Today we will continue our series entitled “God’s Grace & Our Faith.” I will address the dangers of mixing God’s grace with human effort.
(John 1:14 NIV)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(Jon 1:17 NIV)
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
(Galatians 5:6-9 The Passion Translation)
6 When you’re placed into the Anointed One and joined to him, circumcision and religious obligations can benefit you nothing. All that matters now is living in the faith that is activated and brought to perfection by love.
7 Before you were led astray, you were so faithful to Messiah. Why have you now turned away from what is right and true? Who has deceived you?
8 The One who enfolded you into his grace is not behind this false teaching that you’ve embraced. Not at all!
9 Don’t you know that when you allow even a little lie into your heart, it can permeate your entire belief system?
Another translation of verse 9 reads, “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. You are righteous by faith in Jesus and His finished work alone.
The Apostle Paul visited southern Galatia on his first missionary journey (Acts 13–14). Scholars date the trip early in his ministry, around 47–48 AD. Paul preached the Gospel of God’s grace during his journeys, and in the process, churches were planted everywhere he went.
Years later, Paul wrote to the Galatians, clearly frustrated with the fact that they had allowed Jewish converts to Christianity (like he was) to add portions of The Law to the Gospel of grace. He told them clearly, “When you’re placed into the Anointed One [Chrst Jesus] and joined to him, circumcision and religious obligations can benefit you nothing. All that matters now is living in the faith that is activated and brought to perfection by love.” (Gal 5:6).
— Paul says that by adding performance-based religion to the grace Jesus provided, the Galatians were “deceived” and “led astray.”
— Paul was clear that adding religious requirements (performance-based religion) is not what makes you righteous. We are not righteous by what we do. We are only righteous because of what Jesus did.
— The sad truth is that today, thousands of years later, many Christians are making the same mistake the Galatians made back then. They have added religious requirements to God’s grace as conditions for righteousness. As if you could ever be righteous by works.
— Please don’t be deceived like the Galatians were. If you are Born-Again, you are righteous. But you are not righteous because of what you do or what you fail to do. You are only righteous because of what Jesus did. You are the righteousness of God by faith, and that only happened becuase your faith in Jesus’ finished work accesses God’s unearned and undeserved grace.
— Please don’t add human effort to God’s finished work, as if your performance could ever measure up. You are not righteous because of what you do. You are righteous because of what He did. Remember, it’s ALL ABOUT HIM!
2. Mixing God’s grace with human effort is a “false teaching.”
The Apostle Paul said, “The One who enfolded you into his grace is not behind this false teaching that you’ve embraced. Not at all!” (Galatians 5:8).
— The false teaching Paul is talking about is adding works to grace as a requirement for righteousness. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he explained this clearly. He drove home the point that God’s grace is a gift. You cannot work for a gift. All you can do with a gift is receive it. If you try to work for it, then the gift is no longer a gift. At that point, it becomes payment for your effort. Paul said it this way, “And since it is by God’s grace, it can’t be a matter of their good works; otherwise, it wouldn’t be a gift of grace, but earned by human effort” (Romans 11:6).
— Going back to Galatians, Paul was upset that someone had convinced the Galatians to mix God’s grace with human effort.
— This mixture is dangerous because it can contaminate your entire belief system.
— Paul went on to say, “Don’t you know that when you allow even a little lie into your heart, it can permeate your entire belief system?” (Gal 5:9). Just like a little yeast works itself through an entire batch of dough, a little lie, or a little deception, can work its way through your entire belief system.
— If you start mixing “a little Law” or “a little human effort” with God’s grace before you know it, you won’t look in the mirror and see yourself righteous because of what Jesus did. You will start seeing yourself as righteous because of what you are either doing or not doing. This is self-righteousness.
— Not only is self-righteousness a terrible thing because you have made Jesus irrelevant (thinking you are righteous by your works and Jesus’ finished work), but this thinking will negatively impact your faith walk because the level of your faith towards God will be contingent upon your perceived level of goodness towards Him. Meaning that if you perform good, you will expect good. But if you perform badly, you will expect bad. If you get to the point where you believe this way, then Jesus means nothing to you. You are living no different than the Old Covenant believers who lived before Jesus came. You are living by works, not by faith in God’s grace.
