15-5

The Gospel Misunderstood

Some people think that work has everything to do with salvation, others think it has nothing to do with it. "Both are confused. Both are wrong. And until they get a right understanding of the gospel, they will never be a part of accomplishing the purpose of God." Some are prone to think, "I need to do more for God. I need to sell this possession and make this pledge in order to be right before God. Guilt will motivate their obedience, and action will be their obligation." If this is you, please hear this: You will never be radical enough. There is nothing you can DO to be accepted by God, and that is the good news of the gospel, it doesn't matter. Because God loves us so much, He sent Jesus to live a perfect life and give that life for us so that we can be made right with God. "The starting point of your radical life is your radical death-death to yourself and death to your every attempt to do enough before God."

I believe that with all my heart. My problem comes when so many of us use that as an excuse to not live out the faith we claim to have in Jesus. Scripture says that faith without works is dead. But I think we need to take a minute and figure out what 'works' we are talking about here. Over and over again throughout the scripture people are condemned for trying to earn their salvation through works. This is not what we are talking about, and that is not what James is talking about in his book of the Bible either. He (and we) are talking about "actions fueled by faith that bring great glory to God. Things such as "love for the needy, mercy for the poor, and care for the suffering that flow from faith in Christ." The truth of the matter is that "so-called faith without acts prompted by faith is a farce. Real faith always creates fruit."

The difference between the two kinds of works is that one is fueled by flesh in an attempt to earn a good standing with God, while the other is fueled by faith in order to bring glory to God. We should want to bring glory to God at every opportunity, after all He saved us even though there was nothing we could do to earn it! Therefore we do not work for God out of a sense of guilt, we have been declared not guilty before Him! We work for God out of a sense of gratitude and love. "We live sacrificially, not because we feel guilty, but because we have been loved greatly and now find satisfaction in sacrificial love for others. We live radically, not because we have to, but because we want to."

So we must avoid becoming a church of people who are constantly trying to earn their salvation through works motivated by guilt. We must also avoid becoming a church of people who defend the gospel but don't demonstrate it.

Enjoy the Journey