Eph 2:1-10
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. ESV
Our only connection to God the Father is through the grace of God the Son, and the connection is made real and experiential by God the Holy Spirit. Thus we are included in the fellowship of the tiune God.
This real, grace based connecting is not only for the initial experience of salvation like when a match is needed only to start a fire but is then thrown away. This Spirit born fellowship connection we have with God through Christ is on a moment to moment basis for now and all eternity. We are joined to the eternal life of God through the grace of Jesus plus nothing.
Sin is any effort we make to skirt around Him in order to save ourselves.
Whatever forms your efforts at self-salvation take, the Gospel turns them all on their head, declaring them all empty and worthless. You can no more save yourself by good behavior than a stone can turn itself into an egg. The Gospel says Jesus plus nothing reconnects and reconciles us to God.
Repentance is when we totally give up trying to save ourselves by rebellion or by good behavior and we unconditionally surrender to what God has done for us through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. But what then, after this initial surrender?
Let me tell what can and often does happen. A subtle change comes after our initial surrender. We are tempted to disremember grace.
Somewhere we get the idea (probably because we heard it preached) that while grace has given us new life, the way to live the new life is by discovering and rightly applying the steps to victory, or learning certain principles which if practiced skillfully will lead to peace and joy. Learn the step, get the principles and you really have no further need of God. None of this is true, and no one that I know exactly says this out rightly, but the messages and teachings make us know that taking these steps and applying these principles is all up to us.
Tullian Tchividjian (the pastor who succeed James Kennedy at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida), writes;
“It subtly becomes all about us and what we do (which leads to slavery) instead of being all about Jesus and what he's done (which leads to freedom).”
We may not articulate all this theologically, but it sure comes out in the way we live. Those who practice this subtle form of legalism say: ‘I live the Christian life by the rules—rules that I establish for myself, as well as the rules I expect others to abide by.’"
Tchividjian goes on to say that these after-salvation legalists; “…develop specific requirements of behavior beyond what the Bible teaches, and they make observance of those requirements the test of holy living. It becomes their standard for judging the acceptability of others.”
Here is the great problem with these requirements; they provide us with a way to avoid acknowledging our very real deficiencies and inabilities, and this “way out” is why we are suckers to settle for a pseudo Christian life lived by doing steps and applying principles in order to achieve joy and victory. It allows us to live with the illusion that we can generate our own holiness. Just do apply principles and you don’t really need to interact with Jesus at all once you are saved.
Michael Horton refers to this as Christless Christianity , and in his book by the same title saying that legalism in its myriad forms is "…the default setting of the human heart: the religion of self-salvation."
Here are four reasons why is our flesh is attracted to living by rules and principles rather than by a vital and gracious life-giving connection through Christ?.
• First, because it is all about us and what we can do, and we like that.
• Second, and this derives from the first, at the core of all human systems of religion is the desire to control the gods and thus be in control of our own lives.
• Third, because living this way feeds our natural pride. As we abide by our self-established standards and rules we feel pretty good about ourselves, Of course we only pick the standards that are easy for US to keep.
• Fourth, what's especially fine about being in charge of our situation (though we wouldn't admit it) is that as we live by principles and steps we avoid the uncomfortable challenge of going through deep inner changes that come only by walking with Jesus.
In his book Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis points to the hidden and hellish danger of living by self-imposed rules as opposed to living by grace. First he says all these rules have only to do with external sins, and then he writes;
“As bad as external sins are, it is the inner ones that are the worse. A self-righteous, false fronted person who goes to church is closer to hell than a prostitute [who knows she is a sinner ].” Mere Christianity page 80.
Also in Mere Christianity Lewis says that individual Christians may have good reasons to not do or give up all sorts of things like …marriage, or meat, or coffee, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts telling his friends that they must give up these things in order to be holy or, “..starts looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.”
And then Lewis tells us how Gospel-of-grace living is radically different than practicing some form of self-effort kind of religion. (And, yes, this is now the third time I have laid this quote out in front of you.) Lewis writes saying;
“That [grace] is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or- if they think there is not- at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.”
The joy of life in Christ is that our deep inner sins of pride and hatred and anger and jealousy and envy fall away in the light of glory and grace.
In Christ we are like Noah in the ark. No matter what kind of storm is raging around us, we are preserved safe and whole unto the day of the Lord..
The joy of living life in Christ is that in Him we are the same person where ever we go. We don’t have to reinvent or shape-shift ourselves for each new setting because we have only one true life to live.
Living in Christ means, as we read in our Scripture reading, that we are seated with Him in heavenly places.
Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: KJV
Adam Clark looks at this idea of sitting together in heavenly place in Christ Jesus and says;
“By Christ … we received, not earned, but received forgiveness for our sins. Through Him we have been raised from the death of sin to a life of righteousness; and now we sit in heavenly places—we have a right to the kingdom of God and we can already celebrate the coming manifestation of His glory because we live in the glory of His grace.
Jesus Himself lifts the burden of self-salvation from us and says; Matt 11:29 Walk with me and work with me — watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language)
I’d like to close with the Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthian believers.
1 Cor 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." NIV
In Christ our Thanks Giving will abound both now and forever more. Amen.
