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INTRODUCTION

In the opening words of this letter (v 2) Paul assured the believers in Corinth that they were sanctified and made holy by God. The implication of this fact is that the Corinthian believers must begin to live holy lives, they are holy therefore the outcome ought to be holy living. The main thrust of this letter is to exhort the believers in Corinth to live pure and holy lives.

In the first nine verses of this opening chapter Paul shows the Corinthians who they are in Christ. The rest of the letter is built on this wonderful foundation, you are holy therefore act holy, live a life consistent with who you are in Christ. Now in verses 4-9 Paul summarises the benefits of believing in Christ, of being made holy. The benefits have three dimensions.

Some are in the past given to us the moment we trusted Christ. Others are in the present worked out in us as we live our lives in Him. Still others are in the future to be experienced only when we go to be with him in heaven. In the past there is grace, in the present there are gifts and for the future there are guarantees. All of these benefits can be summed up in one word the word 'grace.' What we received when we trusted in Christ we receive in grace. What we receive in the present is received in grace and what we will receive in the future is received in grace.

1. PAST BENEFITS OF GRACE (vs. 4, 6)

The first benefit of being made holy through Christ is the grace of salvation. The words 'given' and 'confirmed' in the Greek are in the past tense, it indicates an action completed at a particular definite point of time. In the past every true believer received God's grace when he received Jesus Christ. Paul is thankful to God that these Corinthian believers have received Christ and therefore have received God's grace. 

Paul's passion was to see people saved and his greatest joy was expressed to God for his salvation to sinners. The word 'grace' means undeserved favour or kindness. This grace is given freely to all that receive Christ, it is unmerited and is a gift from God to sinners and it comes to us through Christ. It cannot be repaid and we should never try to do so.

But in order to understand the grace of God further I want us to understand that grace cannot co-exist with certain things for the moment we try, it ceases to be grace.

For example the grace of God cannot coexist with guilt. Grace provides for the abatement of guilt. Therefore Christ's work on the cross means that he became guilty by taking our sin upon himself, he paid the price for our sin. Our sin has been dealt with in Christ and once God acts sovereignty to forgive us our sin through Christ then we are totally and forever free from guilt. We stand in grace; all guilt is removed and we can never return to that state of guilt and condemnation.

Grace is God's gift and completely deals with our guilt before God. If you are a Christian and still living with guilt then you must simply accept the reality of your forgiveness in Christ. There is a huge difference between feeling guilty and being guilty. Christ came to die for the guilty and God's grace in Christ removes guilt from his believing people.

We may feel guilty because of our sin and God might even discipline us because of it but we will never be guilty in the sense of being condemned for our sin. The feelings of guilt that sin leaves is not a mark of condemnation or rejection by God but it is a reminder to us, that we have sinned and it should also be a deterrent to further sin.

But God's grace cannot coexist with human obligation either. We can so easy feel that because God has been so good to us and has forgiven us that somehow or other we must try and pay him back for his kindness. But God's grace is a free gift not a loan. Grace makes us totally indebted to God but because the cost is so great we cannot repay it and because his grace is so great we need not repay it.

In other words we are completely indebted to God but we have no debt. We cannot pay for our salvation before or after we are saved. Just think about it for a moment what have we got to pay Him with anyway? To offer God our love and devotion and obedience and service could not start paying the debt that we him for his gracious salvation.

What makes the message of salvation such good news is that we cannot pay for our salvation and we should not feel obliged to do so. Salvation comes to us by grace and its God's grace that makes payment unnecessary. Of course we do owe God our love, devotion and service but when we understand grace these are expressions of our gratitude to God because all we have as Christians belongs to Him.

We do love him but we are only able to love him because he first loved us and sent his Son to die for us (1John 4:10). Therefore we owe him everything out of gratitude but we owe him nothing out of obligation.

Perhaps for some of us our service to Christ is done out of a sense of obligation out of a sense that we owe God so much and want to try and repay at least some of it. If that is why we serve Christ then our service is not acceptable. We have failed to understand the grace of God in our salvation.

