Jack is a Christian and faithful husband. He loves his wife and their two sons. To pay the bills, Jack has begun working a demanding job which requires him to put in 50-60 hours per week. His boss pressures him daily to make his quota of sales, often threatening to fire Jack if he doesn’t perform. In addition, three of Jack’s co-workers are in direct competition with him and regularly chide him for his struggle to close deals. When Jack comes home at the end of the day, his wife, Diane, is often frazzled from corralling their rambunctious kids. Most nights Jack walks in the front door to the screams of his sons fighting over toys and Diane immediately blows off her steam by recounting the details of her difficult day. Over recent months Jack has begun to retreat to his workroom as soon as he can to escape the stress of his home. Jack spends his time building model airplanes. Meanwhile, Jack’s wife has been pressuring him to spend more time with the kids, fix the leaky faucet, and clean up the yard. Last night Jack came home, entered his workroom and found that one of the kids broke his nearly-complete Air Force One model replica and Jack exploded in anger, screamed at the kids, sent them to bed without dinner and slammed the workroom door for the night.
Now, here’s the question: What has gone wrong? What caused Jack to explode? Don’t assume things about it. Just in general, what is the source of Jack’s problem? What has caused this to happen? Because he’s not an angry guy, but here he is, bursting in anger. What has happened? It’s kind of tricky, isn’t it? Well, let’s think about Jack for a moment. What is to blame for this? What has caused this to happen? It’s possible, some would say, that his upbringing is to blame. Perhaps his parents taught him to be angry. Perhaps they were angry with him and when he broke something at home, they screamed at him and that’s why he exploded last night. Some would suggest that his circumstances are to blame. Perhaps the pressures, the financial hardship that he’s trying to overcome by working all those hours, the pressures of being overworked, his fatigue from working all those weekends, nights has caused Jack’s response. Perhaps it’s due to pressure from the boss, from the co-workers, and from his family. Maybe the devil made him do it. We need to get to the bottom of this. But keep in mind that if we start with the wrong diagnosis, we will have the wrong cure.
So, what is Jack’s problem?
As we look at the Bible, the Bible makes it very clear that, while these things are going on around Jack and he’s facing some real trouble – he has some very real pressures upon him and he is definitely feeling them – ultimately Jack’s problem, the cause of his anger, is in Jack’s heart. While the world may seek to address all of these secondary issues first, what if by dealing with Jack according to God’s way of change through grace, according to what the Bible says, Jack could find joy and satisfaction and learn to glorify God in the midst of life’s heat and pressures and fatigue and the trouble of this fallen world? Wouldn’t that be a great thing? That is our hope in the Scriptures. But Jack will know none of that if we don’t get to the heart of the matter for him; if we don’t rightly understand him.
The problem for all of us, in all of our problems, in all of our troubles in life, all of our anger, all of our anxiety, all of our hatred, all of the ugly things that we see come out of ourselves, the problem is rebellion of heart in sin. This is going to be new to some. This may be irritating to others. But hang on. There’s some rich hope and help to find here.
The problem is rebellion of heart in sin. This is the Bible’s view of man. The Bible shows us that we are wicked; we are sinful. Even as Christians, we have remaining sin. We are sinful beyond what we know. We are often surprised by our sinfulness. Hopefully, by God’s grace, we are increasingly in tune with our fallen condition and humbled by it. Nevertheless, we are rebels. Even as Christians, we have a tendency to rebel. We have hearts that are broken. We live in a broken world that doesn’t make it any easier to be righteous, but yet the true problem is within us. So, if the problem is rebellion of heart in sin, what is the solution? The solution is the grace of God in Christ. Listen to that again: The solution is the grace of God in Christ.
I want you to note that word, grace, and hold on to it because I am going to define it for you in a way that may be deeper than you’ve typically understood it.
So the result, with the rebellion of heart in sin, is affected and changed by the grace of God in Christ, and remember that this is a process of change for the Christian over time, the result is worship. What is so marvelous and wonderful about that result is that that is precisely what God is after. That is what God wants from Jack. God may not remove Jack’s pressure. He may not give him a job that is easy and stress-free, that is 35 hours for 40 hours pay. He may not do that, but then again He may. But what if He doesn’t? The beauty of God’s purpose and design and hope and goal and work in our lives is that He is enough. He is enough for Jack to be changed and joyful and glorifying God and satisfied right where he is. In that process, we know for sure, Romans 8:28-29:
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good…”
The pressure, the hours, the fatigue, the overwork, the boss, and the employees; all of that, He is working it for good. Not to get Jack out of it necessarily, but to change Jack in the midst of it; that Jack would be a better picture of Jesus and the sufficiency of His Word than he was before. So, Jack’s hope and solution to his situation will no longer be escaping; his answer will be perseverance with joy and cheerfulness, following the Savior who loves him and is enough for him. That is what the basics of biblical change are about.
