I don’t understand any Christian who thinks he or she can be anything but a grace-alone Christian. I mean there are just some sins I just can’t not commit. No, there’s not a typo or grammatical error in the previous sentence. I meant it exactly the way I wrote it. I need all the grace and forgiveness from God that I can get. Let’s think about it for a minute. The Ten Commandments are hard enough to comply with. However, Jesus then came along and made things a whole lot tougher.
Remember the rich young ruler? He asked Jesus what he had to do in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied that he needed to obey the Ten Commandments. Had it been me, I would have quit while I was ahead and gone away feeling justified. However, he told Jesus that he had indeed kept the commandments from his youth, and Jesus did not dispute his claim. However, Jesus then informed him of the one thing that he lacked – that he should sell all of his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow Him. Of course, he didn’t want to that, so he went away sad. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it either.
Of course, the young man's problem was that he came to Jesus looking for affirmation and justification, based on his works. But Jesus wasn't going to play his game. Jesus knew what he was after. He also knew how attached this fellow was to his riches. He could keep the Ten Commandments, but he could not take the next step of giving up his possessions. Therefore, his works could only take him so far, but no further. Now, if he had come to Jesus looking for grace, he would have no doubt gotten his wish.
And there was another incident in which Jesus said that it is not good enough to just avoid the acts of murder and adultery. I've never committed murder or adultery, and I believe I could live out the rest of my life without ever committing those two sins. But Jesus comes along and says that if you get so angry at someone that you wish ill to them (even temporarily), you are guilty of murder. He also said that if a man lusts after a woman, he is guilty of committing adultery with her. Now that puts me on the hot seat. Like I said before, there are some bad things I just can’t not do, and Jesus uncovers two of them here. It would be impossible for me to not get extremely angry at someone once in a while. Likewise, with all the attractive ladies (both single and married) that I come in contact with and see on TV on a daily basis, it would be impossible for me to not to lust after them once in a while.
There are some of God’s laws that I have great difficulty obeying because I’m just too fearful, lazy, selfish, and prideful. In other words, there are just some things I just ain’t gonna do and other things I just ain’t gonna refrain from doing, no matter how hard I might try to do the opposite. I guess you could say that I'm not into that whole purpose driven life thing. But I don't need to live a perfect life because Jesus has already done it on my behalf. That's what gives Him the authority to shed all of that grace and forgiveness on me. What about you? Can you obey everything God commands? Do you depend on your own good works for salvation? Or are you a grace-alone Christian?
Comments