[00:00:00] hey, everybody. Welcome to Summer School with the Theology Department. I'm excited for this series, um, because we are going to talk through the solas, which, I'm gonna let my two guests explain briefly.

Um, they are grace alone, faith alone, word alone or scripture alone, and then Christ alone. So

the... So we'll cover each one of those in one episode. But the way we're attacking this is we're gonna frame it up through [00:01:00] common student questions. So this week's question is, do I accept God's free gift of grace?

Or maybe said a different way, don't I accept God's free gift of grace? Um, so

the gift of grace, we're talking about grace alone as a sola, and I'm excited for, to have my two guests here, who've both been on the podcast before, um, Mr. Parrott and Mr. Fisher, senior theology, sophomore theology?

Right. Freshman

and sophomore theology? Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Um, so you guys are,

you know, 

well equipped with lots of wisdom that I'm excited for our audience to hear today. Um, so let's just get started. I didn't prep you for this one, but can you just give a brief overview of what are the solas, why talk about them, why care?

Yeah. So these, um, come out of the 16th century Reformation. Um, I don't know where the solas 

actually 

first originated. [00:02:00] Um, I don't know if Luther actually ever wrote about them specifically, but, uh, basically, looking back on the Reformation, these are kind of priorities that we have identified-

Mm-hmm in Reformation theology.

So grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone, Christ alone. And then, uh, we're doing four episodes, but a lot of times there's a fifth one that is, uh, to God's glory alone. 

I did not know that. That's really interesting. Oh, very cool.

We will have to, at some point, circle back on that one Get that in there, too.

Um, cool. so we're talking about grace alone today. Um, so just to give everyone some common language, what is grace?

Well, the, uh, original Greek word, as I understand it, I may be mispronouncing it, charis-

Oh, charis 

Is, uh,

favor or blessing

Mm. Um, I like to think of [00:03:00] it as just undeserved, unmerited favor.

It,

it's pure gift 

Mm-hmm 

Yeah, the idea of grace is really closely tied to God's love and God's mercy. Um, couple of scripture passages that would talk about, uh, grace and specifically how we are, we call justified, so justification

kind of

a legal term meaning to be made right with God, that, uh, when God looks at us, he no longer sees us

as,

as sinful, but he sees us as righteous.

Um,

so a couple verses that would speak to that. Um, Romans chapter

three says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift." And then Galatians chapter

two, uh, "We know that a person is justified,

is,

is not justified by works of the [00:04:00] law, but through faith in Jesus Christ."

Uh, and then Ephesians chapter two, this is very popular. Uh, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast." 

Mm-hmm. 

So grace really, I think, gets at the heart of who God is. Uh, that this is God's motivation for saving us.

I think a lot of us

kind of

have the understanding that God saves us, God forgives us because he has to.

Mm. Uh, that,

you know,

God is a loving God. That's his nature, so he just

kind of

maybe begrudgingly has to forgive 

us.

Mm. Uh,

but

that really couldn't be further from the truth. He doesn't have to save us.

That's the whole- idea 

of grace. It's unmerited that- he actually wants to forgive us, wants to save us. 

And, uh, uh, I believe many [00:05:00] theologians would say, Hannah, that grace is the distinctive that separates Christianity from all other 

religions. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Um, the Jews do not talk about grace a great deal according to Dennis Prager anyway.

Um, uh, of course, Muslims,

you know,

have the five pillars that they must do

by,

by works of law. Um,

so,

so grace is really at the core of the gospel. 

Mm-hmm. Uh, 

Tim Keller writes in The Reason for God that, uh, the definition of religion is salvation by works. Uh, the definition, a simple one, of Christianity is salvation by grace.

Yeah, 

I like to think of,

um

an 

analogy of a mountain, 

I 

use this in class, that, uh, we are at the bottom of the mountain, God's at the top of the mountain. 

Uh, 

and so how do we 

get 

[00:06:00] to God?

Well- ...most religions,

you know,

they all have different paths up the 

mountain.

But every other religion says

"We,

in some way, shape, or form, have to 

make- our way up the 

mountain. Mm-hmm. 

