Sermon Outline
First United Methodist Church of Sanford
“Justifying Grace: God’s Total Pardon”
(Part 2 of ‘God’s Grace’)
January 20, 2013
Scripture
Romans 3:21-24
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the
Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in
Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that came by Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is
the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do.
Galatians 2:15-16
We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16 know that a man is not justified by
observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ
Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because
by observing the law no one will be justified.
Core Idea, Challenge & Summary
Core Idea: God’s free offer of forgiveness for all our sins enables us to begin a restored
loving relationship with God. This complete forgiveness is called justifying grace.
Challenge: To explain justifying grace as the beginning of a restored loving relationship
with God and to encourage anyone who has not yet received it to do so right now.
Summary: God’s free offer of forgiveness is a complete pardon. With this forgiveness,
none of our sins are counted against us and God declares us to be righteous. This
complete forgiveness is often called justifying grace. It is a gift. All we have to do is
receive it through faith in Jesus.
Once we receive it, we begin a restored, never ending, loving relationship with God. As
we walk in relationship with God, the Holy Spirit changes us and makes us more and
more loving like Christ. In this way, justifying grace is the beginning of the process to
become more like Christ. This process is called sanctification. The work the Holy Spirit
does to change us and make us more like Christ is called sanctifying grace. That will be
the topic of next week’s sermon.
The Sermon
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Sermon Outline
First United Methodist Church of Sanford
“Justifying Grace: God’s Total Pardon”
(Part 2 of ‘God’s Grace’)
January 20, 2013
I. Introduction: Richard Nixon and Presidential pardons
A. Richard Nixon and Watergate

June 17, 1972: 5 agents, hired by President Nixon’s Committee to re-elect
the president, broke into the Democrat National Committee Office in the
Watergate Hotel.

The Nixon administration responded to the political fallout by trying to
cover-up illegal political activities.

This attempted cover-up led to Nixon’s resignation as President, just prior
to a full impeachment vote in congress.

After resigning as President, Nixon faced the possibility of being indicted
on criminal charges as a private citizen for crimes he committed as
president.

But, the newly installed President Ford pardoned him on September 8,
1974.1
 Nixon could no longer be accused, indicted or punished for these
charges. He would remain a free man.
 The stigma, however, still remained. History remembers Nixon
almost solely for Watergate. His great accomplishments, including
getting U.S. troops out of Vietnam and establishing diplomatic
relations with China are forgotten in the shadow of Watergate.
1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/politics/special/watergate/index.html
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Sermon Outline
First United Methodist Church of Sanford
“Justifying Grace: God’s Total Pardon”
(Part 2 of ‘God’s Grace’)
January 20, 2013
B. As great as they are, presidential pardons do not offer complete forgiveness

People are forgiven in the sense they will not face criminal prosecution
and their civil rights are restored

The stigma, however, still remains
 The person receiving the pardon still has a criminal record
indicating they were either charged with a crime or about to be
charged with a crime. This record also indicates any punishment
they may have received prior to the pardon.
 Even if the criminal records are expunged, there are still news
reports and historical documents chronicling their criminal
activities. Some type of paper or computer trail will continue to
expose their crimes.
 As in the Nixon case, the public stigma remains.

Unlike the Presidential pardon, there is one type of pardon that does offer
complete forgiveness. It’s God’s pardon.
II. God’s pardon for all our sins
A. God’s Pardon is complete forgiveness

Sins are totally forgotten and will never be held against you

Unlike a presidential pardon, there is no paper or computer trail
documenting your sins.
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Sermon Outline
First United Methodist Church of Sanford
“Justifying Grace: God’s Total Pardon”
(Part 2 of ‘God’s Grace’)
January 20, 2013
 With your sins forgiven, when you die, you will be judged only on
how good you are because your sins will not be counted against
you.
 Consider Psalm 103: 3 & 10-14 – “who forgives all your sins and
heals all your diseases,… he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens
are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as
far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our
transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his
children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for
he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
 In heaven, there is no paper or computer trail documenting your
sins. No one will care.
B. This complete forgiveness is called Justifying Grace.

Remember from last week: God’s grace is the unconditional, undeserved
love God has for us. It is a gift freely offered to us.

