There’s an old joke that you’ve probably already heard but it’s such a great entry point into this sermon that I hope you’ll forgive me for telling it.  As the joke goes, a man hears a report of an impending flood in his area.  All citizens are being called upon to evacuate the area.  The man’s friends stop by his house and encourage him to leave but he has, “It’ll be fine, I have faith in God.”  The friends, they worry but they depart, not wanting to get stuck in the flood themselves.  Well, the rain comes and water starts accumulating on the roads and in the man’s house.  Soon though, thankfully, a man with a boat comes by. “Let’s get out of here,” the new man says to which our old friend simply replies, “it’s okay, it’s all going to work out fine, I have faith in God.”  So, again reluctantly, the man on the boat leaves.  Guess what?  The water keeps on rising.  Finally, the man is forces to climb on top of his roof as the waters continue to rise.  And even though there’s not much hope, along comes a helicopter.  They dangle down a ladder for the man to climb up to safety.  But this man, he looks up and says, you guessed it, “I’m going to be fine; I have faith in God.”  And again, the rescuers leave the man there on the top of his house.  Sadly, the man drowns.  And as he gets to heaven, he’s really miffed.  Meeting St. Peter at the gates, he’s steaming mad saying, “I placed my faith in God and God let me down.”  To which Peter replies, “Who do you think send your friends, the boat and the helicopter?”

It’s a funny joke, you’ve probably already heard it though, it tends to make the rounds from time to time.  But it’s ideal because it directs our thoughts and attention to the topic of this sermon.  We’ve been talking the last couple of weeks about an important theological term that arises very naturally from all of Paul’s letters but particularly here, in Galatians.  The phrase is “justified by grace through faith.”  And while this phrase doesn’t contain all the necessary theology for a Christian, it’s a great starting point.

So, we talked a bit about what justification is.  A lot of us were surprised to find that it encompassed far more than they thought.  To begin with, we learned that justification is more than forgiveness.  It begins there, doesn’t it.  In Jesus Christ we are freed from our sins because we’ve been forgiven by God.  And that’s pretty good to be forgiven.  But as we talked about, there’s more to a relationship than that.  Didn’t we all agree that one could be forgiven but not restored into full relationship again.  That’s why the second element of our justification is so sweet.  For not only are we forgiven of our transgressions, so too are we restored into full relationship with God the Father again.  We looked at this through the parable of the prodigal son when the son returns, willing to work just as a servant.  But instead, the finest garments are brought and the fattest calf is butchered for the celebrational party.

So, it’s forgiveness and restoration but justification is more than that.  You’re also saved.  From what?  Eternal death.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ shows us what we will be after our deaths.  Fully resurrected into new, imperishable bodies.  The great good news is that we transcend death, living eternally in the coming Kingdom of God.

So, in our justification, we’ve been forgiven, restored and saved.  And how did it all happen?  Well, it happened because of Grace.  Grace is the unmerited, unearned favor of God.  Grace is God’s choice to look at the sinner and instead of seeing all the vile acts and sins, choosing instead to see the precious face of His Son, Jesus Christ.  You have been justified not by your own doing but through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.  And we should never forget – This was a costly salvation.

It seems an odd thing to like but I really appreciate the season of Lent.  During Lent, we’re brought face-to-face with the texts which show what happened in the Passion of Jesus Christ.  There, we’ll remember, Jesus was arrested, tried by a kangaroo court and sentenced to death by the Romans.  But before they killed Him, the mocked Him, beat Him, spat upon Him and even stabbed Him with a spear.  And as bad as all of that was, perhaps the unkindest cut of all came from the fact that His friends and His followers all abandoned Him in His final hours.  This is just to make the point that our justification was costly and all the work of it was borne by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:24 – “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By His wounds you have been healed.”  And it all happened because of what God did.  Not a thing of our own.  So, in a way, Grace is the pure gift of God.  It’s a good way of thinking about grace.  Something freely done for us.  And, as we talked about last week, grace isn’t just a free gift.  Looking at several citations from the other letters of Paul, we realized that grace is also an energy, an inclination to work to bring about God’s purposes here on Earth.  That just as justification is more than forgiveness, so too is grace broader than just a free gift.  There’s more to the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.   Grace isn’t only the free gift of God, it’s also a power for living that comes directly from Him as well.