Preaching & Grace

 

      

Paul Preaching in Athens    

     The more I study and experience the role of grace in my own life as well as in my preaching, the more I realize the vastness of God’s grace and the human impossibility of its complete comprehension.  Because preaching is what I do, I have particularly been thinking about the question, “What role should grace play in a preacher’s understanding and explanation of Scripture?”

     Well, first, grace keeps the sermon focused on God instead of on man, on the Creator instead of the creature.  Grace keeps the preacher from falling into the trap of moralizing and proclaiming a legalistic ‘to do’ list.  When the preacher is looking at a text, his focus must always be on God and God’s gracious eternal plan of redemption.  He should point his congregation to the fact that whatever they might hope to achieve comes from a life that is centered on and surrendered to Christ, because any hope to achieve comes only through Christ alone, not from good works or personal efforts.

     Paul writes in Romans 3: 22-24, “The righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  This text makes it clear that our salvation comes only by God’s grace.  Taking the text in context, the preacher must fully understand and then explain that it is Christ who gives us salvation as a free gift of His grace and our salvation is secured solely in Him.  Therefore, it should always be at the forefront of the preacher’s preparation and study that “the Bible requires us to construct our message in such a way as to reveal the grace that is the ultimate focus of every text.”

    Grace must not just be central in a preacher’s study, understanding and explanation of of Scripture, but equally important when it comes to how he applies Scripture for daily living.  Preachers should motivate their listeners by grace, not guilt.  As Bryan Chapell has written, “If God has freed His people from the guilt and power of sin, then preachers have no right to seek holiness by putting believers back under the weight Jesus bore.”   

     The preacher must understand and make clear that it is God’s grace that gives us what we need to please our Heavenly Father.  Philippians 2:13 makes the point quite succinctly, “For is is God who works in you to will and act according to His good pleasure.”  In his book, Holiness by Grace Dr. Chapell writes, “Though it flows through us, the righteousness that sanctifies us before God originates in Him.  We strive in the strength that He generates, reach for Him with the love that He instills, and trust Him with the faith that He provides.”  This is true for every believer.  For the preacher specifically one could say that though the sermon flows through him, it originated in God and is a product of His grace.

     So, how does the preacher motivate his listeners to apply the truths of God’s Word to their lives?  Certainly not through guilt or fear, for their effect is short lived at best.  The answer to the question can be found in the words of the Puritan preacher, Samuel Bolton when he wrote three hundred years ago, “There is nothing more powerful than love.”    Again, Chapell speaks convincingly, “What compels the mother back into the burning building for her child is love.  And what most powerfully and persistently compels us to obey God when there is no apparent earthly gain is love inspired by the mercy of God in Christ.”

     We are loved by God, saved by His grace and adopted as His children through His mercy.  Romans 8:15 explains, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”  Just as a small child does with his earthly father, we are motivated to please our heavenly father out of a graceful heart consumed by love.  

     My prayer is that this will be the focus of my preacher and the motivation for holiness in my life and in my preaching.