Now, here’s another interesting principle to note from the Scriptures in the midst of Jack’s story. Ezekiel 18. We noted earlier that a lot of the common blame that we place for problems in life are these external things: Parental upbringing circumstances, financial difficulty, overwork, fatigue, pressure, the devil, spiritual warfare, etc. But listen to the forbidden proverb of Ezekiel 18. In Israel, there was a proverb that was this:
“…‘The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children’s teeth are set on edge’…”
In other words, this proverb taught that the children were having so much trouble because of what the parents did, and the parents are to blame. The circumstances are to blame. The environment is to blame. But if we read Ezekiel 18, we hear God say this:
“‘As I live,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.’”
It would be a good study to review Ezekiel 18 in detail. The passage provides careful examples to make a point about life. What if the father is good and his son sins? Is the father to blame? What if the sinful son sins and is wicked and his son turns out to be righteous? What’s going on? What is the solution for Jack? The solution to the pressure, to the boss, to the overwork, to the fatigue? Well, pick up again, at the end of Ezekiel:
“‘Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct,’ declares the Lord God. ‘Repent and turn away from all your transgressions so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. Cast away all your transgressions which you have committed and…’ ” Listen! “ ‘…make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,’ declares the Lord God. ‘Therefore, repent and live.’”
The point is that all of these things that happen around us are not the cause of our rebellion, of our problems, of our anger, of our anxiety and distrust, our unfaithfulness, because we don’t need the devil; we don’t need a fallen world to tempt us to sin. We can do it all on our own. The answer for us is grace. God tells us that the cause of problems is that man is naturally rebellious, unbelieving, and disobedient. It is certainly true that we are under significant pressure. We have a very real fallen world to deal with, but the blame is on our hearts, and, praise God, He has come not just to save us but to change us. Therefore, God’s cure to man’s problem is first salvation, then walking in His way through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. So the answer is for both the non-Christian as well as the Christian is grace.
Now that sounds funny, doesn’t it? Because grace is what gets you saved! You’re done with grace now. Now it’s work. It’s working harder, trying harder. It’s not grace. Right? Not so fast. Let me redefine grace for us. Grace is really twofold. If we want to understand it the way the Bible teaches us to understand it, it’s twofold. One, grace is God’s unmerited favor which accomplishes our salvation. We have done nothing to deserve His favor. He did not look at us and say, Aren’t they sweet and good? I will die for them because they’re worthy and valuable. In fact, the Bible says the opposite. It says that in sin all have become worthless together. Unmerited favor. God has been so good to us! Unmerited favor! There was no reason! I cannot look in the mirror and you cannot look in the mirror and say, Whew! Thank God I was good enough! You can only say, Thank God He was good enough! It is unmerited favor which accomplishes our salvation. We are saved by grace. Unmerited favor. Undeserving of a Savior and we’ve got Him! Undeserving of redemption and we have it! Undeserved favor accomplishes our salvation, but grace does not end there. It’s twofold. This is what we’re missing: Grace is God’s unmerited help which accomplishes your sanctification. We must come to understand grace as grace for today; as unmerited help beyond unmerited favor. Listen to Hebrews:
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
It is true that because Jesus endured the temptation of the world and was sinless, that makes Him a capable Savior. But there is far more to it than that. The point is, because Jesus has passed the temptations and He has come out sinless, He is capable of helping and changing us; of sanctifying us; conforming us. Verse 16:
“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace…”
These are Christians! Let’s draw near to the throne of grace. Why?
“…so that we may receive mercy…” Even as Christians! “…and find grace to help in time of need.”
Grace is not just what accomplishes your salvation. Grace is unmerited help. We say this a lot. We use the word a lot and it has become a bit magical. By the grace of God, this happened! By the grace of God, this didn’t. By the grace of God we will; by the grace of God we won’t. But what do we mean? What do we mean by that? For many Christians, this is merely a way for them to say, God was around when this happened. What we should mean is that the only reason this thing happened was because of unmerited help that came to me. Unmerited help in the Scriptures; a supernatural unmerited help in my heart to keep me back from my sins. The only reason this did not happen in God’s world is because of His unmerited help; His grace. That is what we mean when we say, By the grace of God… God did not treat me today as my sins deserve. He helped me. Grace. That’s it! Grace. That’s got to be our hope! We have got to plead with God for grace. What this means is, when we pray, we can pray, and we must pray above most everything else, asking for grace. God, give me grace with my children. Give me grace with my family. Give me grace with the hours. Give me grace with the boss. Help me! I need You! Grace. Give me your unmerited help! I have done nothing to deserve it! I do not deserve it! But You have given it to me. Thank You for Your grace today. It’s so much more. If you want to pray for friends and family who are Christians, not to mention those who are lost, pray for grace. God, help them! No, they don’t deserve it, but help them.
Give us grace! 
