Reformation Sunday: Autonomy and Grace Alone

Last month, while I was shopping, I ran into a friend who had formerly attended Chapel.

After some friendly small talk, I invited her to come back to Chapel sometime for a visit,
but she was pretty blunt with me.

“No,” she said, “I don’t want a God who tells me everything I have to do and controls
everything.”

“I want to make my own decisions and one day, when I die, I will become a spirit (hotoke)
that lives forever too, like God."

I thought about asking her what reasons she had for believing such a thing, but I decided
that it wasn’t really the best time or place to challenge her.

I just said, “Well, God loves you, and I am praying for you.”

She smiled and walked on.

As I thought more about that conversation, I realized that though my friend was bold to
say it so directly, every human on the planet has the same basic idea in their hearts.

That same basic idea is called “sin” according to the Bible.

And our basic problem is this: that on our own, without God’s help, absolutely no one seeks
for God to be their God, as Romans 3:10-18 says. (show)

As verse 18 sums it up, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (v.18)

In other words, there is no fear or respect of God as God in anyone’s heart or mind until God
begins to work in us to help us and change us by His grace.

Because of the sin nature we are born with, by nature no wants the real God to be God!

In fact, we would rather make up our own gods to suit our own desires, as Romans 1:20-23
says.

Fundamentally, in our sin, we want to be god: fully autonomous and free to do as we wish.

It all started with Adam and Eve, who were tempted to believe and ultimately chose to believe,
in the garden, that they could be wiser than God.

Like v.22 says, “Professing to be wise they became fools…”

In an attempt to be wise, they imagined that they really didn’t need the real God at all.

That somehow they didn’t need the God who made them and provided every single good
thing they had, even the very air they were presently breathing!

Instead of enjoying God and the fact they were made in His image, to know Him personally
as His own children, they rejected their Maker, dishonored Him, and became fools.

And Romans 5:18-19 says of Adam, “one trespass led to condemnation for all men”
and “by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,”

V. 12 says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and
death throughsin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”

In other words, Adam was the federal representative head of the entire human race.

Through his sin, all people are now born with that same sinful nature and we also sin.

And so not only are we separated from God, and destined to die as a result,

but we are willfully slaves to sin, with destructive desires to go our own way, away from God.

Unless God mercifully does something to help us, we are all on the road to a self-chosen
separation from God in hell.

In our sin nature, it always seems wise to choose autonomy and make or be your own god.  

But autonomy does not mean freedom.

In sin it seems wise:

1. To make autonomous value judgments apart from God's Word-

"It is good for food," Adam and Eve thought as they looked at the tree.

How often people do things saying, “I did it because it just felt right.”?

2. To make autonomous aesthetic judgments: "It is a delight to the eyes," they mused.

Lust for things, people, power and money control and corrupt us to the core.

3. To make autonomous rational judgments: "It will make me wise," they reasoned.

In effect: I know better than my Creator, and this is my life, I will do what I want with it.

This is the root thought of sin: "We will do as we want regardless of what is truly good and
right because we want to. Our minds and our ways take precedence over revelation from God."

The only problem is that we are not God, and we all know it deep down. (show Rom 1:18)

Quite to the contrary, we are weak and frail, and death is coming soon because of our rebellion
against the One who is called Life.

But 1 Corinthians 15:22 gives us hope:

It says, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

We are all in Adam, but if you are in Christ, through faith in Him as your Lord and Savior, you will
live in real freedom forever.

Jesus said that real life and freedom comes by knowing Him - He who is the truth. (show John 8:32, 14:6)

Knowing Him, knowing His love, truth, and salvation in our hearts, that is real freedom,

Heaven will be heaven, because our great Creator God will be there!

And as long as corrupting sinful rebellion against our wonderful Creator remains, we will not
experience heaven.

So we all need the good news of Jesus Christ. We all need His grace to change our hearts.

Now this Wednesday, October 31st, we have something much better than Halloween to celebrate.

It is Reformation Day, the day 501 years ago, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the
church door in Wittenburg, Germany, and helped ignite a reformation in the church.

At that time, in 1517, Europe lived in the shadow of the Roman Catholic Church.

In many ways it had become more like an empire than a church.

It crowned and cast down kings, and used its dominance to control the masses.

Reformation Day celebrates when God used Luther and others to free the church from man’s
authority and return it to the original source of God and His Word, as our final authority.

Salvation, according to the Bible, is not about the power of man with a little of God’s grace sprinkled
in, or even a lot of God’s grace with a bit of our own work to fill in the gaps.

In studying God’s Word, Luther realized that it was only by the gift of God’s righteousness that we
could be saved and freed from the power of sin.

It’s called grace. It is only by God’s free love and grace in Christ that we can be saved.

Now it isn’t just the Catholic church that has drifted away from God’s righteousness and from His
Word as our ultimate authority and focus.

Ever since the time of Adam and Eve, we are all born with a sinful nature that naturally goes away
from God and His Word, and so we continue to have the need to come back to Him.

