Doing Doesn't Make Us Who We Are - It Flows From Who We Are

Latest Growing in Grace program is ready for downloading/listening. The good works we do - the "doing" of the Christian life - are not done to score points with God or to maintain our good standing with God. Our good works don't make us who we are (and they don't disqualify us from who we are). Rather, in Christ we are a new creation - righteous and holy - and as we become more and more established in this truth, our "doing" becomes the natural outflow of who we are.

gigcast.graceroots.org

Works - Part 4 of 4

I really think that our life in Christ is a life that doesn't look like what many Christians today see it as. For many, it's a life that revolves around "church." Many of the works that Christians are exhorted to do seem to be centered around church programs, ministries, outreaches, etc. Not that any of them are necessarily bad in and of themselves, but how often do Christians get wrapped up in those things and don't really live out the life of the person God has truly made them to be.

I personally had the guilt laid on me (perhaps mostly self-inflicted) because I quit working all the works I was expected to work in "the church," including but not limited to joining in on all the church activities and outreaches. None of them seemed to be appealing to my heart, and I felt guilty because I felt as if I was neglecting the "doing" of some very good things, including things that many people felt "needed" to be done. But I had come to the conclusion that all I was really doing was going through the motions with a lot of the stuff. The good news was that, since I'd come to have a strong foundation of who I am in Christ, I had an understanding within myself that I actually was a "doer" in so many other ways that simply didn't have the appearance of "church activity," but were really a result of walking in who I am in Christ. I've all too often found that what I'm called to do isn't what everyone else expects of me! It's been a struggle to truly discover that, but I think I'm finally free in that respect.

The "instructions" I had received implied that the work I needed to be involved in centered around Church Activity A, B and C, and then I was to sacrifice myself some more and also be involved in Activities D, E and F as well! But I discovered that God has many different "members" in Christ's body. We are all unique, and we walk in the works that God created for us to walk in, individually and as a body. Sometimes those works may indeed be "church activities," but so much of life is lived apart from the assembling of the saints - far away from whatever building we may have met in - and we walk as who we are wherever we are!

Look at the good works (the works of faith) that the saints mentioned in Hebrews 11 walked in. How much of it was forced or contrived? How much of it was "church work?" How much of it was based upon biblical instructions??? Heck, look at the work Paul and the apostles did! Look at what the people of the early church did. They didn't have "New Testament instructions" to follow. Wasn't it as simple as walking in the new life they'd been given, and encouraging one another and spurring one another on toward love and good deeds? There's plenty of room for instructing and correcting one another, but is that really the basis of the Christian life?

Works - Part 2 of 4

I don't believe that God created Adam and Eve (the first humans) and the rest of the human race for the purpose of living by instructions. In fact, wasn't it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God told Adam not to eat from? We all know what happened (sin entered the world, and death through sin), but as we fast-forward to the Cross, and the Resurrection of Jesus we see that Christ came to take away sin, and through faith in Christ, man can be restored to LIFE. Through faith, man now has righteousness, holiness, completeness, goodness. God has taken away the sinful spirit that we were born with in Adam and has given us a new spirit that is alive together with Christ. By faith, we can walk according to this newness of life.

Rom 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

The "baptism" above isn't water baptism, but it's a death and burial of our old sinful nature - the spiritual person we were in Adam. It's now dead and gone, and we've been raised together with Christ into new life! The natural result of growing and maturing in who we now are in this new life is a life of goodness. And the growing process is lifelong. It's by no means instantaneous.

This new life - which is nothing less (or more) than the very life of Christ in us - is where holiness and goodness and righteousness and good works flow from. This new life - Christ-in-me - is the foundation of the Christian life.

Works - Part 1 of 4

This was drafted as one long post (too long), so I'm simply breaking it up into smaller chunks and scheduling them to post in 12 hour intervals...

I've been growing in grace since sometime in the mid 90's, and from then till now I've been discussing the message of grace with people wherever I go. I've discussed it one-on-one with people. I've discussed it in groups. I've discussed it online in Christian chat rooms, forums, blogs, etc. Over the years I've run into a lot of opposition from people - mainly in the online chat rooms and forums (boy have I been ganged-up upon!). I've been called lots of names and I've been accused of heresy. Some people have been kinder, and have simply expressed "concerns" about what I say. :)

One of the many "concerns" I've heard from people is that I'm teaching people to "do nothing." In other words, that I'm teaching people to abstain from good works. Many, many times I've simply had to tell people, "scroll back up and look at what I actually said!" "Look at where I'm actually coming from, and I think you'll see that I'm building a foundation of grace that leads to a natural life of good works."

