Grace Makes Heroes of Us All

Grace Makes Heroes of Us All

We would define a ‘hero’ as someone who goes against his natural instincts of self-preservation in order to protect those around him. A hero places himself in great peril in the interest of others. The greater the risk of danger encountered in helping others; the greater we esteem that individual a hero. By that definition, Jesus Christ is by far the greatest hero in history. He faced ultimate peril, perishing on a cruel cross under divine wrath. He endured the loss of all personal wellbeing in order to accomplish our redemption. He was willing to be a victim for the sake of the world. He could have called 10,000 angels amidst His passion, but He went silent to the His death like a sheep to the slaughter.

It is Christ’s death on our behalf that makes us heroic in our dealing with personal sin. Christ has taken the sting out of death for all who believe. And we know what that sting was—it was the power of God’s law to justly condemn us for our sin (1Cor 15:56-58). As we saw in our last lesson, sin has made us cowards. We, like Adam, hide, blame and deny—we seek to escape the seriousness of our sin. Our natural instincts at self-preservation include a carnal desire to run from the light lest we should have our sinful deeds exposed. As we will see in this lesson, the grace of God purchased by Christ has become the source of our courage to deal with personal sin.

Heroism in facing our sin is firmly anchored in Christ’s work as Substitute. In bearing our penalty, dying in our place, the Lamb of God has disarmed the power of the Law to condemn us. The problem is that our natural instincts to flee judgment are still stubbornly in place. Only a steady diet of the gospel can bring us out of hiding and into the fellowship of the redeeming love of God. This of course involves ongoing faith in the gospel, the Word of His grace to us (Acts 20:32).

Puritan Thomas Hooker’s comments are most appropriate on the necessity of faith joined to its object:

For, thou must NOT first have faith, and then go to the [gospel] promise, but first go to the promise for the power of that faith. From the promise thou must receive the power to believe. To expect faith without a promise, is as if a man should expect a crop of corn without seed; for the promise is the immortal seed of God’s Word, whereby the Spirit breeds this faith in the hearts of all that are His (Thomas Hooker, The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn to Christ, p. 113).

This same Puritan divine is very pastoral as he deals with the truth that we must come empty to God— we are unable to make ourselves ‘fit’ for God’s promise:

So the Lord is offering Christ’s mercy and salvation without our cost, and saying, come, take it without money; and yet we will run up and down to borrow money of our prayers and other duties also, and from our prayer against corruption. If we go this way to work, we may quickly lose our labor, and ourselves. Many a poor soul not remembering this is kept from coming to the promise. For, O! saith one, “If I were able to master my sins and distempers as such a one can do, then I might bring money. But art thou content to have Christ free of cost; so as He may have thee, and rule in thee, and supply what is wanting to thee, and open thy sores, and heal thy corruptions (Ibid, p. 115)?

I. Only a perfect atonement would end our guilt and fear of judgment.

A. The natural man seeks to work his way out of condemnation by religious effort, by moral exertion, and by self-reformation. The sense of _____________ planted in man’s conscience demands some form of atonement to “offset” the punishment man deserves.

B. The management of human guilt by religion is ultimately self-centered, not God-centered. All false religion does not have the knowledge and __________ of God as its goal; it never rises above human attempts to protect self from God (Bruce Demarest, The Cross and Salvation, p. 215).

Natural men devise their own means of atonement. Unregenerate men falsely assume that a zeal for righteousness accompanied by ______________ cannot help but find favor with God (Rom 10:1-4). (Religious zeal is really an attempt to obligate God.)

In our evangelism we are always running up against this natural religious instinct in sinners that seeks to offset condemnation by coming up with some personal form of atonement. Theologians refer to this man-made religion as ‘will worship’. In other words, men decide for themselves how they will worship God. The gospel alone overturns will worship. For the gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness (Rom 1:16-17); and the gospel is the revelation of God’s glory in the face of Christ (2Cor 4:4-6).

We could summarize God’s self-revelation in Christ and redemption by saying that God has made Himself known by how He deals with sin. This work of atonement is central to His self-revelation. There is but one true God, immortal, invisible, all-wise Creator. And, He has made Himself known by how He forgives sins. Every false religious expression in the world today is willfully ignorant of God revealed in the redemptive work of Christ.

