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law keeping
How To Thrive After Being Crushed by the Church – Part 1
Are you someone who has grown up in church where performance defined who you were?
Where most days you were a miserable failure?
And love and acceptance were foreign concepts?
I have good news for you.
You didn’t grow up with the gospel.
You grew up with moralism (law).
The law is harsh. It beats you up. It tells you what you must do in order to please God (and others), but has no power to help you get there.
So you looked at your life and said, “I can’t do this,” and got depressed.
Or you admitted your failure, got furious, and walked away.
Here’s what happened to you.
You came into the church by faith in Jesus. He loved you so much he died for you. And you accepted his gift of salvation with gladness.
Then week after week you listened to preaching about moral behavior and living, and in a flash you plunged into despair because you didn’t measure up.
Your joy in Jesus went up in a puff of smoke. You even went so far to say that this Christian thing doesn’t work.
If you can relate to this, then here’s a question to ask yourself:
Is the cross and blood of Jesus sufficient to save you even while you are still sinful? Even while you continue to fail at living the Christian life?
You know what?
Heaven is filled with Christian failures! There aren’t any other kind of people there!
Jesus’ death on the cross and his shed blood for you is all you need.
Jesus himself will welcome and embrace you!
How’s that possible? It’s because God has given you the gift of the righteousness of Jesus. You had it the moment you came to faith.
It’s the only performance that counts!
Grab a hold of it and never let it go!
How Three Little Words Can Change Your Life
All world religions, no matter which one, have three words in common:
Get to work.
That is very bad news.
It means the responsibility is entirely on you to appease the god, to win his approval, to satisfy his demands.
And the worst news of all is:
You never know if you’re doing enough.
You have no confidence, no peace, no rest in your own work because you know it’s not perfect.
And the deity doesn’t help you either.
In fact, he’s silent.
In contrast, the gospel is utterly unique.
Christ’s three words are:
It is finished.
What is finished?
Everything you need in order to be reconciled to God the Father.
That is Good News!
1) Christ paid for all your sins so you could be forgiven. All your sins – the ones yesterday, the ones today, and the ones you’ll do tomorrow.
2) Christ appeased God’s wrath by becoming the sacrifice to atone for your sins.
3) Christ closed the enormous gap between you and God so now you have a Heavenly Father.
4) Christ, with his own life, paid for all your disobedience, transgressions, deliberate and unintentional sins, unbelief, and willful denial of God.
5) Christ satisfied God’s law by dying a death you should have died.
6) Christ paid the debt you owed God. You are now free from it.
Christ is the only true solution for your sin problem.
He did it all.
The job is done.
Why would you ever want to settle for anything else?
How To Be A Recovering Pharisee
Are you fussy, small-thinking, so engrossed in following the rules that your heart is brittle?
Of course not! Nobody wants to admit to that.
The truth is you and I are like that. It’s called Pharisaism and it’s a real problem. In some people it’s obvious, in others not so much, but all of us are affected by it.
6 Symptoms Of A Pharisee
1. Pharisaism is subtle. You don’t notice it so you don’t do anything to kill it.
2. It’s self-righteousness. Thinking better than other people.
3. It’s contempt for others who don’t live up to your standards. Looking down on others who aren’t as good as you.
4. It’s wrong priorities. Majoring on the minor details while missing the big picture of God’s grace and love in the gospel.
5. It’s not having a tender conscience. Being religious is more important than loving God.
6. It’s loving to tell others how to live. Then jumping all over them when they fail.
If you see yourself in these descriptions, you’re not alone! And you’ll want to know what to do about it.
3 Things That Won’t Help A Bit
1. You can’t learn your way out of it.
2. A good scolding won’t do it.
3. Being threatened until you quake won’t help either.
These three are aspects of the law and the law does not change the heart.
The solution lies elsewhere – in the gospel.
4 Ways To Fight Pharisaism With The Gospel
1. The Gospel tells us how bad we were. How much did Jesus suffer on the cross? His sufferings were infinite. Why did He suffer so much? Because He died in our place. What does this mean? It means our sin is infinite. ‘Sins’ can be counted—I lied once, stole twice, committed adultery three times. But ‘sin’, that native rejection of God, defies all calculation. The Gospel means we are thoroughly bad—not decent people in need of a hand, but sinners in need of a Savior!
2. The gospel tells us how needy we are still are. Where did Jesus go after dying on the cross and rising from the dead? He went to heaven. What’s he doing there? Hebrews 7:25 says he’s gone there to—
Make intercession for us.
He’s there praying for us. Why do you pray for someone? You pray for him because he needs something. This is why Jesus never stops praying for us, because we’re always in need. Now, it’s hard to square being in constant need with being proud of yourself or looking down on others, whose needs are no more than your own. The gospel means we are deeply and always dependent on God’s grace, and believing that will keep you from being a Pharisee.
3. The gospel reminds you that Jesus laid down His life as a ransom for many. That means you’ve got to love and respect your brothers and sisters in Christ, and let Jesus be the Lord of their consciences! Counsel them? Of course, but nitpick and micromanage them? No, not if the gospel has gotten into your heart.
4. The gospel saves you from being a Pharisee by telling you:
God loves you as you are, and thus you don’t have to pretend to be better than you are, and you don’t have to hunger for the praise of men.
That’s freedom!
Better Than Botox
You’re fixed.
You probably didn’t even know it.
That’s because you spend your life checking your spiritual pulse to see how you’re doing.
I do it. We all do it.
It goes like this:
Morning devotions? Check.
Prayed for family, friends and colleagues? Check.
Finished your bible study for the week? Check.
Attended church and helped usher? Check.
And when you fail, what happens? You feel guilty. Check.
You get the point.
You even do it with your personal stuff.
Did you go to the gym today? Check…er…no.
Did you eat your fruits and veggies for the day? Check. Well, maybe not. I hate spinach.
Did you drink eight glasses of water today? No, but I did have two caramel frapuccinos.
The truth is God loves you with or without a gym schedule.
Your biggest problem is not your weight, your hair color, or that bagel and cream cheese you just gobbled down behind closed doors.
It’s your sin, which separates you from God.
That’s your biggest problem and he fixed it for you.
And you didn’t even ask.
God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, to live a perfect life of obedience in accordance to the Law, not for his own sake because he was already perfect, but in your place. And then, he died on the cross in your place to pay the price for your sins to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
God forgives you because of Jesus.
You are a new person in Christ.
Isn’t that the best make-over you’ve ever heard of?
Messy Christians 