Saved by Grace Through Faith Part 2 Brian Felushko - Friday, July 18, 2003
Every Christian...Has Been Saved by Grace through Faith (Part 2)
Brian Felushko -- Vancouver Church of Christ
June 22, 2003
My dear friend and brother, Lyle Osland, died a couple of weeks ago. There are a couple of things that I'd like to share with you about Lyle at this time, because I know many of you had met or had known Lyle and because what I want to say about the man relates to the subject of the impact of God's grace in our lives. I sent an email to Kevin Robbins with some observations about who Lyle was to me.
What can I say about my dear friend, Lyle? He was 19 years my senior -- a fact I loved to remind him of, and a fact that I had to remind both me and him of, because he didn't act his age and he didn't show it. I would tease and compliment him by saying, "When I get to be your age, I can only hope to be as fit and as active as you are." He always beat me at snooker and squash and almost always beat me straight up in golf.
But there was another more important way he did not act his age -- in his humility with me and others. He would ask for my input and listen to my advice when it came to his marriage, his parenting, his finances and especially his relationship with God and God's people. We had our differences and even times when we were hurt by and/or frustrated with each other, yet he was always willing and wanting to talk on the phone or visit, right up till the last time I saw him, a month ago.
But there were ways that he did act his age, with the wisdom and the compassion of a man who had experienced much life, had made many mistakes, but through God's grace had been forgiven and learned many lessons.
I went to him for much advice especially with my sons, my relationships with various mutual friends and co-workers and about my own growth as a Christian. There's so much more I could say about my friend that it's hard to believe I only knew him for 12 years! But the truth is that for me and many others, Lyle wasn't just a friend -- he was a brother and at times a dad to me and a granddad to our sons.
We will miss you, Lyle. We already do. But by God's grace we will see you again one day, forever! Until then we will love and pray for your amazing Adalene and your family, who feel your absence more than we can understand. Rest well in God's presence, dear brother!
Then there is a song, whose words help me as I think about Lyle now. It is entitled, "Room With A View" and was written by Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Chuck Jones.
They gave you a corner room on the fifth floor
The city's lights were like candy to a kid in a store
Like a king you'd lay in your bed so statefully
So thankful they gave you a room with scenery
You were always so healthy, so full of life
So seeing you so helpless just didn't seem right
How you kept your head so high, I'll never know
I guess you knew you had a better place to go.
You've got a room with a view -- a window to the world
You always had your sights set high.
And now that you're gone, your memory lives on
I see you smiling in my mind, with angels as visitors dropping by
Your room with a view
I'll always miss you, I'll always feel the loss
I have to remind myself that you're better off
I gotta believe even through these tears of mine
Wherever you are there's a sun that always shines
And you've got a room with a view -- a window to the world
You always had your sights set high.
And now that you're gone, your memory lives on
I see you smiling in my mind, with angels as visitors dropping by
Your room with a view
Why do I share these things about Lyle right now? I want to honor my friend, yes! But more than that, I want to do what Lyle would want me to do -- to give honor to the one who truly deserves it -- our God in heaven! Lyle truly understood and celebrated the fact that he was a man who was saved only and completely by God's grace. He had no other claim. His conversion story is truly amazing. He and Adalene paid a huge price, by human standards to become Christians and then to do what they needed to in order to grow and then to use their talents and experience in the world to benefit the church collectively and other disciples individually. He was willing to be gut level honest publicly and privately about his past and how by God's grace he and Adalene came to have a better and deeper marriage than they thought possible.
His understanding and appreciation of God's grace also showed itself in how he dealt with and related to other Christians -- as one who himself was absolutely still a sinner, saved only and yet completely by God's grace. He was patient, compassionate, serving, forgiving, understanding, yet open, honest and real. People wanted to be in his presence and they wanted to be in his family group and they wanted to get his help and input.
When he was diagnosed with terminal cancer three years ago, he was shocked and challenged in his faith and spirituality. He had always taken good care of himself. He was very fit and very active for someone who had just turned 63! He really had lived most of his life thinking he would live to be 90! There was so much life he wanted to live...so much he still wanted to give to and experience with his wife, his children, his grandchildren and his spiritual family, the church.
He had many struggles and ups and downs throughout these last 3 years, but he left this world confident of God's working his life, trusting in his grace, ready to meet his Lord and Savior! He was not a bitter man -- even though things didn't work out the way he had hoped or planned. In fact, even in the last few months a number of very personally painful things happened in his life. He took responsibility for the choices he had made, both good and bad, and he accepted God's grace with faith, joy and gratitude.
My friend, Lyle, was not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination. He'd be the first to tell you that he made some seriously wrong choices, even as a Christian. He hurt some people and was hurt by some people. But he loved his God. He loved his wife and family. And he loved God's people! He wasn't afraid to bring things up that concerned him, that he disagreed with or saw problems with. But he also always willing to listen to another perspective, accept and respect the convictions that others had. He loved unity and he promoted unity by his life, his love and his example. He knew we were all a collection of very different but equally imperfect people, saved and brought together by God's grace. He believed and held dear the truth, applying it first to himself and then to every other Christian, that we are saved by grace through faith!
