Scripture: Ephesions 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Pastor’s Message
When I was in high school, a traveling evangelist came to our church to share his testimony. I remember being riveted by his story. It involved motorcycles, fights, and other things that were outside my realm of experience as a 15-year old church girl. As I recall, he took about an hour to tell his story. There was a lot of emotion, sweat and tears. And a long altar call.
When the service was over, this evangelist scooted to the foyer (what we call the Narthex) and stood behind a table which held stacks of books and LPs recounting his story. I’ll never forget the cover of that LP: it was orange with big, black Gothic-type lettering. The title was “Justified!” with a white fist plunging down from top to bottom.
Maybe some of you have experiences and memories akin to this. For others of us this may not make much sense at all.
I tell this memory to highlight some of the questions surrounding justification – the term used by some faith groups to speak of salvation. In some denominations, justification is IT – a necessary step that is an end unto itself. It frequently goes something like this: we realize we’re sinners, and that we can’t save ourselves. Shame sometimes enters the picture here, along with self-doubt. We then turn to the Divine in desperation, pray for Jesus to enter our hearts and become our personal Lord and savior. When this is done, we’re justified, saved, and have received the gift of eternal life.
All of this is true. But I humbly offer this: it’s not the whole story. Saving moments are powerful, but they are moments that reside in a whole life that is comprised not just of other moments, but entire seasons of life: joy, loss, celebration, grief, gratitude. Hanging an entire life of faith on one moment risks losing the significance of those other moments and seasons.
In the Methodist tradition, justifying grace is just one component in a whole framework that seeks to describe God’s grace. There are four movements in this framework: prevenient grace (which we talked about last week). This is the grace that exists before we exist. This is the grace we are born into, in which we breathe, move and live.
There is justifying grace, which is a moment of surrender, or turning to God and offering our whole selves, knowing that the Holy One will receive us – all of us.
There is sanctifying grace (we’ll talk about this next week), which comes into play the moment we are justified. This is the grace that continually works in us, transforming our minds into the mind of Christ, softening our hearts so that we may love more and more as Christ loved.
And then there’s the awesome & wonderful doozey of Christian perfection with which we’ll close off this series, so please stay tuned!
You may have heard of John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience (or maybe you haven’t). John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience is often referred to as his conversion, his justifying moment. Here’s the story:
John was headed to a Methodist society meeting near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, on a side street called Aldersgate. Just before he entered the meeting, he overheard someone reading from Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans. The way John describes it in his journal, he felt his heart “strangely warmed” in that moment, and was assured that he was child of God.
It’s helpful to add some context to this story. John was already an ordained priest in the Church of England. He had already started the Methodist societies, which were sparking a revival within the Church of England. He had already traveled across the Atlantic to the colony of Georgia as a missionary and returned with a spurned, broken heart. John was already on a faith journey, but he struggled with temptations, depression, and wondering if God really loved him and if he was really forgiven.
In a moment, John received the assurance he was seeking. Standing at the entrance to a Methodist society meeting in Aldersgate Street, a feeling washed over him that he was indeed God’s own.
The way Wesley describes this experience, and the way he writes about God’s justifying grace in general, is that God offers pardon and assurance to the one seeking pardon and assurance. All of our warts, imperfections, sins, worries, shortcomings are received by the Divine and forgiven. Here are Wesley’s words from his sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation”: [there] is no guilt, no sense of condemnation, no consciousness of the wrath of God.” We step into God’s loving embrace, and let that wash over us.
When we are justified, all that is required is faith in God’s grace to accept, assure, and forgive. As one commentator puts it: “there is nothing we have to do to earn God’s grace.” “There is nothing we have to do to earn God’s grace.” “there is nothing we have to do to earn God’s grace.”
There is no work, no earning, no appeasing, no pleasing to be done. If we have to do any of those things to gain favor, then we’re not talking about grace.
And because we’re human, and we tend to be captive to our ways of being and acting without really understanding what’s driving us, we experience moments of justifying grace more than once. After he felt his heart strangely warmed – the very same day — John wrote of being assailed by doubts and temptations, of questioning his experience of the forgiving love of God.
How many of us can identify with that?
When we doubt God’s love, we can move back into prevenient grace – the grace in which we live, move, and have our being. That is the foundation. That is the Divine reality. If we can rest in that – if only for a moment – then we can find our hearts and lives justified once again, hearing the reassurance that we are children of a loving God. No matter what. Thanks be to God!
Let us pray:
Loving God:
You dwell beyond time and understanding;
and yet you are here, now,
through the Spirit of Christ
who calls us to love,
to trust, to receive the grace
that is offered each and every moment.
May we say yes to you again and again.
Amen.
