My last post, *Grace Alone (but don’t go crazy with it)*, touched on the fleshly component that accompanies the fresh revelation of Grace that Christ is breathing into the Church in these last days. It is different than the disclaimer of old that warned against misconstruing Grace as a license to sin, but it comes from an unspoken fear that Grace alone will not produce holiness. It is the message that God’s Grace is free, it is unmerited, but it does not free us from “obeying” (or trying to follow) the imperatives in the Bible, and the new buzz-phrase for this “there is still something you must do concept” is *Grace Driven Effort*.
Adding a “but” to Grace is not new, Paul himself dealt with it often, and in reality it is as deceptive and destructive in the body as the deceit of sin is outside the body. The truth is, religious rule keeping and grace driven effort are not different, and the result will be the same. The focus is still on the keeping of rules. Somehow we have determined that since we have detached the earning of salvation from the rule keeping, we are free to strive away to achieve holiness, but now it is a grace driven striving. If grace is driving a thing, the point at which fleshly effort begins is the point where grace stops. Having begun in the Spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh? (Gal 3:3) Yes Paul is speaking of our righteousness, but can the flesh perfect or acheive anything lasting in its own power? (Paul mentions 2 ways we are to labor, hard physical labor, completely abandoned to the Holy Spirit’s leading; and laboring to rest in Christ’s finished work, which is a continual refusal to trust in our flesh)
The bible makes it clear we are to put NO confidence in the flesh, and neither the law nor imperatives, no matter how you slice it have ever produced holiness. Romans 7: 2-5 explains the difference between the fruit produced by the letter of the Law (our dead husband) and the fruit produced by the law of the Spirit (our new husband who is very much alive). Any union between our flesh and Mr. Letter-of-the Law, will result in miscarriage, premature birth and stillborn children, fruit unto death.(vs. 5) Conversely, children that come from the union between our spirit and Mr. Spirit-of-Life, will be healthy children that have been carried full term and will live a long healthy life, the fruit of the Spirit. Why do we continue to produce stillborn children with our dead husband? Why do we continue to try and temper the freedom we have in Christ, what are we afraid of?
The problem is, those wielding the message are more confident in the arm of the flesh to lose control, than they are the spirit of Grace to restrain. If we truly believe that right believing produces right behaving, why the big ‘ol BUT? Let’s look at the fruit produced quite effortlessly by our flesh before we were saved. Was there a book of imperatives that we all followed that taught us how to sin? Romans 6:19-22 says that unrighteous deeds were produced by our flesh when we naturally obeyed unrighteousness; because we were FREE from righteousness! We were simply lending our members to unrighteousness, and our flesh followed suit. In fact, we often had to restrain our flesh physically so it would behave seemly for a time. So why, now that we have been MADE righteous, and are simply asked to lend our members to righteousness and allow them to obey righteousness, do we believe there must be some effort involved. Just as when we obeyed unrighteousness simply because we yielded to the thing that drove us, we WILL obey righteousness by simply yielding to the thing that drives our members now…RIGHTEOUSNESS! Vs. 21 says that unrighteousness produced a fruit in us to our shame, and vs. 22 says that now we HAVE our fruit unto holiness that is produced in us because we ARE free from sin.
There is no grace driven effort on our part, we do not need to jump start the process or prime the pump in order for God to keep it going. He has MADE us righteous, we are called to believe what He says about Himself and about us, and then we WILL behave what we believe. The power of God’s grace will always trump the power that sin had in our lives. He knows grace is what restrains and empowers us in the time of greatest weakness, and so where sin abounds, His GRACE SUPERABOUNDS!
So what do you do with Matthew 28:20? I am honestly curious and not trying to be difficult; though healthy, friendly argument may be in order.
ReplyDelete16 But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
There are other verses, but this one seems a good summary one. I think this is one of the most important issues to grasp as a Christian, and yet I suspect it will be an issue to struggle with daily throughout the Christian life. It is an issue that always has tension in my mind. (Philippians 2:12-13) I don't want to interject unnecessary tension into someone else's faith, but you seem up for the question.
Bryant King
Bryant,
DeleteI thank you for the question, and I truly believe this is how we sharpen each other as believers. I want my words to be challenged and put up against the Word of God. If they don’t hold up then I don’t deserve to be taken seriously. And His Word can be pressed to all measure and will always be proved true in the end! Oh the security in that! (And I know you and I both love His inexhaustible Word and our desire is to see Christ be made bigger in each discussion we have)
I will try not to turn this answer into a posting of its own but it is an important question. Re. the text, 2 quick points… The command up to this point was for the disciples/apostles to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the truth re. Christ as Messiah, death burial and resurrection. This teaching had been entrusted to them and they were to attend to it daily with the Holy Spirit’s aid so as to perceive it more clearly (equal to meditating on the word) guard it from perversion, and teach others the principals of the Kingdom making disciples/converts as they went. (Amplified using Greek Lexicon) They clearly believed this was to happen quickly and that Christ would return shortly (Acts 1:1-8) Paul, began to spread the Gospel of Grace and Reconciliation, once the revelation of the mystery was complete in him by the Holy Spirit. (That is our message today) So the command that Christ told them to follow was equivalent to a charge being given before He departed. They were used to doing in their own strength, and had no idea that the striving was about to cease, as the Holy Spirit would become the enabler.
The short answer to what do WE do is, harken and trust. (John 6:29) This was the shift that happened when Christ sent the Holy Spirit. Christ said the things I do, are the things the Father is doing through me. (John 14:10) So here is the chain of command, the Father Shows the Son the works to be done, He enables the Son to do the works and Christ is alive in us showing us and enabling (quickening) us to do the works that the Father has shown Him.(John 5:19-21) Let’s look at Phil. 2:12-13 that you referenced. In vs 12, obey, hypakouo in the Greek means to harken and submit, work out, katergazomai – perform, accomplish, fashion, bring about, salvation, soteria, 1 bodily safety from molestation & sickness, preservation, deliverance,2 soul to save the soul from the penalties of the Messianic judgment, the future benefit of the Christian delivered from all earthly ills.
So let me summarize in plain English; the work to be done, is the Spirits work. He is the author and finisher, perfector, enabler and provider for all that we need to accomplish. We harken and are shown, submit and are given. Then we act, in complete assurance that where we are and what we are doing is in the Lords will, and that when we encounter whatever it is that He already knew we would, the appropriate weapon will materialize on our belt because we walk by faith and it has already been determined ahead of time that we will succeed. This is working out our own “salvation”. The same assurance we have that we are His and will be with Him, is the same assurance we have now that He is with us. This knowledge, this unshakable faith in His ability to guide us and keep us is what causes us to be victorious. Not seeing the evidence of His salvation in every situation, but trusting it and then seeing it, because FAITH is the substance.
The fear and trembling, I believe that is the complete distrust of our own ability and complete reliance on Christ to come through in every situation, and we know that if He did not we would be lost because at no point will we succumb to fear and try to save ourselves. We refuse to draw on our own defenses no matter how close the call. It’s like playing chicken and knowing that no matter what YOU aren’t going to be the one to swerve. That’s fear and trembling!
:) amen!
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