For once we come to a clear understanding of God's grace then our hearts response will be one of love, devotion and service. But we will do so not because we feel obliged too but simply because we are grateful and thankful to God for all that he has done for us and given to us in Christ.

I trust that God will bring us to a clear understanding of the grace of God and as a result we will love and serve him with committed hearts because of our gratitude for all that he has done for us and in us through Christ.

2. PRESENT BENEFITS OF GRACE (vs. 5-7)

The first benefits of grace are received in the past when we receive God's salvation in Christ. However there are benefits that are also present a continual treasury of riches granted to us throughout our life on earth. In Christ we are continually enriched in every way (v 5). The key words in verse 5 are the words 'in Him' for these words qualify what is meant by 'in every way.' In other words we as a church are enriched in every way through the gracious giving of Christ.

He gives us everything that we need although often not everything we want.

He grants to his church all that we need to live life for him in our world, there is nothing that we are lacking to live godly and holy lives. Paul lists two things that the Corinthians received from Christ to show how they have been enriched. They have been enriched in all their speaking and in all their knowledge. God grants to his people all speech and all knowledge that is necessary to accomplish all that God wants his people to do.

The particular speech that Paul has in mind here is that of telling God's truth to the world. God gives to every believer the ability to speak for him. We may not have an impressive vocabulary or even a captivating personality but we all have the necessary God given ability to speak for him in the way that he wants us too. The church has no excuse for failing to witness about their Lord. Some might argue that they don't know what to say or how to say it or some may argue that they just can't do it but Paul assures them and us that we are enriched in every way necessary so that we can speak for our Lord. In other words if we fail to witness about our Lord then we are failing to make use of the riches that we possess in Christ.

We are granted the riches by God's grace to speak for him but there are far too many Christians who fail to take advantage of these riches in Christ. If we are failing to witness about our Lord then the fault always lies on are side for God in Christ grants us all that we need to witness but the problem is often our lack of willingness to witness. We far too easily talk ourselves out of witnessing.

Sometimes such people allow fear to grip them and paralyse them but every one of us needs to realise that we have the riches needed to witness for our Lord whether it is out on the doors or in our homes or places of work. Some Christians can be very surprised to find out that they actually can witness of Christ yet none of us should be surprised for we have all the riches that we need to be able to speak clearly for our Lord.

But not only does the Lord provide us with the riches to speak for him but he also provides the riches to know all that is necessary. God does not expect us to witness of him in a vacuum he provides all the knowledge that is necessary to make our witness more effective. Now God does not give us the ability to know everything but Paul's point is that we are given all that we need to know to live effective Christian lives and to witness effectively for him.

God has granted to us his word and His Holy Spirit to interpret his word. We cannot know spiritual truth by natural abilities it takes God's gift of the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and to give us understand so that we can believe God's truth (1 Corinthians 2:14). But again our problem is our willingness to appropriate God's gifts to ourselves. We are more willing to do something else than spend time in His word and in prayer asking God to grant us understanding of his word.

It takes effort to be in attendance when God's word is expounded and it takes effort to concentrate and seek to understand and apply God's word when it is preached to us. Attending this service is no guarantee that your knowledge of Christ will increase, it needs you to be thinking about what you hear and it needs you to be applying it in your life with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

It is possible to attend this church and yet not even hear what is being said because we are allowing our minds to drift and our thoughts to run riot. It takes hard work to hear God's word. It takes a willing heart but none of us have any excuse for our lack of knowledge for God enriches us in Christ with all the knowledge that we need to know to live and witness for Him.

Paul now moves (v 7) from two specific rich gifts to gifts in general and he tells the church that they do not lack any gift that they need to live a full and faithful life for Christ. The words 'do not lack' is in the present tense therefore Paul is saying to the church at Corinth that you are not lacking any gifts now, God's grace to the church provides them with all the gifts they need to live as Christians in Corinth.

