The Greatest Gift

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, November 25, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Ephesians 2:1-10.

            What’s the greatest gift you’ve ever received?

            There are all kinds of answers we could give to that, right?  When we’re kids, we probably think more of material things--a favorite toy or game, or maybe a pet.  When we get older, we might think about the love of a spouse.  We might think of someone who gave us a boost in our career.  A lot of people would say their children or grandchildren are the greatest gift they ever received.  As we talked last week, we might even say the gift of life is the greatest gift we ever received.
But if we really think about it, we know what the greatest gift we’ve ever received truly is.  The greatest gift we’ve ever received is the chance for salvation and eternal life through our faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

As I said, we know that if we really think about it.  But why do we have to think about it to realize it?  I mean, it seems like this should be something that we should constantly be thanking God for.  We should thank God every day for the chance for salvation and eternal life.  And instead, too often, we take it for granted.  We don’t even think about it.

Now having said that, I understand that I run the risk of painting with too broad of a brush here.  I don’t know how often you thank God for the chance for salvation and eternal life.  Maybe you do it all the time.  If you do, then know that I’m not talking about you.  But I know I don’t do it as often as I should.  And I doubt that I’m the only one.

            And so for those of us who don’t thank God for this as much as we should, I want us to think about what an incredible gift this really is, and how undeserving we are of it.  Think about what salvation and eternal life really mean.  It means going to heaven.  It means going to be in the presence of the awesome, holy, righteous, perfect, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise God.  I mean, that’s something we really cannot even imagine.  Think of how excited people get at just meeting a human celebrity.  Now, take that reaction times about a thousand and you still don’t really get anywhere close to how awestruck we’re going to be in the presence of God.

            Or look at it this way--think of the times in the Bible when people see an angel.  The first words out of the angel’s mouth are “Do not be afraid” because people are so amazed and fearful at the sight of an angel.  If that’s the human reaction to an angel, think of what our reaction is going to be to God.

            I mentioned fear as one of the reactions people have to an angel.  There may be some fear when we enter into God’s presence, too.  After all, the Bible does talk, many times, about the fear of the Lord.  Why?  Well, there could be a lot of reasons, but I think one of them is that we realize how unworthy we are to be in God’s presence.

            Think of all those words I used to describe God.  Awesome.  Holy.  Righteous.  Perfect.  All-knowing.  All-seeing.  All-wise.  And of course there are lots of other words I could use to describe God, too.  But think about those words.  Those words describe God.  Do any of them describe you?
Probably not.  They sure don’t describe me.  None of them come close to describing me.  They don’t come close to describing any of us.  We don’t deserve to be in God’s presence.  We don’t deserve to be anywhere close to God’s presence.

            What did the Apostle Paul say in our reading for today?  We “gratify the cravings of our sinful nature”.  We follow its thoughts and desires.  And what does Paul say we deserve because of that?  Not salvation and eternal life, that’s for sure.  We deserve God’s wrath.  We deserve God’s anger.  We deserve punishment.

            And you’d think it would be tempting for God to get angry and to give us that punishment.  But God does not do that.  And in fact, I don’t think it ever crosses God’s mind to do that.  I mean, here we are, all sinners from the beginning.  From Adam and Eve to the present day, every human being that ever was has been, as Paul says in Romans Chapter Three, a sinner who has fallen short of the glory of God.  We all deserve condemnation and death.  We deserve God’s anger.  And yet, what’s God’s reaction?

            God’s reaction is not to get angry.  God’s reaction is not to condemn us.  God’s reaction is to think, what can I do to save these people?  What can I do so they won’t be condemned?  What can I do to give them the chance for salvation and eternal life?  What gift can I give them that will make them want to turn away from what they’re doing and accept the chance for salvation and eternal life?

            And of course, that gift was the divine Son.  Jesus Christ.  A month from today, we’ll celebrate his birth.  Jesus Christ, the divine Son, born to ordinary people.  Giving up his life in heaven.  Coming to earth to live as a human being among human beings.  Coming here to teach us, to heal us, to be an example for us.  And coming here, eventually, to die for us.  Coming here to take the punishment that we deserve.  Coming here to give us the greatest gift we could ever be given--the chance for salvation and eternal life.

            Listen again to how Paul describes that gift:

            We were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich  in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus...For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

            What an incredible gift.  What an indescribable gift.  We don’t have words in our language that describe how incredible this gift is.  God is so great and God is so good.  Because of our sins we were deserving of wrath.  We were dead in transgressions.  And what does God do?  God does not just forgive us for all that.  God does forgive us, and that’s incredible in and of itself.  But God does not stop there.  God goes on make us alive with Christ.  God raises us up with Christ and seats us with Christ in heaven.  In Romans Chapter Eight, Paul describes this as God making us God’s adopted sons and daughters.  And he goes on to say that God makes us co-heirs with Christ.

            Think about that.  As sinful as you and I and all other human beings are, God does not just forgive us.  God puts us on a level equal with Jesus Christ.  What a gift that is!  I keep using these words like “awesome” and “incredible”, and yet even those words fall short of describing this gift that God has given us.  I mean, we know who we are.  We know how often we mess up.  And yet, if we accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, God puts us on the same level as Jesus, the divine Son of God.  It’s hard to even imagine that.  But it’s true.

            We just had Thanksgiving the other day.  And we know we should thank God for this incredible gift.  But when you think about it, the words “Thank you” seem really insufficient.  We say them because, really, there’s not much else we can say.  But there is something we can do.

            What we can do is follow God.  What we can do is have faith in Jesus.  What we can do is open our hearts and our souls to the Holy Spirit.  If we truly want to show God how much we appreciate this incredible gift God has given us, that’s the best way we can do it.  We can dedicate our lives to listening to God, to following God, to loving God, to trusting God.

             Now, if you’re like me, you hear that, and you hesitate.  Because the fact is that completely following God will change our lives.  And I don’t really know that I want my life to be changed right now.  I’m pretty happy with my life as it is.

            Maybe you think the same thing.  If you do, I understand.  I’m pretty sure God understands, too.  But if we really want to thank God for this incredible gift, this is the best way to do it.  If we want to show that we don’t take God’s awesome gift of salvation and eternal life for granted, if we want to show that we really do appreciate it, we will follow God’s will.  And we’ll do that wherever it takes us, because we’ll trust that a God who loves us so much that He offers salvation and eternal life will surely take care of us any time we do what God wants us to do.

            God’s gift of salvation and eternal life is the greatest gift there could ever be.  Let’s accept it.  And let’s show our thanks to God by listening to God, by following God, by loving God, and by trusting God.  Because a God who would give us that greatest gift is more than worthy of our love and our trust.