I feel irritated when a store advertises a significant discount to entice you to come into the store. When you arrive, the salesclerk says the product is either out of stock or there are other stipulations that must be met before the discount will be applied. This sales technique is often called false advertising or bait and switch. The taste it leaves in my mouth is not desirable. I do not want to do business with them because I cannot trust anything they may do.
I highly suspect some pray to receive God’s wonderful free gift of grace consisting of eternal life. However, after they have been coming to church for a time, they are virtually given a list of things they must do in order to live a Christian lifestyle. Consequently, they begin trying to live up to those qualifications. Over time they become weary of trying because when they take one step forward, they end up falling back one or even two steps. Eventually, they come to believe it is impossible to live as they were told and succumb to talking the acceptable talk but not walking the walk as they have seen so many others do.
The problem is two-fold. In the first place, trying harder to be a Christ-follower feeds our sin nature. We soon learn nothing is free in life. You only get what you pay for. And working for something makes a person at least feel like they are earning a good relationship with God. Second, few in the church world ever grasp the truth that salvation or heaven is NOT about earning anything, nor is it about feeling obligated to do so in order to get to the good place after you die. The problem with this self-discipline or willpower Christianity is that it puts you back into the center of the equation. If you are able to succeed in checking off a few things on the list of accomplishments that qualify you to receive God’s extraordinary gifts, you pat yourself on the back. You become proud of these accomplishments which lead you to look down on those who continue to fail in their efforts to be holy. Furthermore, if you slip up on what you thought you had accomplished, you berate yourself. When that happens, you are prone to put on a mask of righteousness and go deeper into living a hypocritical life. No wonder so many in the church wear masks!
Biblical reality on God’s grace is this. Grace can only be received, it can never be earned, no matter how much effort is put into it. Beating yourself with the proverbial whip to try to make the flesh be holy can NOT help you. It only hurts you. Grace is given when a person acknowledges their utter helplessness and humbly asks the Spirit to flow His life through them. Like a fruit tree, the fruit of righteousness naturally grows. Paul refers to it in Galatians 5:22-23. It is possible to manipulate or otherwise coerce a person into right behavior or right doctrine. However, unless the heart humbly recognizes its desperate need of God’s powerful grace from salvation to physical death, no authentically righteous fruit can grow out of it.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT2) So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it. Romans 9:16 (NLT2) You will recognize them (authentic Christ-follower/prophets) by their fruits: they do not gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do they? Matthew 7:16 LEB