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REFLECTION
The theme for our reflection is, “Saved by scandalous grace. A scandalous activity, person or thing is considered immoral or shocking. A scandalous activity is considered a departure from the norm and is frowned upon or condemned by society. Grace is the unmerited favour or mercy of God or an unearned gift of salvation from God to mankind through Jesus Christ. Saved by scandalous grace is the erroneous perception that Jesus Christ died a shameful death on the cross and is considered unworthy of saving sinners. We shall reflect on the fact that God’s scandalous grace through Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation.


Beloved in the Lord, no matter who we are, we can only be saved through the scandalous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ “…because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is 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 handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:4-10)
During Jesus’ time the teachers of the law, the Pharisees and the Priests strongly held the view that salvation is through one’s religious effort or works through the law. This view was held because strict and public adherence to the law was believed to be evidence of a person’s righteousness before God. This phenomenon made some self-righteous and others tagged as sinners. The picture of self-righteous and unrighteous people and the significance of God’s grace through Jesus is rightly captured in Matthew 9:10-12, “While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:10-13) According to the self-righteous Pharisees and their cohorts, Jesus himself was not righteous because He dined or ate with unrighteous people. How can an unrighteous person save or make sinners righteous thereby rendering them the children of God? This clearly does not make sense to the self-righteous Pharisees and Jewish leaders hence the grace Jesus promises is scandalous in their understanding. It is scandalous because it is only through works or strict adherence to the law that a person becomes righteous and not through Jesus who ate and dined with sinners and consequently died a shameful death on the cross. How can such a scandalous person bring salvation to sinners? This grace is scandalous!

Dear friend, can a sinner truly save himself through self-righteous deeds or strict adherence to the law? The answer is a resounding no! Jesus exposed the superficial righteousness of the Pharisees when He said ““Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matthew 23:27-28). Beloved in the Lord, no one is righteous before God, it takes the scandalous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be saved and to be made righteous. “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood —to be received by faith. (Romans 3:22-25). Let us not be deceived into thinking that we are made righteous because we attend worship services regularly, give our tithe and offerings, fast and pray regularly, and give to the poor therefore we are saved and have been made righteous. All these are mere religious works that unbelievers can equally do, the most important question is, is Jesus Christ your Lord and Saviour? Do you believe that you were a sinner but through repentance, regeneration and faith in Jesus Christ you have become a new creation saved by Grace and for that matter, you have dedicated your life and “offered your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God as your true and proper worship?” (Romans 12:1). We have been saved by a scandalous grace because “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God…Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:18,20 -21) We are products of God’s love through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Works and righteousness are by-products or results of grace, faith and salvation, they are never an end in themselves. We are never saved by our works and self-righteousness, like the Pharisees and teachers of the law, grace remains scandalous when we are blinded by our works and self-righteousness but it is this same scandalous faith that has brought as many as have repented and believed in Jesus, salvation.

The Advent season offers us the opportunity to reflect on the scandalous grace God made available to us during the first Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. This scandalous grace is still available to us today. However, it is important to note that this grace will no longer be available to us during the second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ because “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:27-28). May His grace continue to sustain us even as we await His second Advent.

In summary, we have reflected on the theme “Saved by scandalous grace” We have discovered that religious works and self-righteousness cannot save us, God’s scandalous grace through faith in Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation. Shalom.

PRAYER
Thank you, God, for saving us through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice and shameful death on the cross. May our salvation through the scandalous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ spring forth righteousness and good works pleasing to God. Amen