Now this has everything to do with our profession of faith as Christians. God has made Himself known by how He deals with sin. Therefore, our profession of faith (in order to be biblical) means that we must deal with our sin the way God deals with sin, or we do not know God. It is just that simple— gospel faith makes us heroic in dealing with our sin. We worship the atoning and the ‘atoned for’ God of the universe.

1. BUT, the problem with atonement is that everything depends upon the value of the sacrifice as ________________ by the Judge (and not by what we think may cancel out our guilt). Scripture regards all efforts at winning God’s favor through the accumulation of merit to be dead works (Heb 9:14).
2. If the sacrifice is insufficient and not 100% successful in the eyes of the God the Judge, then man’s guilt, fear, and condemnation remain in place (Rom 10:1-4). Everything depends upon God’s determination of the _____________ of the sacrifice.

3. Atonement is called for when the first party in the transaction is in a position of actual guilt in regard to the JUDGE. Guilt has estranged and alienated the two parties. The ___________of atonement is its ability to remove guilt from the situation. (In the gospel we preach the reconciling power of the propitiation accomplished at the cross—Romans 3:23-26.)

C. God has publicly _______________ His own Son as the perfect atonement (Rom 3:25, 26). God has endorsed the infinite value of His Son’s death. “He [Christ] was raised for our justification,” (Rom 4:25). This means that the resurrection is a powerful testament to the fact that God has accepted Christ’s atoning work on behalf of believing sinners.

The judgment due us because of our sins has been assumed by Another—Christ Jesus. Not only are believers freed from judgment, they are _______________ to Judge! (Rom 5:10). In the gospel, the judge gives His authoritative endorsement of the atonement He has provided (Titus 3:4-7; Heb 6:17-20). (The atonement literally purchased the pouring out of the Holy Spirit for all who would believe.)

II. The atonement disarms the condemning force of the law and frees from the fear of punishment.

A. The gospel brings incredible news: our actual ___________ guilt and fear of punishment have been responded to decisively, eternally from outside ourselves (Eph 2:1-10).

B. God has intervened in our situation by sending His Son in human flesh in order that the full _______________of judgment might fall on Him (2 Cor 5:21). The whole oppression of judgment has descended upon the Son. For believers, this spells the end of the Law as a power to deal out death (Gal. 2:19-21).

C. In judging Jesus Christ to death in our place, the Law has done its ____________. It has prosecuted its standard of obedience to the furthest possible limit—death to the lawbreaker in ultimate condemnation (Gal 3:10-13; Rom 10:4).

1. By disarming the law, the atonement __________ from the fear of judgment. Gospel atonement bursts in upon the fear of judgment. Remember, the Law has not only judged what I do, but also what I am!
2. Our conscience bears ______________against us. There is evidence of deliberate sins, conscious moral failures, compulsive patterns of lust and passion. At times, the believer loathes living in his body of flesh, (Rom 7:24-25).
3. Because of Christ’s perfect atonement, the Law is now ______________ to condemn me before God’s bar of justice (Col 2:13, 14; Eph 2:14-16). The law cannot see me apart from Christ. Because of justification, I am morally and legally one with Him in the eyes of the Law (Col 3:3-4; Phil 3:9). (By union with Christ all the benefits of Christ’s work that He has earned for us are ours.)

III. Grace makes heroes of believers (courageous in dealing with indwelling sin).

A. Adam’s hiding revealed the need to be ______________from God’s wrath. Adam’s blaming revealed that sin is imputed to a person’s account and punished. Adam’s fear revealed that God’s condemning justice involves misery, exposure, shame, and suffering.

1. It was the fear of punishment and condemnation that made cowards of us all. We could not deal with sin courageously. Fear of punishment and shameful _______________dominated us and held us in a vice grip of guilt.
2. We sought to ___________ with that fear by hiding, denial, flight, defiance, appeasement, and other carnal forms of self-protection. In our cowardice, we could not affirm God’s moral government over us; we could not exalt His holiness and justice. We preferred hiding and self-protection over confessing and forsaking our sin.