And 

Christians were the only ones that teach that actually God came down the mountain to us, that He actually, uh, made

himself vulnerable to us

in a way, uh, in extending His grace and mercy to us undeserved.

He quite literally did that on Sinai. So it's interesting that Jews don't really think about grace because that is... God's presence coming down is all over the Old Testament. 

Yeah. 

God finding a way to be present with his people is the story of- Yeah. ... scripture. Yeah. It is.

sure. Yeah.

and obviously we- through Jesus he does that, but ultimately, but in the Old Testament, he's constantly coming down.

Yeah, we get all these kind of glimpses- Yeah

in the Old Testament of

foreshadowing [00:07:00] how 

he's- gonna do that in a much fuller way.

Yeah.

That's a cool

image. I like that with the mountain. Um, w-

Now that we live in Colorado, maybe that's your chapel next year. Oh, yeah. And and the gospel of God's grace is a gondola.

Hm. Oh.

You know,

Jesus is the chairlift, if you will- Yeah.

Yeah.

takes us up, up to the

Father.

Yeah. 

That's good. That's good. Yeah. Um, okay, cool. So probably the elephant in the room is this idea of grace versus this idea of works.

Are these things pitted against each other? How do they fit together? Let's talk grace and works.

Well, you got to the core of the issue right away.

Uh, this is

the tension that's always resurfacing because of our flesh that's

given to pride and self-righteousness

uh, versus pure gift of God's grace. Uh,

Luther, here's another image. He said, "Living in grace, [00:08:00] thinking in grace is like a drunk trying to

Stay upright on a horse. It's too easy to fall to the one side-

of legalism or moralism.

you know, forging

your own path as Caleb just alluded to,

to get to God or falling off on the other side to-

antinomianism or Licentiousness ... Where there is no law, I can live however my flesh pleases.

Yeah, I

think

We you know, Craig talked about

this,

this tension between, uh, works and

grace

and faith on the other hand, and a lot of times we want to

resolve

that tension in a way that makes us comfortable and makes sense to us. Um, but ultimately, if God 

is 

God, if God is who he says he is- 

then he's not always gonna make sense to us.

And so it's not an either/or. It's not [00:09:00] grace or 

works. uh, but the order matters. 

So 

it's not that- Grace plus works- equals- salvation.

or,

you know,

we, 

we 

don't believe that we have any part of our salvation,

but

we also don't believe that works are unnecessary.

Right.

Um,

I

ask my sophomore students the question, are good works necessary?

Uh, 'cause sometimes we can speak as if they're not, they don't matter at all.

Well,

the Bible talks a lot about works. It talks a lot 

about- uh, what 

God, yeah, what God expects of us, requires of 

us. So 

we would say

that

that is a response to the grace that God has given us, that it is

a,

a necessary response.

Um, 

scripture often uses the image of fruit.

That our, our works 

are our 

fruit.

A,

a healthy- tree 

bears 

good fruit. 

So somebody who has been [00:10:00] saved, somebody who has been extended grace is going to want to please 

God-

Mm-hmm

and serve their neighbor. Yeah. I- 

it's 

probably time to start using some scripture here.

E- Ephesians 2:8-10 I think combines both of them rather well. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast." But then verse 10 continues, "For we are God's workmanship-" created

in

Christ Jesus to do good works which he prepared beforehand."

So can you even see our good works, in my opinion, completely bathed in God's grace?

Mm-hmm. I mean, faith

is a gift. Uh, salvation is a gift. I believe even our works is a gift from God. I mean, we,

we could go to, uh, Philippians 2, "It is God who works [00:11:00] in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

Galatians 2:20, "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." And the definitive one for me, w- if those are not strong enough,

is really,

Romans 

15:18 saying,

I will no longer speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, uh, by grace." Um y- you were asking how, uh, uh, Bible class was

Going at our church Yeah just Before we started, Hannah.