Justifying grace is therefore a gift. We don’t have to earn it. We simply
receive it. God’s complete forgiveness (justifying grace) is offered to
everyone!!!!!
 This is good news because we are all sinners in need of God’s
forgiveness.
 We’ve all done thought, said, and done something that is not loving
towards God, neighbor, and ourselves.
 By sinning, we’ve separated ourselves from God. We need
forgiveness.
III. God’s forgiveness is offered to everyone. Through Scripture God offers each one of
us complete forgiveness. This is clearly seen by making some Scripture passages
more personable. We do this by replacing ‘you’ or ‘him’ with ‘I’ or ‘me’. Look at the
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Sermon Outline
First United Methodist Church of Sanford
“Justifying Grace: God’s Total Pardon”
(Part 2 of ‘God’s Grace’)
January 20, 2013
following two passages. Read them as if God is addressing you directly.
A. Romans 3:21-24 (In personalized form): But now a righteousness from God,
apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets
testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ for me
who believe. There is no difference, for I have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, and I am justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus.
B. Ephesians 2:8-10 (In personalized form): For it is by grace I have been saved,
through faith-- and this not from myself, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so
that I can boast. For I am God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for me to do.
C. These passages are personal offers of God’s forgiveness (justifying grace) given
directly to you.
IV. We simply receive God’s forgiveness through faith in Jesus. What kind of faith is
this?
A. Faith is more than intellectually knowing that Jesus is the Son of God who
saves us from our sins.
B. Faith must also be trusting Jesus as Savior & Lord.

Trusting Jesus as Savior: We trust that He was the only necessary
sacrifice to take away all our sins so that we can receive God’s
forgiveness.

Trusting Jesus as Lord: We resolve to surrender our lives to the loving
authority of God.

In this way, faith leads to obedience. Because we trust Jesus, we do
what He wants us to do. (We are not saved by obedience or works but it
is a natural outcome of being saved.)
C. We are saved by God’s love (grace) through trusting in Jesus (faith).
D. Receiving God’s complete forgiveness (justifying grace) is just the beginning.
V. Justifying grace (God’s complete forgiveness) is the beginning of a new life. With
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Sermon Outline
First United Methodist Church of Sanford
“Justifying Grace: God’s Total Pardon”
(Part 2 of ‘God’s Grace’)
January 20, 2013
justification, we receive four new beginnings.
A. First beginning: Eternal life

Eternal life begins the moment we receive God’s forgiveness through faith
in Jesus. We no longer have to fear death.

Jesus defines eternal life as a never-ending relationship with God: “Now
this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

This brings us to the second new beginning
B. Second beginning: A restored, loving relationship with God

With justification, our sins are removed and God declares us righteous.

With our sins removed, we can begin a restored, loving relationship with
God as our perfect Father.

We become children of God: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that
we are God's children.” (Romans 8:16)

As God’s children, we inherit the Kingdom of heaven. This brings us to the
third new beginning.
C. Third beginning: Our citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven

Although we continue to live in this sinful, fallen world, we are no longer of
this world.

We become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. As such, we live Kingdom
of Heaven values rather than worldly values.
 The world tells us to love only those who deserve it but the
Kingdom of Heaven tells us to love all people, to include our
enemies. (Matthew 5:43-48 and Romans 12:20-21)
 The world teaches us to seek vengeance but the Kingdom of
Heaven teaches us to forgive and return hate with love. (Romans
12:14-21)
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Sermon Outline
First United Methodist Church of Sanford
“Justifying Grace: God’s Total Pardon”
(Part 2 of ‘God’s Grace’)
January 20, 2013
 The world teaches us to ‘look out for # 1’ but the Kingdom of
Heaven tells us to deny ourselves and submit to each other.
(Matthew 16:24 and Ephesians 5:21)
 The world teaches us that the mighty and strong are first but the
Kingdom of Heaven teaches us that those who serve will be first.
(Matthew 19:30 & 2016 and Mark 9:35)

We can’t, on our own, live up to Kingdom of Heaven values. Our sinful
nature gets in the way. In order to live up to Kingdom of Heaven values,
we need the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and make us more like
Christ. This leads us to the fourth new beginning.
D. Fourth beginning: The process to become more Christ like.

As we walk in relationship with God, the Holy Spirit changes our hearts to
make us more loving like Christ. This is what enables us to live Kingdom
of Heaven Values.

The process of becoming more like Christ is sanctification. The work of the
Holy Spirit to make us more like Christ is sanctifying grace. That is the
topic of next week’s sermon
VI. Conclusion: Have you received God’s free offer of forgiveness? If not, you can do so
right now.

Go to God in prayer and say: Dear Lord, I am a sinner. I know you offer
me forgiveness and I receive it right now through faith in your Son, Jesus.
I surrender my life to your loving authority. May your Holy Spirit touch my
heart and make me more loving like Jesus. Thank you and Amen.

You do not have to say these exact words. You can use your own words.
Just talk to God with honesty.

If you’ve already received God’s complete forgiveness (justifying grace)
then share your faith story with someone who does not yet know Christ.
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