The church seems to be built on performance and duty far more than upon Christ's finished work. Christians are bombarded with sermons and books and songs that deal with our performance. We are often told, in one form or another, to "give to Christ the worth of His sacrifice for us". One of the common sayings I hear is taken from the Moravians and says, "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering". All too often this and other such phrases are used to chide us and to somehow motivate us by guilt to do more for God.
The church world tends to pride itself on its accomplishments. We promote those who "do" the most, criticize those who don't do enough and are always on a campaign to get people to do more - all so that Christ get's what He deserved.
Am I missing something? Didn't Christ already get what He deserved (after taking what He didn't deserve)? Is Daddy God looking down on all of us waiting for us to do our part now? Is Jesus the heavenly cheerleader, telling us to finish the job and make it worth His while? Is Holy Spirit leading us so that we can do more stuff?
This whole notion is rubbish!! It stinks and it is ungodly to the core.
The very moment we think we owe something to God or that we need to prove our gratitude by doing something for Him, we have moved from the realm of grace and back into the realm of law and legalism and bondage.
God did not send His Son as the once and for all atonement for humanity's sin and then require, or even ask, something from us to uphold it or make it legitimate.
Christ's sacrifice was complete in and of itself. It is a free gift that not only doesn't require anything from us, it actually speaks against it.
Let's take a look at what Paul told the Romans:
No man can justify himself before God by a perfect performance of the Law's demand - indeed it is the straight-edge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are. But now we are seeing the righteousness of God declared quite apart from the Law - it is a right relationship given to us, and operating in, all who have faith in Jesus Christ. A man who has faith is now freely acquitted in the eyes of God by his generous dealing in the redemptive ac of Christ Jesus. God has appointed him as the means of propitiation, a propitiation accomplished by the shedding of his blood, to be received and made effective in ourselves by faith. God has done this to demonstrate his righteousness both by the wiping out of the sins of the past (the time when we withheld his hand), and by showing in the present time that he is a just God and that he justifies every man who has faith in Jesus.Do you see it? The whole notion of human achievement has been replaced. We are now on a different plane - an entirely different dimension.
What happens now to human pride of achievement? There is no room for it. Why, because failure to keep the Law has killed it? Not at all, but because the whole matter is now on a different plane - believing instead of achieving. We see now that a man is justified before God by the fact of his faith in God's appointed Saviour and not by what he has managed to achieve under the Law.
Romans 3:20-28 (J. B. Phillips)
I love how the Ben Campbell Johnson translation reads for verses 27 and 28:
Who can brag then, about having a right relationship with God? Nobody! Why? Because it's not an achievement earned by keeping rules or doing good. A right relationship with God is received by faith. So, you must see that each person receives this right relationship without keeping the rules.
Now some will argue that this speaks only of salvation and not of our Christian life and walk. I even hear people say that we are saved only by God, but now we have to keep God's laws to ensure our salvation.
What a load of religious bull@#&*!
Is the Godhead so weak that it can somehow only initially save us, but then requires our work to maintain it. How is this any different from the Law to begin with? And how can you maintain something you didn't earn in the first place? If you couldn't earn it for yourself, what makes you think you can then somehow maintain it by yourself?
This is pure lunacy! And the Apostle Paul agrees. One of his churches was believing the same lies and he called them stupid, foolish and senseless. And asked them who put them under such a magic spell to believe such lies.
The book of Galatians is an entire letter addressing this issue, but notice specifically for us right now how Paul responds to the notion that we are saved purely by grace but then must do stuff in order to maintain it:
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let m ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Galatians 3:1-3
And I love the Phillips translation of verse 3 which puts it so simple:
Surely you can't be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the spirit and then complete it by reverting to outward observances?
That pretty much sums it up.
But what about the accusation that we are just promoting a loose lifestyle of greasy grace where anything goes?
Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that grace is the freedom to live outside of any and all rules, conduct, behavior or mannerisms. If grace isn't that completely radical, then it is no better than the law.
BUT, no, if the implication is that people that understand grace don't live in a way that pleases the Godhead. We are not saying or endorsing behavior that is contrary to God. We are simply saying that that is not our focus. Behavior was NEVER the issue. When we focus on the "doing" we lose sight of the "being". And when our focus is on what we do or don't do, those things actually become our idols and our salvation because we are putting more trust in our adherence to those things than we are in Christ's finished work.
You see, Jesus explained this perfectly in John 15 where He talks about the vine and the branches. This is not about our "doing" at all. A branch can't "do" anything of its own. It is completely dependent on the vine! And because of that, it can only "be". Does it produce fruit? Absolutely! But not because it is trying to do, but because it simply abides with the vine.
Union is the greatest bearer of fruit!
I bear fruit because of my union with the Godhead, not because of my achievements or the fact that I am adhering to some moral code. I "obey" the law, not because I am making the effort to, but because it is a natural byproduct of my abiding in the vine. Just like the fruit of the Spirit talked about later in Galatians. They are not our fruit. We don't produce any of them. They are fruit of the Holy Spirit that is naturally manifested through our lives because we are one with the Godhead.
Anytime we focus on our efforts we place the burden for our righteousness on ourselves. When we simply rest in the union we have in the vine, we will produce His fruit through us, with no effort of our own, but with much greater sphere and influence.
Cheers!
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