Well,

Ephesians, again, love that book

um,

Is saying, "But God. But God." Our flesh wants to put our s- uh,

eye, eye, I

in the subject But

God's g-

God's glory and honor and praise for now and [00:12:00] eternity is what he will do- with rebellious, condemned creatures, uh, that still fight, uh,

a flesh that wants to be in control and in charge and call the shots.

I love what you said about the, um, verse of, "It's not I, but Christ who lives in me." Well, what did Jesus do when he was on this earth? He certainly didn't do nothing, and so we shouldn't... If he's living in us and acting in us, and through his Spirit, we are, you know, living and moving and having being, certainly we're not gonna do nothing.

Um, that's just not the, the God that we serve. He is a very active God

Yeah, There's a quote from,

it says either Luther or Calvin, I've,

I've found it attributed to both, but, um,

it says, "

Faith 

alone saves- 

but 

the faith that saves is never alone." Oh, 

Oh, that's really good. 

So works- are a necessary part of the Christian [00:13:00] life, but it does nothing for our salvation. Um-

Right

we 

make the distinction of vertical righteousness and horizontal righteousness.

so 

our vertical relationship with God, 

the 

only thing that really matters in that relationship 

is faith.

and, And 

God's grace extended to us 

that 

grabs a hold of,

of that. But in our horizontal relationships with other people, our good works do matter 

a lot. Um, my, my faith to God doesn't really help my neighbor who's in need- 

Right

unless 

I do something.

Right

Yeah. Jesus talks about that on the Sermon on the Mountain. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And when he-

uh, uh, Marty likes quoting this Matthew 26

often when Jesus comes back to separate believers from unbelievers, he's gonna ask the same question.

You 

know,[00:14:00] 

"Where were you

wh- when I was hungry, when I was, uh, naked, when I was in prison?"

And

neither the believers nor the unbelievers in the Matthew text-

Mm-hmm remember, 

..."When did we see you like this?"

So 

there's,

there's an aspect that we really do, uh,

the, 

the

righteous do live by faith. And, uh, I think the Lutherans', um, mindset with grace being emphasized so much, we really wanna guard against,

uh, 

having

the needle point in our direction too much at all to take the boasting, the glory. Um, because

I 

I think as we grow in the grace and knowledge of God,

kind of

an interesting last line Peter writes in his second book, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus," we realize everything is a gift, including our good works.

[00:15:00] Mm-hmm. 

Uh, w- w- we don't want to elevate ourselves or exalt ourselves over what God himself is doing- in and through us. Um, I know there are probably some non-denominational brothers and sisters that would be uncomfortable with my wording. Uh,

but

I

th- I think it's a hill worth dying on-

that, you know,

to God alone be the glory.

Um, uh, I, um, it--

Theologians have tried to separate, I think for centuries probably, works and faith and what is God's doing, what is my doing.

Uh,

the older I get,

I,

I don't wanna talk about my doing at all. I- my doing is sinful. 

Mm-hmm. 

Um, and any good that comes from me, praise God for that. He's doing it by His grace.

Mm-hmm.

Well, it's that true union. When you think about what does union with Christ look like here and now, it's what you're saying. [00:16:00] It's, um, when he is living and active in us, when we have union with him, the good things we do are him

For certain. Yeah. Amen. And as the

good work he has begun in us 

Mm-hmm

um, you know, uh, Philippians 1:6

says he will complete when He

...returns. Uh, so there is an aspect of our sanctification that is progressing- and growing, and yet I remember my first mentor,

uh, at my first Lutheran school just said, "Be careful of teaching-- taking your spiritual pulse."

Mm-hmm. Because what are you gonna look at?

You're gonna look at yourself. Oh, am I defeating this sin? Am I doing more of this? How's my tithing? Am I praying? It-- And again, as soon as we get ourselves in the subject,

I, I,

I,[00:17:00] 

well,

first of all, there goes our confidence.

Mm-hmm.

Um, because I w- I, 

I, I

will never do enough-

to climb the mountain, as Caleb said- as I should. 

Yeah.

Um, 

but 

God, but God, uh, by His grace and His Spirit and work in us is progressing us to move toward being more like Jesus And again, um, 

uh, 

the, the 

confidence I believe is what is His grace

Mm-hmm. 