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know I talk about this a lot. It's the difference between an outward/external life of living by "biblical instructions" and living by the life of Christ that indwells us. In other words, far be it from me to be against works, but rather I heavily emphasize the true source of works. I do think that the various New Testament "instructions" can be a marvelous aid in showing us what our life in Christ looks like when it's lived out, but I don't believe for a minute that they are the foundation or essence of the Christian life.

Unripe and plastic fruit - Part 2 of 2

Another blog post that brought about my desire to post on this subject is Until Love Pleases... from Matthew's blog. Matthew brings out a verse from Song of Solomon that says not to "stir up or awaken love until it pleases." We're in such a hurry these days. Such a hurry to do, such a hurry to perform, such a hurry to produce, such a hurry to grow. Which leads to another huge problem that can easily come as a result of performance-based Christian teaching - fake lifestyles and fake love that only appears holy --- also known as self-righteousness. I realize that self-righteousness is often perceived to mean a "holier than thou" attitude, but actually I think far more often it's expressed in the form of a performance-based lifestyle - me trying my best perform for God or for people.

Last week I shared with my pastor (again, agreeing on some things and disagreeing on other things - which is perfectly fine) my thoughts that there are many people who hear all the principles taught in churches every week, and, sincerely wanting to be 'good Christians,' they put up the appearance of having it all together - but in reality they're just faking it. They're faking holiness. It's not only fruit that's unripe. It's fake, plastic fruit. It may have every appearance of being real, but it's not real. I think that due to all the "doing" teaching in the church today there is a lot of pressure to look as if you're living it, and living it well. Sometimes it's pressure we put on ourselves and other times it's peer pressure, but either way, performance-based Christianity does not help at all!

The fruit that I'm talking about includes, but is not limited to, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). We're taught that all of these things - along with all the good works - are the marks of a good Christian, so we go around trying to display them, or treating them like "projects" that we need to work on and become better at. And so in our meetings we talk the talk and we act as if we're walking the walk, and we can make it look reeeeal good, but all it really is is an external appearance on the outside that hasn't truly come from who we are inside. And that's because we're not living from the Life that we already have on the inside, but rather we're constantly trying to follow all these principles and rules through external means ("the flesh"), trying to make ourselves to be something, when in fact we already are holy, righteous and complete in Him!

My purpose here is not to get down on anyone, but simply to point out the difference between unripe and plastic fruit that is the result of forced, contrived, fleshly growth, and real fruit that comes naturally and in due season as the Lord Himself works in us through His very life. The fruit of the Spirit is... the fruit of the Spirit. It's not up to us, but it's His fruit that He patiently works out of us as we simply abide (rest, remain) in Him and grow in His supernatural timing. His fruit in us is never unripe, never fake, never bad tasting, never plastic.

And so... what are some solutions to all this? I think the comments that came in after I posted Part 1 are excellent! Mainly... let's preach the pure gospel of grace. Let's preach Jesus. Let's not add anything to the gospel (such as our own works) or take anything away from it (such as the finished work of Jesus). And let's relax and lighten up! It's my opinion (and you can judge for yourself the validity of my opinion) that the various principles and exhortations to good works in the New Testament weren't written as a means of studying every week and then going out and trying to apply them to become better Christians. Rather, they are things that, as we grow in our understanding of who God is and who we truly are in Christ (the true foundation of our entire life of grace), show us what it looks like when it's "worked out" over the course of our lifetimes.

You simply can't force any of it. It must come naturally, and I believe it comes naturally as we grow in the gospel of grace, not as we try to "apply" principles. I believe it comes from the constant sharing with each other of the freedom and peace that we have in Christ, and God's unconditional love. I think most people know all the "do's and don'ts" of the Christian life, but how many people really know who they are in Christ? How many people really know the love of God? How many people are truly rooted and established in God's love and grace?

And so my plea to the Christian church is to preach Christ and Him crucified, dead and raised again! There is more power than you could ever imagine in this alone!

