Amazing Grace
Mike Mazzalongo
2
The True Plan of Salvation
We are saved by grace through faith
Because of God’s grace we are saved
through a system of faith.
Through God’s kindness we are
forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ.
God is so merciful that He offers us
salvation based on our faith,
not based on our ability to be perfect.
We Change This To:
• God provides grace, we
provide faith
We Change This To:
• God’s grace is that He reveals
what we must do in order to
be saved
(IE. Plan of Salvation)
We Change This To:
• God’s grace is based on
our faith.
Mistaken Ideas About Grace
1. God provides the grace,
we provide the faith.
God/Grace + Man/Faith
• We contribute nothing
to salvation
God/Grace + Man/Faith
• We contribute nothing to salvation
• This takes the glory away
from Christ.
Mistaken Ideas About Grace
1. God provides the grace, we provide
the faith.
2. Grace is the revelation of
the “Plan of Salvation.”
The “mystery”, the “secret”, the
“plan” of salvation, was that
because of God’s grace, man
was to be saved based on faith
in Jesus, the Son of God
The 5 Step
Plan
=
Salvation by
Knowledge
The 5 steps are the
response to the gospel, not
the plan of salvation!
Mistaken Ideas About Grace
1. God provides the grace, we provide
the faith.
2. Grace is the revelation of the “Plan
of Salvation.”
3. God’s grace is based on
our faith.
The Power of Faith is determined
by the Object of Faith.
Our faith saves us because its
object, Jesus Christ, has the
power to save us.
Grace + Faith + ______
• Only by grace but not grace alone
Grace + Faith + ______
• Only by grace but not grace alone
• Only by faith but not faith alone
Those who had a problem with grace
1. Simon the Pharisee
(Luke 7:36-50)
36
Now one of the Pharisees was
requesting Him to dine with him, and He
entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined
at the table. 37 And there was a woman in
the city who was a sinner; and when she
learned that He was reclining at the table
in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an
alabaster vial of perfume, (Luke 7:36-37)
38
and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping,
she began to wet His feet with her tears, and
kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and
kissing His feet and anointing them with the
perfume. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had
invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this
man were a prophet He would know who and
what sort of person this woman is who is
touching Him, that she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:38-39)
Those who had a problem with grace
1. Simon the Pharisee
2. Jonah
Those who had a problem with grace
1. Simon the Pharisee
2. Jonah
3. The Hired Workers
(Matthew 20:1-16)
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a
landowner who went out early in the
morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
2 When he had agreed with the laborers
for a denarius for the day, he sent them
into his vineyard. (Matthew 20:1-2)
1
3
And he went out about the third hour
and saw others standing idle in the
market place; 4 and to those he said,
‘You also go into the vineyard, and
whatever is right I will give you.’ And so
they went. (Matthew 20:3-4)
5
Again he went out about the sixth and
the ninth hour, and did the same thing.
6 And about the eleventh hour he went
out and found others standing around;
and he said to them, ‘Why have you
been standing here idle all day long?’
(Matthew 20:5-6)
They said to him, ‘Because no one
hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into
the vineyard too.’ 8 “When evening
came, the owner of the vineyard said to
his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay
them their wages, beginning with the
last group to the first.’ (Matthew 20:7-8)
7
9
When those hired about the eleventh
hour came, each one received a denarius.
10 When those hired first came, they
thought that they would receive more; but
each of them also received a denarius. 11
When they received it, they grumbled at
the landowner, (Matthew 20:9-11)
saying, ‘These last men have worked
only one hour, and you have made them
equal to us who have borne the burden
and the scorching heat of the day.’ 13 But
he answered and said to one of them,
‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you
not agree with me for a denarius?
12
(Matthew 20:12-13)
14
Take what is yours and go, but I wish to
give to this last man the same as to you.
15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish
with what is my own? Or is your eye
envious because I am generous?’ 16 So
the last shall be first, and the first last.”
(Matthew 20:14-16)
The late workers did not trust in their
work, they trusted in their boss to do
the right thing by them.
The basis of Grace is trust.
Those who had a problem with grace
1.
2.
3.
Simon the Pharisee
Jonah
The Hired Workers
4. The Pharisee & the
Publican
(Luke 18:9-14)
9
And He also told this parable to some
people who trusted in themselves that
they were righteous, and viewed others
with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into
the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and
the other a tax collector. (Luke 18:9-10)
11
The Pharisee stood and was praying
this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am
not like other people: swindlers, unjust,
adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all
that I get.’ (Luke 18:11-12)
But the tax collector, standing some
distance away, was even unwilling to lift
up his eyes to heaven, but was beating
his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to
me, the sinner!’ (Luke 18:13)
I tell you, this man went to his house
justified rather than the other; for
everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, but he who humbles himself will
be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)
Grace
Pharisee
Deserved it
No Need
Did Not Know
God
Publican
Needed it
Needed for Life
Found Peace in God
Everyone has problems with grace
from time to time…
• Can’t forgive ourselves
Everyone has problems with grace
from time to time…
• Can’t forgive ourselves
• Angry when our enemies
receive God’s grace
Everyone has problems with grace
from time to time…
• Can’t forgive ourselves
• Angry when our enemies receive God’s grace
• No grace because of
doctrinal differences
When we deny God’s grace for
others, we’re forfeiting God’s grace
for ourselves.