Satan continues to tempt us as he tempted Eve, “Did God really say…” (Gen. 3:1)

He continues to whisper into our ears, “you can be wise, you can be like God.” (v. 5)

During the Reformation the “5 Solas” or “5 Alones” began to emerge as a summary of the biblical
teaching concerning how mankind can be saved.

It is an attempt to say, “No, we are not God, and yes we are completely in need of His grace alone
in order to be saved and truly free.”

Scripture Alone - God’s Word alone is our final authority, including in the matter of salvation,
not the traditions or councils of man.

Christ Alone - Christ’s atoning work on the cross alone saves and not some combination of my
own goodness plus Christ.

Grace Alone - Only by God’s grace and not by our own merit are we enabled to draw near to
God for salvation.

Faith Alone - Only by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to faith in Christ, and
not by our own works, are we justified before God.

God’s Glory Alone - Since all of our goodness, perseverance in faith, and final salvation is a
gift of God alone, all glory belongs to Him alone.

Today, in order to understand Grace Alone more, I want to look into the story of one man who
lived more than 1,000 years before the Reformers.

Outside the Bible, this man influenced Luther and the Reformation more than any other person.

His name was Augustine of Hippo, and though he lived long ago in North Africa, he continues to
help the world-wide church through his teaching about God’s grace.

You may think that you have nothing to learn from someone who lived 1,600 years ago but you
may be surprised.

Now just like any man, Augustine is not a man to embrace at every point.

He taught some things that bolstered error in the Catholic church even unto today.

In fact, B.B. Warfield said, “The Reformation is the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of
grace over Augustine's [mistaken] doctrine of the Church.”!

So in looking into this great teacher’s life, we do not praise man or man’s greatness, but we
praise God’s work, in which he saves and powerfully uses weak people like us.

Augustine grew up with a pagan father and mother who, in his own words, cared nothing for his
morals, and wanted nothing more for him than to become a successful orator.

But as Augustine neared adulthood, his mother became a Christian, and then for years she would
pray daily for her family’s conversion also.

Augustine wrote, “As a lad, I wanted to steal, and steal I did. I already had plenty of what I
stole, and of much better quality too, and I had no desire to enjoy what I stole. I simply
wanted to enjoy the theft for its own sake, and the sin. Close to our vineyard there was a
pear tree. This fruit was not enticing, either in appearance or in flavor. We nasty lads went
there to shake down the fruit and carry it off at dead of night. We did eat a few, but that was
not our motive; we derived pleasure from the deed simply because it was forbidden.”
(Confessions, Book II, 4)

Now, we may ask “Why did this sin appear to him as an attractive end in itself?

The answer goes back again to the core of our problem as humans.

When I break God’s law, I stand above God’s law, and I feel like I am God, the one in control.

Seeing myself as one who lives under the law is a constant reminder to me that I am not God
but a creature, subject to His rule.

The delight Augustine found in stealing mediocre, bitter pears was not a delight in the intrinsic
goodness of the pears themselves.

It was the pleasure of pretending for a moment that he was in control.

When I break God’s law, like the high that comes immediately after taking a stimulant drug,
I may feel that I have found the answer to my deepest longing.

But like this artificial high, the effect wears off, and I need to sin more and harden my heart to
maintain the illusion that I’m in control and that I’ve found the solution to my problem.

Well, just as his parents had planned, Augustine did become an amazing crafter of words and
oration, but inside his heart he was becoming a willing slave to lust and conceit.

He wrote, “As I grew into manhood, I was inflamed with a desire for a surfeit of hell’s
pleasures… My family made no effort to save me through marriage.” (Book II, 1)

Before he left home, his mother warned him earnestly, “not to commit fornication and above
all not to seduce any man’s wife.”

But, “I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron
of lust… My real need was for you, my God, who are the food of the soul. I was not
aware of this hunger.” (Book III, 1)

“I was at the top of the school of rhetoric. I was pleased with my superior status and
swollen with conceit… It was my ambition to be a good speaker… to gratify my vanity.”
(Book III, 3:6)

But God would begin to work by His grace on this dead heart, hardened and enslaved to sin.

Just like a physically dead person, a person who spiritually dead feels no love for God or
any real attraction to Him as God.

In this state, God must work or we will never come to faith in Him as our God.

As Ephesians 2:4-9 says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with
which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together
with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ...8 For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of
works, so that no one may boast."

God's grace was working in Augustine.

While he learned from the greats of Rome and grew in his skills as an orator, he began to see
those skills were not satisfying his heart.

Over the course of 9 years God slowly showed him the emptiness of various false teachings and
sins, and helped him toward the wisdom of His Word.

It was then that God sovereignly led him to Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, at first only to hear and
learn from his rhetorical skill.

He writes, “In Milan, I found your devoted servant, Ambrose… At that time his gifted tongue
never tired of dispensing the richness of your corn… Unknown to me, it was you who led
me to him, so that I might knowingly be led by him to you” (Book V, 13:23)

“I thrilled with love and dread alike. I realized that I was far away from you… and, far off,
I heard your voice saying, ‘I am the God who IS.’ I heard your voice, as we hear voices in
our hearts, and at once I had no reason for doubt.”