God doesn't need your good works - He produces them

The words of Paul that I shared in a post earlier this week from Titus 3:4-7 included these words: "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done..."

That's something to cling on to and never forget! Our good works - our righteous deeds - play absolutely no part in getting us saved, (and if they play no part in getting us saved, they play no part in keeping us saved either - it's all by God's mercy and grace).

I suppose some could take this to mean that good works, or righteous deeds, are therefore irrelevant in the life of a Christian. Perhaps Paul had that thought in mind as he followed up those words about the wonderful gift of salvation in verses 4-7 with the words of verse 8:

This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

In similar fashion, Paul also talks about good works in Ephesians 2:10, again, immediately after talking about how "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph 2:8-9).

He says:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

I said all of the above to establish that "good works" are indeed a part of the life of the Christian. But unfortunately the error that legalists have made is to make "good works" out to be the root of the Christian life. That is, legalists say that good works are necessary to maintain salvation. In their eyes, the work of Christ is superseded by our good works that we do 'for' Him. But look at the two passages I just shared (and there are plenty more passages along this line) and notice two things. First, notice the purpose of good works. Second, notice the source of good works.

In the passage from Titus, Paul says that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. Why? Because these things are good and profitable to people. You're not going to score any points with God, especially in regards to maintaining your right standing before Him, through any effort of your own! No amount of good works will help to maintain your acceptance by Him. It's all by His grace. Your good works are simply an outflow of His working in you, as the passage from Ephesians implies. You are God's workmanship (you are not your own workmanship). He Himself - His very life in you - is the very source of your good deeds. The good works that He works in and through you are good and profitable to people!

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing," wrote the writer of Hebrews. Why? Was is so legalists could turn Sunday mornings and evenings, and Wednesday evenings, and whenever the church doors are open, into "service times" at a "building" that Christians should attend to maintain their good spiritual standing before God and man? It sure has been made out to be that way today, hasn't it? But rather, the real reason for the "good habit" of meeting together was simply to encourage one another and to spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25). It's pretty simply, really.

(By the way, have you ever looked at the surrounding context of Hebrews 10:24-25? Did the writer simply suddenly decide to add those two sentences out of the blue? What exactly was the "hope we profess" (vs. 23), that the writer had been writing about? I think it's worth spending some time with in order to understand how he led up to those words, and I encourage you to look at it on your own).

Good works are a fruit of our life in Christ. They are most certainly not the root by which our righteousness is established or maintained! Christ is the Vine. We are the branches of the vine. The LIFE is in the Vine, and the fruit grows not as the branches struggle and strive to produce fruit for the Vine, but as the LIFE of the vine flows into the branches as the branches abide - rest - in the Vine. The branches have no life in and of themselves to produce anything anyway! "Abide in Me," Jesus says, "and you will bear fruit."

In Christ, we have become one spirit with God (1 Cor 6:17). We have become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). It is God who works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose (Phil 2:13). All my evangelical life I've heard things like, "God's depending upon you to do His will." "God's counting on you to complete His work." Hold on a second! He's not depending upon us! He doesn't need us! He loves us and desires us, but AS IF He needed anything! We are jars of clay, fully dependent upon Him!

What makes a person righteous

I was digging through some of my past notes and I came across this note from 5/20/01.

The law led people to Christ, but not by works of the law. The works of the Law never benefited anyone as far as righteousness is concerned. When a person sins after coming to Christ, they don’t go back to the law to lead them back to Christ. Sin doesn’t mean that you have left Christ (and therefore need to get back). Coming to Christ is a one time event. The law leads you to faith. You become “in Christ” by faith. Sin doesn’t get you “out” of Christ. It wasn’t your good works that got you “in Christ” in the first place.

Sin doesn’t mean rejection of faith or Christ. So you don’t need the Law to get you back to Christ. Once you’ve come to Christ, the law’s purpose is done and is never needed again. It led you to Christ. It doesn’t sustain you in Christ.

The law surely can show us what sin is (therefore it shows sinners, who haven't come to Christ, their need for righteousness). But the law doesn’t do anything to fix the problem.

In Christ, the problem is done away with. We have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Even when we sin, we are still the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! Again, when we were sinners, our good works didn't make us righteous, and now that we're in Christ - and therefore no longer a sinner but rather a righteous person - our sin doesn't make us unrighteous.