You’re probably aware that
Christians everywhere recently
celebrated Christ’s
coming to earth. But did you
know that there
are actually two
competing views within
Christianity
as to why Jesus even came? One essentially
says that
Christ came to
make demands on us, the other
that Christ
came to free us from demands that
already existed. One is that
He came to ask you to
DO something, the
other is that
He DID something for you.
One verse I really like that
expresses the correct
concept is John 3:17 – “For God did not
send the Son into
the world to
judge the world, but
that the
world might be saved through
Him.”
Systematically,
one theory is known as “works”, and the
other “grace.” The works concept,
actually much more popular amongst
churchgoers, is very similar to other
world religions, while the grace concept
is completely novel. The works concept
says that man
must earn their
way to God by being a good person, while the
grace concept says the
way to God is an undeserved gift
provided by God Himself. The works
concept is very similar to
what we experience in many facets
of life such as business relationships, or
school. If you work hard, do well, and achieve
excellence, you get a good grade, a job, a
raise, etc. Those who ascribe to
the “works” concept
assume that
since so much of life is merit-based, why would
one’s moral and spiritual performance not
matter to
God? On the
other hand, in the
grace concept, God is viewed more in relational
terms.
He is like a Father that
loves you unconditionally, and nothing
you can do as a child of God can affect your standing
with Him.
If you have a church background, which one would you say
your church taught?
The “works” concept
generally says that
what Jesus did for mankind, with
His coming to earth
and death for our sins, was necessary but
not enough
for man to be able to
make it to
God’s level; to some extent
man must also do their
part to make
it to heaven,
eternal life, righteousness,
etc.
The “grace” concept says that
what Jesus did for us was “enough” – final,
complete, finito! As our sins have already been paid for and
salvation has already been secured, God can
credit His righteousness
to anyone who would rely on Him for it.
So we do have a role to fulfill, but
it as a passive role to
accept what
Christ has done on our behalf.
I have a quick analogy I call “the
dishwashing analogy” that
illustrates the
concept well.
It is as though
you are responsible for cleaning the dishes,
yet the amount
of dishes to clean is so great
that as you
continue to
load the dishwasher, you get
hungry, have to eat,
and create more dirty
dishes. In fact,
for arguments sake let’s
say that the
rate at which
you create dirty
dishes is greater than
the rate at
which you are able to load them. You admit that
it is your responsibility
to clean the
dishes, yet you have no ability
in yourself to ever complete
the job.
Dismayed, you finally give up.
Hours later, your brother
comes to you and says, “I have good news for
you – though you were unable to
complete your responsibility
of loading the dishwasher, someone with
superior skill has come into the
house and has done the dishes for you.”
If you are in this position,
you actually have a couple options,
though only one is reasonable. You could continue
trying to
clean the dishes, which would be extremely
foolish, both because they
are already clean, and because all you ever succeeded at
was creating more dirty
dishes. The other
option is that
you could rely on the work of another. This is what
it means to trust
in Christ.
You rely on the work of another.
I will leave it to
the Bible to
drive the point
home: “Now to the
one who works, wages are not credited
as a gift, but
as an obligation. However, the
one who does not work but
trusts God
who justifies the
ungodly, their faith
is credited as righteousness.”
(Romans 4:4-5)
Religion / Works
|
Christianity / Grace
|
Do – all about what you do for
God
(Galatians
2:21, Romans 10:4)
|
Done
– All about
what Christ has done for you. (Romans 4:5)
|
Merit-
rewarded/punished
based on your moral/spiritual performance
|
Grace
– Rewarded/punished
based on Jesus Christ’s performance and what you think of it.
|
Costs (Romans 6:23a)
|
Free
(Romans
6:23b)
|
Humans
add to salvation
|
Nothing left for you to do. God already did everything.
|
Salvation accomplished by human
effort
(“works”
– Ephesians 2:9)
|
Salvation accomplished by the individual relying on what God has done
(“Faith” – eph 2:8)
|
“Hope
so” Salvation. No certainty.
|
“Know
so” Salvation. Know with certainty!
|
MUST
boast in self – look at what I did. Check out my validating performance record, my
resume of good deeds.
|
Boasting
only in Christ
– look at what God did even though I didn’t deserve it.
|
Serve
God out of Fear - Fear of Negative consequences is motivator for good behavior.
|
Serve
God out of Love - already blessed, position of gratitude fuels behavior.
|
Dead
works – works
independent of God’s provision (Gal 5).
|
Faith
works – works
done by faith through the Holy Spirit, manifesting itself in the fruit of the
Spirit (Galatians 5)
|
Law
focused - do
things for God out of obligation and assume you have the power to do so.
|
Dead
to the Law (Romans 7) – relies on God to do what he cannot do on their own through Christ’s resurrection life.
|