The church at Corinth was certainty lacking in moral purity and in spiritual maturity but it was not lacking in any spiritual gift. God has provided them with the same resources, as every other Christian church the problem was that the church at Corinth did not always seek to use God's grace gifts. But the church did not need to look for any thing further to enhance their Christian life and witness for God had provided every gift necessary and needed to live for him.

The church at Corinth needed to discover all that God in Christ has given to them and begin using those gifts in their own lives and in the life of the church. God's grace gifts to the church are adequate to enable the church to reach out to the world and to enable the church to be built up in their faith.

In later chapters Paul is going to deal with God's grace gifts more specifically but for now he wants the Corinthians to understand that they have all that they need to live as holy and pure Christians in the wicked and perverse city of Corinth.

Perhaps we think that the situation where God has placed us is a difficult one. It is not easy to be an effective witness and church in the Dales. Well we must remember that God has provided His church with every gift necessary to live for Him in whatever situation he has placed us in. We have no excuse for failing to live as we should in our situation, there is no excuse for apathy or ungodliness or for our failure to witness; God has provided all that we need in Christ to live for him in our community.

As a church we have every gift that we need to have in order to make progress as a church.

That does not mean that we all have the same gifts, we all have at least one gift and we all probably have many more than that. When every member of God's church uses his gifts within the church then the church will be built up and will grow and develop. However the problem comes when some in God's church fail to recognise their gift or fail to use it for the benefit of the church and for the glory of God then the church does not mature and grow, as it should.

So we all need to make sure we know our gifts and are using them in the church. Your gifts and my gifts are not for our own benefit but for the benefit of the church therefore make sure you are using your gifts within the church otherwise the church is being robbed of God given gifts and will be less effective than it should be. None of us have all the gifts necessary but collectively as a body of Christ we have all the gifts that we need to see God glorified through His church here in the Dales. We all have a responsibility to God and to His church to be actively involved in using the grace gifts that God has given to us. Our failure to do so makes the church less effective than it ought to be.

3. FUTURE BENEFITS OF GRACE (vs. 7-9)

Now I don't have time to explore this but God's grace not only provides past and present benefits but also future benefits. God has saved us by his grace; he presently empowers us with grace gifts and he guarantees the final fulfilment of his grace. For the Christian the best is yet to come. The Christian cannot help but look forward to the future.

We are grateful to God for his salvation and we seek under God to live holy lives using all the gifts God has granted to us but our greatest joy is looking forward to future grace. We should be waiting longing and hoping for the return of our Lord. God grants to his church the gifts that we need to live for him here on earth but as we use those gifts and seek to live a God honouring life our eyes should always be looking to the future (v 7).

We feel the pull of the world to come and we wait eagerly for our Lord Jesus to be revealed in all his glory. The Greek word translated 'eagerly wait' means to wait with eager anticipation and also with activity. This is not a passive waiting but it involves working while we wait it involves giving our all for God and his work while we wait for Jesus Christ to be revealed. As a church we have all the gifts that we need to live for Him while we wait for his return.

But the question is will we make it? Will we get to our heavenly home in the end? Well God's grace is such that not only do we need grace to save us and grace to help us live in the present but also we will have grace for the future. God in his grace will keep his church strong to the end. On that day when the Lord returns we will be blameless. It's not that we are blameless in Christ now and then just before the Lord returns something will be found against us.

No we are in Christ therefore we possess his righteousness and we always will be found blameless. Therefore we have no need to worry about our future if we belong to Christ. God's grace is adequate for saving us and keeping us and taking us to our heavenly home. The reason why we can be sure of our future is because it does not depend on us but on our faithful God (v 9).

The emphasis on the final verse is on the word faithfulness. It literally reads "Faithful is God." He has called us into union with Christ into fellowship with his Son and he is faithful in keeping us in that union and bringing the full benefits of that union to us in the future.

So we need God's grace for every aspect of our Christian life. We can be sure that if he has saved us by his grace he will keep us and empower us by that same grace. That same grace will take us to heaven and will grant to us all the blessings and privileges that await us.

In the meantime let us continue to use the grace gifts that he has given to us to live for him as we await with eager expectation the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ God's Son and our Saviour.

Amen