But this was still not his conversion to Christ.

You can see how God’s grace is drawing him and beginning to change him already, however.

He wrote, “I was astonished that although I now loved you… I did not persist in the
enjoyment of my God.”

Still lust held his heart fast and He did not want to commit his whole life to God.

This is why we must pray for people’s hearts and have patience with them.

Acts 19 says this about Paul’s ministry:

And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and
persuading them about the kingdom of God.  But when some became stubborn
and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he
withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall
of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia
heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. (Acts 19:9-10)

As we patiently share the good news of Christ, we depend on God to break the chains of sin
and help people see and feel the truth that Christ is infinitely more valuable than all else!

In John 6:44 Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
him.”

Augustine now knew that the outcome of the battle would be determined by the kind of pleasure
that triumphed in his life.

He began to see that the gain was far greater than the loss, and by God’s grace, one day his
eyes were opened to the beauty of Christ as more to be valued than sin.

Hebrews 4 says that the Word of God is living and active, and Ephesians 6 says the
Word is the sword of the Spirit.

One day, while reading this next passage, like an active sword the chains that bound Him to
lust were severed.

"Not in reveling in drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and
rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ; spend no more thought
on nature and nature's appetites" (Romans 13:13-14).

He writes: I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as I came
to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart
and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled.” (Book VIII, 12)

Notice the power for his conversion came as the Holy Spirit worked through the word of God.

As Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of
Christ.”

He was baptized the next Easter, 387, in Milan by Ambrose.

That autumn his mother died, a very happy woman that the son of her tears was safe in Christ.

Augustine wrote, “How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys
which I had once feared to lose! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the
sovereign joy.”  (Book IX, 1)

There's the key phrase and the key reality for understanding the heart of Augustine.

You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure,
though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than
any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who
see all honor in themselves. . . . O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.
(Book IX, 1)

This is Augustine's understanding of grace. Grace is God's giving us an all-surpassing joy in
God that begins to triumph over joy in sin.

God opens our spiritually dead eyes to see the beauty of His love and glory above the glory
of self.

As the apostle Paul spoke God’s Word, Acts 16:14 says this of Lydia:

“The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.”

By his powerful grace working over His Word, we are enabled to respond to the Word.

As 1 Peter 1:23 says, “you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of
imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”

Augustine writes, “Who has it in his power to have such a motive present to his mind that his
will shall be influenced to believe? Who can welcome in his mind something which does not
give him delight? If those things delight us which serve our advancement towards God, that
is due not to our own whim or industry or meritorious works, but to the inspiration of God and
to the grace which he bestows.”

In 1 Thess 1:2-5 we see Paul writing in a similar way:

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and
steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God,
that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also
in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

As Paul says, he gives thanks to God as he remembers what God has done in their hearts,
by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our work of faith, our labor of love and our hope in Jesus Christ, they’re all works of His
grace alone!

This is what Protestants of every variety hold to, because this is what God’s Word teaches.

And it is only by God’s grace that we are enabled to believe in Him, and love Him more than
the things of this world so that we begin to overcome our sinful nature.

And so I pray today that the good news of grace comes to you also not only in word, but
also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction in your heart.

That you might also trust and love our great Creator God more than the fading things of this
world, including yourself.

As many have said, there is a God-sized hole in our hearts that we try to fill but ultimately only
God can fill our hearts fully and forever.

Psalm 16:11 says: “In your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand there are
pleasures forevermore.”

There is no other full and lasting happiness - and one day all of the gifts that point to our good
God will be gone, and then we will face Him directly and give an account of our lives.

Are you ready to meet Him and run into His wonderful embrace, or will you continue to run
away - away from heaven and into increasing darkness?

Will you receive Him and His salvation by the amazing free grace God extends you today?

May God’s grace draw us more into His love so that we can be changed by Him.

And for those of us who have experienced and received this amazing grace:

It should be clear that the goal of the Christian life is not simply to cling to faith until the end.

The goal of the Christian life is to pursue pure joy in God that triumphs over the petty,
short-lived pleasures of sin.

Augustine writes, “The whole of a good Christian life is a holy desire.”

In other words, the key to Christian living is to see Christ as our living water and as the
bread of life, indeed as our all in all.

Let us go and have all of our hungers and thirsts and needs satisfied in Him.

Because He is such a faithful God, full of grace, we can come to Him in our time of need
and He will help us.

Let’s pray.

Lord, we confess that we often forfeit our joy because we do not live in your presence.

Rather than you, we seek out the pleasures of this world that are not God and cannot
satisfy us for long.

Forgive us for thinking that we know better than You and your Word.

LORD, please bless us and keep us; make your face shine upon us and be gracious to
us; lift up your countenance upon us so that we can trust You and be saved. (Number 6:24-26)

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.