It, it, it's

just His, His sheer

goodness

and love, uh, that

The more we know who he is, we can have confidence in his character and what he's done, and not worry about, not even think about, uh, our character or what we've done or not-

done, other than the daily repentance we need to do. 

Yeah. So I do think-- I think we're kinda dancing around it. So how do you answer this [00:18:00] question when students ask, "Do I accept God's gift of grace?"

Yeah,

this is one of those areas where-

Lutherans are a little weird maybe.

Um, There's some disagreement in denominational circles, um,

kind 

of

a debate that centers around, um, what is our role in conversion?

So how do we become Christians? Um, there's an idea known as

synergism

that- 

Mm-hmm ... our 

will cooperates with God in making us Christian. So we do have to make a conscious 

decision. And 

there's another teaching, monergism, mono meaning 

one- 

Mm-hmm ... 

uh,

that, that God

alone- does the 

work

of making us Christians. Um,

Lutherans are monergists.

We believe that, 

uh, 

by nature we are spiritually dead. 

Yes. 

And dead people- 

Don't make 

cannot do anything. [00:19:00] They cannot decide to 

become alive. They cannot make themselves become alive. Uh,

so

if we're gonna become Christians, it's gonna be 100% God's 

doing.

Mm-hmm.

Now, we can reject that gift.

We can say, "No, I don't want it." Once- 

Once- But how do dead people reject things if dead people don't accept things?

them. Well,

once he's put it in our hands, then we're no longer dead.

Mm.

Now

we're 

alive

and 

then

we can

make that decision. "I don't really wanna be alive anymore."

Yeah. 

Um, so a couple verses that would speak to that. 1 Corinthians 2, Paul says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him."

Uh, John 1 says that we were born not of, 

uh, 

blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 

God. 

Mm-hmm.

I, I like to use with students on this subject the analogy of a gift.

either birth- [00:20:00] birthday or Christmas present that we all get. Uh, You, you get that tie, you get those socks, that shirt from that aunt.

Uh, well,

it's, it is, it's y- in your possession.

Yeah.

You didn't ask for it. You might not have even wanted it.

But she 

Here it is. 

you. There it is.

And you can reject 

it.

Mm-hmm. 

But

it's already yours.

Mm-hmm. "For

God so loved the world- you know?

Um, so I would add onto what Caleb just said, uh,

people

that are spiritually dead will do what only spiritually dead people will do, and that's, "I w- want no part of this."

I, I

reject it. I either don't need it, or I don't want it-" "or I'm more interested in something else in the world." 

What do students usually... Are students usually okay with that answer? Do they, does it leave them scratching their heads? Do they think we're crazy?

You know,

I've never had pushback. Um- w- what, they,

I mean,

they might be in [00:21:00] their mind- and they just don't say anything. I actually reach in my pocket and get my car keys, and I'll just

put it on the table. And I'll say, envision that

I,

I've just given you all a car. 

Yeah. You know? 

Uh, it is yours unless you just leave it there-

Mm-hmm

at,

at the

bill. And I, I don't know.

I've,

I've found a lot of students, that seems to make some sense. You know,

Satan is always gonna be trying to tempt us to believe, though- that, that we do something with getting our oar in the water to move us along- toward God, and 

I,

I think that's why we need to be continually nourished,

in,

in the Word- in worship, in, in hearing the gospel. Because in hearing the gospel, we're reminded I need a savior.

You know,

I cannot by my own reason or strength come to believe in Jesus Christ my Lord.

Um, and I need to be s- [00:22:00] I need a savior.

I,

I need someone who will pull me out of, uh,

well,

not only drowning, but as Caleb said, uh, revive me- Yeah ... 'cause I am spiritually Dead, 

yeah. Yeah, I think that segues well into the next question. What are some biblical examples of grace?

Yeah,

We, uh, in 

freshman theology, we start the year off, before we get into the Old Testament, that's what we spend most of the year in, uh, we start off with a unit called 10 Words and Phrases 

Every Christian Should Know.