B. Only Christ’s atonement could free us from guilt’s captivity. The liberating design of Christ’s sacrifice was to deliver us from the bondage of fear, casting it out, that we might be ________________ in love (1 Jn. 4:18). To be ‘perfected in love’ means that being set free for fellowship with God and one another is the priority of grace (1 Jn 1:3-7).

IV. Justification gives us the legal right to come out of hiding and deal with our sin courageously.

A. Through justification, we move from cowardice to heroism. Justification is the very cause of our cowardice has been dug up by the roots. It is no longer necessary to turn to fleshly mechanisms in order to deflect judgment. Our ______________to fear is broken by the atonement (Heb. 2:14, 15; 1 Cor. 15:55-57). (The new covenant in all of its provisions answers comprehensively every aspect of our fear.)

B. A mighty ________________ is working in our favor. Through justification in Christ, we come out of hiding and deal with sin courageously in repentance and confession.

We need to be heroic in this matter; for consider what we are up against in our battle with sin. Transgression is the enemy of our soul; the enemy of God’s glory and honor. In spite of this awful truth our natural religious instincts push us in the direction of self-justification (Luke 16:15). Self-justification is a symptom of our cowardice. Self-justification is like placing a band aid on the entry wound from a 45 caliber bullet.

Only God can justify a person. And it is to His justifying grace that we appeal when we fail Him. As those who still carry a lower nature, we must learn to live dependently upon the gospel.

C. Because the believer sins every day, it is the believer’s responsibility to daily ____________Christ’s work on his behalf. Our natural inclination is to return to fleshly strategies of managing guilt, fear, and failure. But we must learn to balance the “account” of our conscience by the gospel. The atonement bids us to come out of hiding, and walk in the light of God’s truth in fellowship with Him (1 Jn 1:6-10).

D. Heroism is manifested when we ______________ the message of Christ’s work for us. Clothed in Christ’s righteousness, we may admit our sin without fear. The courage and confidence flows from the fact that honesty about indwelling sin cannot jeopardize my position in Christ (Rom. 8:1).

E. All of the pains taken to avoid the truth about ourselves utterly fail. Whether it is denial, rationalizing, blame, or defiance; all carnal methods of self-defense fall short of the ______________ God wants us to practice (1 Jn.1:6-10). Gospel reasoning, (preaching the Gospel to ourselves), is the key to the victory (Gal. 2:20).

When we met God savingly for the first time in our lives, we consented by faith to deal with our sin His way. After a lifetime of self-justification we came out of hiding and fell at the feet of Christ. This is the gospel order—we come to God by coming to Christ, and we come to Christ not as self-justifiers, but as transgressors who have seen their sin as ruinous.

God’s way of dealing with sin is heroic and courageous. It is the very opposite of engaging in hiding and in conscience-bribing activities such as escape, flight, denial, defiance and appeasement. Christ has saved us from the false religion of self-protection from God.

V. Cowardice winds up hurting us and our relationships. Only Christ can protect us from fear of judgment (carnal self-protective strategies are ineffective).

A. When we choose defensiveness, hiding, appeasement, and blaming, it hurts those closest to us. Carnal methods of managing a sense of condemnation ____________ our relationships with others. When self is preoccupied with deflecting judgment, and with winning approval, we cease to demonstrate love toward the other person.

1. Every carnal attempt to escape judgment is a flight from realism and heroism. Cowardice moves us to _____________into blame, self-justification, hiding, and pretending. Our attempts to cover guilt end up hurting those around us.
2. The Scriptural _______________ for success is “confess and forsake the sin,” do not “cover it” (Prov 28:13; Ps 32:3, 5). Cowardice short-circuits confession of sin as well as conflict resolution which often involves needed admonishment (Ps. 141:5; Prov. 9:8; 13:1; 17:10).

B. Those who are justified by Christ can admit when they are ___________. There is no other way to uphold a spirit of unity and maintain the bond of peace. Meekness, deference, preferring one another, and receptivity to admonishment must be practiced in a fellowship of forgiveness (Eph. 4:1-3, 32; Phil 2:1-5; Col. 3:12-13 ff.).

The sinner justified by grace can freely admit when he fails others. He does not need to retreat into denial, escape, or defensiveness. Heroism through the gospel means that we can afford to hear even the worst news about ourselves. (Many Christian couples have found the following skill exercised in forgiveness to be exceedingly helpful in maintaining closeness to one another: Confront in love, forgive freely, reaffirm love, move on together in the cause of Christ.)

