How does a HOLY GOD make a way to have a relationship with a REBELLIOUS, DARKENED humanity?

GRACE
But God is ALSO JUST

Can’t just say forget about it
The DARKNESS must be dealt with

That “darkness” that “disease” must be placed ONTO something
This phenomenon is called:

Atonement

The reconciliation and making amends of the relationship between God and humanity by means of a sacrifice
In Christianity, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Reconciles believers to God
Cleanses them of sin,
Makes them righteous before Him

This is Atonement Theology

Baptism & Communion

Taking part in the ATONING work of Jesus Christ

The ATONEMENT is the answer to the NECESSARY JUSTICE of God as well as the GRACE of God

Jesus paid the penalty (Justice is served)
We are invited into the family of God (GRACE)

Mercy + Justice = SALVATION

3: Salvation – Rescue

Death -> Life

Now
Forever

Jonah 2:9