And grace-

We put out a video series on this. If anyone wants to go watch it, I can link it in the show notes. 

And grace is one of the 10 words. Um,

so

it's kinda helpful, we think, to get everybody on the same page about what is Christianity, what do Christians 

believe- Yeah ... 

before we then start studying scripture, 'cause then we

kind of

have 

categories to make sense 

of what [00:23:00] we're reading.

in 

Yeah. 

And 

so when we, uh,

teach this, we look at a couple biblical examples. Um, the parable of the prodigal son is one that, uh, comes to mind. This is probably a very familiar story in scripture to a lot of people. Craig and I were just talking about this the other day. We think this is probably misnamed. 

Um- Mm.

Mm-hmm.

First 

of all, there are two sons in this 

story. Yeah.

And

they're both lost. Not 

just the prodigal one. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. And 

the emphasis in the story really is not on the sons and what they do.

It's,

it's really properly on the father- Yeah ... and the grace extended by the father. So you've got this, um, father and his two sons, and the younger of the two sons decides, "I want my inheritance."

"I want what's 

coming to me." And,

you know,

we maybe just kinda read over that, but what that communicates [00:24:00] is,

"Dad,

I want you dead." 

Ouch. "I, 

I want 

your inheritance. I just want your stuff. I don't care about 

you." And

so the son goes off and squanders the wealth. He, uh, lives recklessly, 

and 

eventually is so down on his luck,

he

decides-

to

go back. He's got this big speech prepared. 

He's gonna- ... he's gonna 

grovel to his father. 

Um,

he,

he doesn't deserve to come back as a son, so he wants to be

a a servant.

Mm-hmm. 

Mm.

And

it

says, "While he was still a long way off," this is in Luke 15, uh, "his father-"

runs

to him-" 

Yeah

And

cuts him off, won't let him get his speech out-" 

Yeah

and 

embraces him." 

And

what a,

what a picture of grace there 

that- that the fa-

I mean,

this is...

A- an

ancient Near Eastern Jewish father never 

would have run. 

running. They're not running.

yeah,

he [00:25:00] would've had to 

pick up his- 

Mm-hmm ... robe, 

and that would've been totally embarrassing. Yeah. And so he makes a complete fool of himself 

In 

order to receive back his 

son.

And then we've got this older son who is so angry about his father accepting back the younger son. Um,

I 

mean,

you can tell that this relationship is also- 

Fraught

fraught. 

Mm-hmm. 

Um, and so we can see,

probably

most of us can see ourselves

in,

in both of these sons. 

Yes. 

Uh, that,

you know,

we've often run away from our 

Father- and

we,

we try to come back to Him and say, "I'm g- I'm gonna do better. I'm never gonna do X, Y, and Z again." 

even though 

that's-

that's not true.

Um, 

and on the flip side, maybe we get a little prideful 

sometimes- and we 

think,

"You know, I've,

I've done all of these things for you, [00:26:00] God. Don't I deserve?"

Right. 

Well, no, again, that's the point of grace.

It's 

unmerited-

...undeserved.

Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah, when we were talking about this just a couple of days ago, we would like to rename it instead of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, maybe the Parable of

the g- the Gracious Father- Yeah ... or the Grace-Filled Father. It, the parable even ends with the father telling the older son, "Your brother was dead-

Mm ... ..."and,

and is alive." The whole parable reminds me of Keller in his book, The Reason for God, which I quote so much 'cause we read it with our seniors.

Um, there

are two ways to miss Jesus, which for our conversation here, there are two ways to miss God's grace. I break the law. I live however I please, licentia-

licentiously, or

I

try to keep it and earn and merit-

Mm-hmm

Yeah ...what uh, what blessings from

God. [00:27:00] Um, 

and, uh, of

course, both are missing grace-

in the whole aspect that everything...

What,

what Paul, Paul tells the Corinthians, "What do you have that you have not received?" 

Mm-hmm.

Well,

the answer is Nothing, 

yeah.

