A Shock To The Religious

What is a shock to the religious? The answer is grace. When you start talking about grace, religious people become nervous. Why is it like that? Why not surrender to grace? A religious attitude always wants to cover up and patch weaknesses by acting righteous to look more “spiritual” but grace rebukes all hypocrisy and self-righteousness. God calls our own righteousness filthy rags …so why do we want to rely on our own self-performance? It’s time to get free from that.

Religion is described in 2 Timothy 3:5 as “having a form of godliness but denying its power”. The book of Galatians makes it clear that any gospel that is not based on God’s grace, is not a gospel at all; it’s a perversion. It also teaches us that anyone that preaches another gospel than the gospel of grace is accursed (Gal. 1:6-10). Grace is what causes us to reign in life (Rom. 5:17) and by living under grace sin has no longer dominion over us (Rom. 6:14). Only faith in God’s grace brings salvation (Eph. 2:8). GRACE UPSETS A RELIGIOUS MINDSET The derogatory term “hyper grace” is to be expected when you preach on grace. The Gospel of grace has always been highly contentious. Jesus’ first sermon is described as “gracious words proceeding out of his mouth” (Luke 4:22), and it caused such rage that the religious leaders wanted to throw Jesus over a cliff. Grace will always upset a religious mindset. If you want to be radical - preach about grace, because it gives no credit to self. Religion always wants to take credit for itself, but the Gospel gives all credit to Christ and His finished work, “that no flesh should glory”. GRACE IS ON A HIGHER LEVEL

We normally gain understanding of a topic by listening on a preacher or reading a book about a subject and we think we are so spiritual just because we can quote scriptures, but the Gospel of grace is on a higher level. It requires that the Holy Spirit himself reveals Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, “I neither received it by man nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:12). Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 11 that when we preach the gospel of grace, God takes wages off of the people, but some ministers has come away from the simplicity of Christ. There’s some that preaches another Jesus. Then he goes on to say that self-effort and religious performances looks like “righteousness”, but is actually from satan, who transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:13-15) and that our end will be “according to your works”. Pretty strong wording… The moment we rely on our own works we trust in our own ability rather than God’s and we will always end up in a mess because “all have sinned and fall short”. You don’t want to live with the stress of relying on your ability to pray, fast, make good choices, etc. You want to live in the revelation of grace as Paul taught to live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave Himself for you. (Gal 2:20) Paul lived by faith in Jesus and Jesus said “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) With other words - you can’t be righteous in your own strength. This idea that righteousness is based on our works is in opposition to the Scripture, which tells us that the strength of sin is the law. More rules and law means more sin. More grace means more victory. THIS IS THE SIMPLICITY OF JESUS Grace is indiscriminate. All God has is equally available to everyone by faith. Jesus’ disciples thought they could get an edge over others and asked, “What must we do that we may work the works of God?” Jesus responded, “Believe in the one God sent”. The Philippian jailor received the same answer when he asked, “What must I do to be saved?” - “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”.

This is offensive to some because it seems too simple. Have you ever thought that someone, who is less holy, seems to receive more of God’s blessings than you? Remember, people don’t receive because they are worthy, but because they believe. So, believe that Jesus has provided everything you need for your holiness and godliness. It’s yours! For some people this is too simple. They want to complicate things and be deeper and wiser than anyone else by adding their own works to deserve God’s blessing. Grace on the other hand is the blessing you don't deserve. It's an unmerited favor. The Law of Moses made it clear that if you are guilty in one area, you are guilty in all. No cherry picking of your favorite commandments. Jesus reiterated this by reminding those who tried to achieve righteousness by law that they have to keep every “jot and tittle”. (Mt 5:18). Righteousness is a gift and nothing you can earn yourself. Everything you earn yourself is self-righteousness. If you want to rely on your own self-effort you will always end up in disappointment because you won't go far in your own strength. NO MORE SELF-EFFORT

Run away from self-effort and run to Jesus! Self-effort will always lead to self-loathing, low self-esteem, cover ups, hypocrisy and everything that is contrary to true holiness. The Pharisees were under such a curse, teaching others to perform duties they themselves were not able to do. When we mix law and grace, we work against the Holy Spirit, because words that do not “impart grace to the hearers” grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:29). The moment you take your eyes off of yourself and focusing them on Jesus - that’s when victory comes your way. He’s your answer, He’s your strength, He’s your victory, He’s your everything. Receive His grace today!