— It comes down to the fact that you are not perfect, but Jesus was perfect FOR you. You are not righteous, but Jesus was righteous FOR you. If you fully embrace what Jesus did FOR you, you will open your heart to God’s grace and live by faith in Christ and Christ alone. However, if you want to live by faith in Christ, but you then think that you also need to perform to get God to bless you, then you are ADDING performance-based religion to God’s grace. Even if you add “a little” of this type of thinking, it will infect your entire belief system, and before you know it, you will be relying on YOU instead of relying on God! The Bible calls this a false teaching.
3. If you try to take a portion of The Law, you have to comply with the entire thing because violating one rule is like breaking them all!
(Galatians 5:1-4 NLT)
1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the Law.
2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.
3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole Law of Moses.
4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
Remember, there were some Jewish Christians in Galatia who required Gentile converts to Christianity to get circumcised. Paul already taught about this, but he came back to the issue. And the Apostle further reiterates his point and says, “I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole Law of Moses.” Paul keeps driving home the point that if you attempt to take on a portion of the Law, thinking that your compliance with that portion is making you right with God, then the Law actually requires you to abide by the entire Law, and if you break any portion of it, you are guilty of breaking the entire Law.
(James 2:10 NLT)
For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.
Paul continues with another very strong statement. Paul says, “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.”
The message of #TheGraceLife has set me free from the bondage of The Law. I am so passionate about this because I know how damaging religion and religious activity can be.
There are people who love God, who have accepted Jesus as their Lord, who are forgiven of their sin, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, and who attend church every Sunday morning and every Wednesday night, wanting to please God, but they don’t see themselves as worthy of the things God has called them to do. The Holy Spirit tries His best to convince them of His love. He gives them dreams while they are sleeping. He gives them open vision while they are wide awake. He gives them revelation while they drive to and from work. He even has people call them on the phone to tell them what God revealed about them. But in the end, these people (who love God) cannot truly see themselves the way God sees them because they are too hung up on their flaws.
They love God, but their performance is holding them back from truly believing God to do what He keeps speaking to them about. They know God loves them, but they can’t believe what God believes about them because they make mistakes every now and then, and when they do, the devil beats them up (in their minds), and they beat themselves up (in their hearts). These people are NOT being held back by God. They are being held back by their performance. They just can’t believe that God wants to do what He wants to do in their lives, DESPITE their performance, not becuase of it. People like me try to preach #TheGraceLife, but their religious mindset does not allow them to believe that God is that good. They hear the gospel of grace, but for them, it seems too good to be true.
It is true. It is the love and grace of God. Please open your heart to it. If you keep living performance-based, you will never be good enough because breaking one rule is like breaking them all. Please embrace the grace of God. It will change you forever. I am a witness!
I will stop here. That is enough for today. Please meditate on what God, through the Apostle Paul and me, said to you today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, You sent Jesus to die for my sin. There was NO SIN in Him. You put my sin ON HIM! Jesus died in my stead. He was completely righteous, and there was no righteousness in me. You put His righteousness ON ME. Jesus took my sin. I now take His righteousness. I am not righteous because of what I do or what I fail to do. I am righteous because of what Jesus did.
Righteousness is a gift. I cannot work for a gift. All I can do is receive it. I do! I receive it by faith. In Christ Jesus, I receive an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. I am not right because I do right. I am right because I believe right. And since right believing leads to right living, I declare that I live my life by faith.
My faith taps into Your unearned grace every day, and I am able to impact this world for You! You live IN ME, and You work THROUGH ME. It has nothing to do with the fact that I am good. It was everything to do with the fact that YOU ARE GOOD! You use me by grace. I cooperate with You by faith. Together, we shall change the world! I enter this day knowing that GREATER IS COMING FOR ME because my confidence is in YOU! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