And

yet in our life, I look back at my own life, there are moments where,

no, 

I,

I thought I had achieved this as a teacher or a husband, a father, a friend, and was just so blind.

uh,

uh,

really robbing God of His glory-

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

that He is this loving, gracious father

who, 

who, 

who... Th- there's so much grace in that sto- in that parable. He gives the youngest son his share of the inheritance. N- uh, And there's no argument, there's no questions asked. He gives, and then he gives the party when the son comes back.[00:28:00] 

Uh, and even then with

the,

the older son, he's been giving the older son whatever he wanted. If the older son had ever asked for a party-

d- would dad have said, "No." you've got a couple more years to

put in the bank?"

No. No. We know that's not the 

case.

Yeah.

yeah.

But

the older son did not know that was the case 'cause he was looking at 

eye, eye-

I instead

of-

the grace-filled father

I think you're spot on. That's super interesting.

Okay, I think we're dancing around the answer to this one, too. A- and Craig, I think you kind of already answered this in the sense of confidence and assurance. But why is it important for our students today to know that they don't accept God's free gift of grace? There's no need

to

to accept it

Well, I, I

think

what's,

what's more important, the way I would phrase it, Hannah, is it's important for them to know grace. 

Mm. 

Mm. The g- the, grace [00:29:00] 

of God. 

Yeah. 

Um,

and,

and since Peter ends his second letter with, "But grow in the grace and knowledge- of Jesus,"

it, it,

it seems to be

s-

an, a, um, 

um,

a, a concept,

a truth, um, that, that

we,

we grasp more of, like God's love- Mm. you know,

His forgiveness

Um, I,

I'm struck by, I, I think next to the word love, grace might be the more,

most

used word in the New Testament. I mean,

if Paul wrote 13 of 27 books, most of his letters start with, "But Grace and peace "... be to you." And the order is important.

Uh, if we have God's pure,

b-

unmerited, undeserved blessing and gift,

then

that gives [00:30:00] us peace- with God and with ourselves, and then by extension, with each other of us who are in Christ. But his letters also end with it.

And,

and I've-- It's

no small thing. I, uh,

Forgive

me, I'm reaching for my note here. The entire Bible ends with, um,

the,

the Revelation, uh,

22,

um, "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you 

all."

Mm.

Amen."

So grace is the last word. As, as well as it could be argued the first word. Uh, you know,

God-

created m- out of grace.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's awesome

I

love 

high school students, um, 

because it's a 

really unique 

time in kids' lives where really for the first time they are 

starting to answer the question, "Who am

[00:31:00] I?" 

On their own. 

Yeah.

Um, No longer really based on who their parents are who their family is, but who do they actually wanna be? And so this idea of identity, I think grace is a huge part of that 

because- if we think about the flip side of things. If grace is not part of the equation, then it's all just up to me.

I,

I somehow have to prove myself. I have to prove 

my worth. 

Um, 

but as Christians, we believe that we are adopted sons and heirs. That's what Paul says in Galatians 4. So you think about the meaning of an adopted 

son. 

Um, first of all, that means God chose 

me.

Mm-hmm.

That 

I didn't do anything-

...to

deserve this.

I did nothing to get here. Um, in fact, I probably did everything- Yeah ... to the contrary. Yeah.

Uh,

but

God,

God chose me, [00:32:00] and Paul uses the term son specifically. He doesn't say children, he says son, because you think about the ancient context in which he was writing this. Uh, sons received inheritance.

Mm-hmm. And

so

we're,

we're heirs with Christ of all the things that Christ 

has 

purchased for us. All that He has bought for us by His blood,

um,

now belongs to us. 

We 

are- Yeah ... 

like brothers of Jesus.

All,

all of God's 

riches 

are ours 

in- Mm ... 

in Christ. 

You know what's a joy about, uh, having the privilege and pleasure of, uh, being theology teachers with high school students?

I would rephrase the question now that I look at it. Why is this important for Christians 

today? Mm. 

Mm.

Uh, be- I need to hear this. Oh,

It, it's

not

it's not just

the,

the young students in front of [00:33:00] us. I asked the question in Bible class on Sunday, uh, at our church, um,

"How

many of you come to church on Sunday morning feeling beaten up by the week?"