By God's grace and by God's grace alone with have a relationship with God (Ephesians 2:1-10). We were dead in our transgressions and sins. But God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our sin. And therefore, we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. This is the gospel -- that though we totally and completely do not deserve it, God, through the life, death, resurrection, high priesthood and return of his Son, Jesus Christ, has saved us now and will save us for all eternity! But that same gospel, that same grace, has another impact on our lives. It brings us together into a new and intimate relationship with each other! That's what the rest of Ephesians 2 is all about!
THE EFFECT OF GOD'S GRACE ON ALL CHRISTIANS...COLLECTIVELY (2:11-22)
We were foreigners and aliens apart from God's grace (2:11-13).
Writing to the majority cultural group in the church in Ephesus, the Gentiles, Paul wanted to remind them of what they were and what they had before experiencing the grace of God! They were outsiders to the people of God -- they didn't belong, they had no part, they had no promises, they were "foreigners and aliens".
Didn't you feel that way when you first encountered the church collectively? I did. I knew I didn't belong. I didn't have what these people had. I was never part of anything like this before. I had a few close friends and even ongoing family relationships. But there was something these people had, something these people shared that I had never known or experienced. I saw the way they treated each other, knew each other, talked with each other. I saw the fellowship, the excitement and the hope. And I began to see how empty, how shallow, how frivolous, how temporal, how selfish most of my relationships with even my closest friends and family members were. Then when I was baptized into Christ, I, though once very far away, was brought near! I now had what all these other people had and our sharing together in God's grace brought us together as God's family. These really were my brothers and my sisters.
We were brought near by the blood of Christ (2:14-18).
The same gospel, the same grace that brought us salvation also brought us together in one body, one family! The same grace that reconciles us to God, reconciles us to one another. The same grace that seats us up with Christ, also makes us members of Christ's body. The same grace that takes away our sin before God, takes away our hostility towards one another.
And the proof is in the first century church -- Jews and Gentiles brought together as one new man! Two groups of people that could not have been more different in every way and more hateful toward each other were brought together in one body of believers. Yes, they had their problems and challenges living it out -- but there were no excuses. Christ made them one family and he called them and expected them and helped them to learn to love one another more and more! As Jesus taught his first disciples, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, by your love for one another!" It's relatively easy to love people who are just like you; but the more people are different, the harder it becomes to be involved lovingly and consistently in each others' lives.
And the proof is in God's church today! A few years ago, the church in Toronto consisted of members from over 80 different nations! People, that in the world hated each other, avoided each other, didn't understand each other and didn't want to. God's grace brought them together as one new man. And we had our problems, person to person, group to group, but we were one family. Hostility had been replaced by peace. Misunderstanding had been replaced by efforts to learn and appreciate our differences. Anger had been replaced by giving the benefit of the doubt. Bitterness had been replaced by forgiveness. What we had freely been given by God through his grace, we gave to each other!
We are fellow citizens and members of God's family (2:14-22).
We were out on our own on the street paved to hell, just trying to survive in this "dog eat dog" world. It was every man for himself. We are now on a road paved to heaven, but no longer as ostracized orphans. We are not alone. We have God, our benevolent Ruler and our loving Father, but we also have each other! And we have each other to help us walk that road and make it to our final destination.
The church is not a meeting of loosely affiliated individuals, each doing their own thing, each headed in his own direction, tolerant of each other, but distant. God by his grace, by the very same acts of sacrifice that brought us each into a relationship with him, created a community of saved people, that he calls and expects to act like a community of sinners saved by grace. We will have our hurts, our struggles, our problems, our misunderstandings, our differences and even our disagreements, because we're sinners. But because we are sinners saved by God's grace, we will trust instead of accuse, we will believe the best rather than assume the worst and when there is no doubt a wrong has been committed we will forgive not 7 times, but seventy times seven! Why? Because we are fellow citizens of God's kingdom, we are members together of God's family and we are being built and joined together as a temple in which God lives by his Spirit.
Conclusion to Part 2
The spiritual reality is that this is what we are. The question of the hour is, however, will we prove by our lives, by how we treat and respond to each other, in these challenging and difficult times, that we really see ourselves as sinners saved by God's grace? Or will we prove by our hostility, our accusations, our slander, our shouting, our innuendos, our bickering, fighting, arguing and debating, our inflexibility in matters of opinion and our judgment of each others' motives that we are really no different than the world?
Salvation by God's grace through faith has an effect on all those who believe and receive it. Out of the gratitude and joy in their hearts they get themselves involved in the good works God prepared in advance for them to do. Out of the grace that God has so lavished poured on them, they pour grace lavishly into the lives of all those around them. My friend, Lyle Osland, knew he was a man saved by grace and grace alone and his love for God and God's people proved it. What about me? What about you? |