VI. An attitude of contrition (born of heroism) is central if we to walk closely with God (Is 66:1, 2; 57:15).

A. Contrition is a readiness to confess and repent of sin. All sin is against God (Ps 51:4). Contrition acknowledges that our sin is slur upon God’s character. Those who are contrite are humbled over their sin and broken in spirit. The contrite believer is always ready to say, “God is incredibly right and I am terribly wrong.” This attitude involves heroism because all of our natural religious instincts move us away from heroism toward strategies of self-protection.

It is only the atonement of Jesus Christ that lets us deal with sin God’s way. In fact this is not a peripheral issue. For the ‘litmus test’ of whether or not we truly believe savingly upon Christ is how we deal with our sin. There is joy when we come out of hiding and receive His forgiveness anew.

When we deal with “unresolved sin” (sin which needs to be confessed and repented of), we will enjoy a sense of God’s _________, ___________ and presence. Joyful “integration” takes place when the conscience is clear and our fellowship with God is restored.

B. We desperately need heroism at this point because the pull of our self-justifying natures is so strong. Self-shielding is an effort of hide our deformities from God, others, ourselves, lest they should invite ________________. Unresolved sin sits there like a malignancy spinning off blame, shame, alienation, guilt, self recrimination, and depression.

C. Christians need to learn to run to the atonement. The Holy Spirit desires to bring us back to gospel reasoning. He wants to convince us of the wisdom of keeping short ______________ with God (Acts 24:15-16). Gospel thinking appropriates the unlimited provision for forgiveness in the New Covenant (Heb. 8:12).

1. When we are occupied with rationalizing and concealing our sin, we won’t be able to make ________________ to the glory of God our priority. Ongoing trust in God involves the daily practice of gospel reasoning that means dealing with our sin and guilt by means of the atonement of Christ instead of by fleshly strategies.
2. God desires that by the word of grace applied, you might demonstrate a depth of personal _______________ for sin known as contrition. Joy follows on the heels of contrition. It is the contrite who enjoy God the most. Peace floods the heart when we come out of hiding into the presence of God (Jn 3:21).

VII. The call to Christian heroism is a call to live a sin-judged life.

A. All of our “prickly” ______________ mechanisms look as if we carry our own value and worth. Our defenses make us appear as if our value would be decimated if we had to admit we were wrong (See 2 Tim. 3:3; Prov. 27:6; Lev. 19:16-18).

B. The justified man is equipped for radical ______________ . He admits his sin in the interest of God’s glory, in the interest of the fellowship, and in the interest of Christian unity, and the bond of peace. Because of Christ’s atonement, can afford to be wrong (James 5:16).

C. The justified man trusts in an alien righteousness—outside of himself. By his heroism, he puts to the test the incredible _______________of Christ’s righteousness imputed.

D. The sin-judged life is one of ongoing biblical self-confrontation. Believers must move into heroism by means of the Gospel and make it their habit to “run to the atonement” the moment their conscience agitates. The atonement of Jesus Christ is where all of our _________________for heroism and realism are found. Appropriation is our blessed task, let us labor to enter “His rest” (Heb 4:11). When we relinquish our fleshly places of refuge, confessing our sins we walk in the light (1 Jn 1:7).

How we deal with our sin a crucial mark of whether or not we truly know God. What does God require of us? Namely that we “meet with Him” at the altar of Christ crucified and risen (Heb 13:10). We bring our sins there and receive Christ’s imputed righteousness as a gift of God’s infinite grace. The result is the sweetness of fellowship with God.

Answer Key:

I.A. Justice, Glory B. Sincerity

1. Measured
2. Value
3. Power C. Displayed, Reconciled

II.A. Legal B. Force C. Worst

1. Frees
2. Witness
3. Powerless

III.A. Hidden

1. Exposure
2. Cope B. Perfected

IV.A. Bondage B. Atonement C. Reckon D. Believe E. Heroism

V.A. Damage

1. Retreat
2. Formula B. Wrong

VI.A. Joy, favor B. Judgment C. Accounts

1. Fellowship
2. Repentance

VII.A. Defense

B. Honesty C. Value D. Resources