"How many of you come to church frustrated, demoralized, um, feeling wretched,"

as

Paul uses the word in Romans 7, "because of, again,

you, 

you l- you lost a, battle with sin in

your,

in your week?" And most of the room, as you could imagine, raised their hands- to that question. Young people often ask, "Will God keep forgiving me?"

"Especially if I keep doing the same sin over and over?" 

Mm-hmm. 

And Grace says, "By all means." Yeah. 

Yeah. Yes. 

And so it's such an important concept that we come back to

again

and again, uh, just to be reminded [00:34:00] God loves us. This is who He

is.

This is how good He is, how

faithful

and true, benevolent,

you know,

throw in whatever, good adjectives

you want. Um,

This is the grace of God, and it endures forever.

It's, n- uh, uh, y- you cannot out-sin God's grace. We haven't even talked about that part of Romans, have we?

No. As

sin increases, what abounds all the more? Grace abounds all the more, Romans 5:20 says. So yeah, w- we all need to hear this- um, often. 

Mm, I agree. I totally agree. 

I think another reason this is important, um, for us today is, um, in the area of suffering.

Mm.

and as we-- I mean, maybe

students haven't experienced a lot of [00:35:00] this yet in their lives. I know we have students that have- Yes ... experienced a lot of it. Um, but as 

we continue on in life and as we suffer more and more, this is 

really 

where the rubber meets the road- 

of 

the Christian life. So I think of Paul's experience of suffering that he talks about in 2 Corinthians 12, of this thorn in the flesh that he had ...that he, he begs God to get rid of.

And 

God says no. Um, and then in verse 

nine of chapter 12, 

uh, Jesus says to him, "My grace-" is sufficient for 

you."

"For my power is made perfect in weakness." And Paul says, "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Mm. Mm.

Um,

There's a quote by Tim Keller that says, "Sometimes

we

don't realize Jesus is all we need-[00:36:00] 

until

Jesus 

is all we have." And 

so throughout our lives, God is going to allow suffering to happen to us to teach us He is all we need. 

Mm-hmm.

And in the end, He is all we will have, ...'cause when- we stand before God in judgment, 

if I, 

in any way, shape, or form, am pointing to myself 

and what I have 

done or not 

done, 

yikes.

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah ... 

the good 

news for us is that as Christians, when we stand before God in judgment, we don't need to be afraid of 

that-

because I think Jesus 

stands up and says, "I got this one."

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. 

That God no longer

...sees our sin. Psalms says it's, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our 

transgressions from 

us."

Well, how far is the east from the 

the west? 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Infinitely 

far. So when Jesus says, [00:37:00] "It is finished," it is 

finished.

And we often try to backtrack and,

you know,

dig up our old sins. 

Yeah. But- Yeah ... when 

we stand before God, He sees the righteousness of 

Jesus.

Mm-hmm.

That's all we need-

That's all we 

have.

Yeah.

Amen. Amen.

Maybe just to end,

I've,

I've got a verse 

from- 

from Hebrews chapter

4. Um, it says,

Let 

us then with confidence- 

draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and 

find grace to help in time

of need." 

Hmm. 

we

talked about 

at the beginning of this, really the whole story of the Bible is us being in God's 

presence.

You know,

we, 

we

screw it up in the garden. 

So 

how do we get back into God's presence?

Um, well, 

through

what Jesus has done for us[00:38:00] 

we can

draw near

with,

with confidence. We don't have to shrink away. We 

don't have to,

you know,

be thinking about, "Oh, but I'm not worthy."

Well,

yeah, we're not 

worthy.

Yeah.

Um, And that's

kinda the point, but- we can have confidence to be in the presence of God, and that is where we will be-

Yeah.

eternally.

Well, you guys, thank you so much. Thank you for the encouragement.

I am encouraged. I feel like I needed this today, and I hope other people feel the same way. And, um, parents, I've said it before, but please,

you know,

share this with your students. They need to hear it all the time, just like we do. So thank you guys for coming. 

Thanks, Hannah 

Thank you.

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