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“What dynamic transforms us into the image of Christ? Is it through will power, looking at the law and being determined to never sin again? Is it through the power of shame and guilt that we are transformed?” (Pure Grace)
I think not! God forbid! May it never be! “I suggest that there is no other conclusion which can be drawn from those who teach VERSIONS of legalism? They say if you can make sin look grotesque enough, believers will stop sinning. How is that working for you? I have a Greek word for that philosophy – baloney!” (Clark Whitten)
Either we choose to rest in the dynamic of Christ’s finished work, or we will foolishly seek ways to finish it ourselves and continue in a hopeless journey of defeat after defeat! The following passages from Galatians could not be clearer as to what Our Father in Christ is offering to us!
But first; we must face our foolishness which manifests itself in our human/fleshly or religious strategies! And I had to admit that all my efforts; good intentioned as they usually were-were only perpetuating my being “stuck on stupid.” I submit to your heart; Jesus paid it all! Stupid, foolish, crazy, defeated, hopeless are not words associated with Christ’s perfect and finished work on Calvary!
The following scriptures provide ample, simple and clear evidence that our only hope is to believe the Gospel for ourselves! Why?
14.” Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive (forgiveness) and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4: 14-16 (NIV)
Considering the above admonition from Hebrews 4, we are encouraged to give ourselves a spiritual check-up; to be totally assured that it is the Pure Gospel of Grace that we are staking our lives upon!
Galatians 3:1-13 (Msg) You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it is obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the Cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.
2 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? 3 Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you were not smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? 4 Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!
5 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves; does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you?
10 And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: "Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law." 11 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way.
The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: "The person, who believes God, is set right by God - and that's the real life."
12 Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: "The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them." 13 Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself.
Galatians 5: 1-6 (Msg) Christ has set us free to live a free life. So, take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. 2 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. 3 I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. (Is this not sobering enough to get our attention?)
4 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. 5 Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. 6 For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.
Galatians 2: 18-21 (Msg) If I were "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan. 19 What took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it did not work. So, I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man.
20 Christ's life showed me how and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
Look, these are no small matters! Our embracing of the Grace and Mercy by/of faith extended through Jesus Christ is our only hope. But what a pregnant hope it is! We can never exhaust the depths, widths, heights or lengths that Jesus went through on Calvary for our freedom. He has given us the opportunity in faith to truly know His Father as Our Father! He is also offering to baptize us in His Holy Spirit, who empowers us to walk in His righteousness, power and freedom, instead of our weakness and defeat. Can you identify with the following?
Romans 7: 15-25 (Msg) “What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. 16 So if I cannot be trusted to figure out what is best for me and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. 17 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still cannot keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!
18 I realize that I do not have what it takes. I can will it, but I cannot do it. 19 I decide to do good, but I do not really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. 20 My decisions, such as they are, do not result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. 21 It happens so regularly that it is predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.
22 I truly delight in God's commands, 23 but it is obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. 24 I have tried everything, and nothing helps. I am at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”
I know this battle all too well! And I refuse to continue to fool myself about me! Instead, I trust Jesus-PERIOD!
Romans 8: 1-3 (Msg) “With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter Christ's being-here-for-us no longer must live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. 2 A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. 3 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He did not deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.”
Will you embrace the freedom, righteousness, mercy, grace, love and eternal joy of Jesus as though he is your ‘first love’? Ron Ross