“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”
Ephesians 1:4-8
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:8-10
God saved us by His grace, sending His One and only Son to take upon Himself ALL our sins and ALL the wrath that we deserve. More than that, He made us holy, blameless and righteous in His sight. To top it off, He adopted us into His family as His “sons” and made us co-heirs with Christ.
It is by faith in His Son alone that we receive His grace. Nothing we can do can ever make us deserve any of it. It is not our good works that makes us acceptable to Him. It is by faith in His Grace personified in Jesus Christ.
In Christ, God recreates us for good works. They are the fruit of our salvation.
All Christians know this but a lot feel down, discouraged, unaccepted if we don’t live our lives perfectly. We know that we are saved by His grace through faith but somehow we tend to believe that how we live our lives and stay in God’s favor is based on our performance. The moment we “fail” God, the moment we stumble in sin, the moment we fall short of the expectations of others, we somehow believe that we fall out of the grace of God – that we somehow become unacceptable. We think that God is angry with us; that He is displeased with us.
A lot of people respond to this in two ways. Some try to work harder and perform better to get back to be in the graces and favor of God. They soon get disappointed as they encounter failure after failure. These are the people that get burnt-out in their serving God. The second response is that some people, feeling unworthy, just give up and continue living lives do not reflect the life of Jesus in them.
Both groups of people fail to realize the truth in the following verses:
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Colossians 2:6-7
“For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Romans 1:17
How we continue in our salvation is exactly how we started in it. God started it, not us. Therefore it is He who will keep us, not ourselves. It is by the grace of God through faith in Christ, from first to last. If it is NOT our performance that made us acceptable, then neither does our performance or LACK OF IT make us unacceptable. A child’s performance is not the basis of his or her acceptance and membership in that family. He or she is accepted because he or she is a child of the parents. In Christ, you are a child of God.
God is NOT angry with you. He does not reject you. So you can stop trying to earn His favor. In Christ, you already have it. If you feel condemned because of lack of performance, look to Christ and see that He has already paid for your acceptance with His own blood. He only looks at you with love. He already forgave all of your sins and shortcomings two thousand years ago. He does not condemn you.
What then about the good works that Christ prepared for us? What then about the spiritual fruit or the Christ-like character that is expected to be seen in the lives of all believers? Don’t fix your eyes on these things. Focus your eyes on Christ’s love and live in light of that love. You would soon see that Christ-like character and good works will shine through your lives as you live in Christ and let Him live His life through you.
“And He said cast your burdens upon Me
Those who are heavily laiden
Come to Me all of you who are tired
Of carrying heavy loads
For the yoke I will give you is easy
And my burden is light
Come to me and I will give you rest”
Lift Up Your Hands by Basil Valdez
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Related posts:
The cure for spiritual burn-out and condemnation
Faithful to the faithless
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Related Podcasts:
ALL OUT Series Week 1: No Striving
ALL OUT Series Week 1: (Delivered in Victory Los Banos) No Striving
ALL OUT Series Week 2: No Chains
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agree! for me, His love is the starting point of everything. I come to him everyday because I’ve realized how much he loves and accepts me regardless of what I do or fail to do. And though i have shortcomings, i’m glad that i don’t have to feel condemned because of the cross, which is my assurance that i’m completely accepted. Since I no longer need to perform, i have the freedom to do good works. It’s not an obligation anymore. It just overflows from a grateful heart.
Celebrating the truth in Ephesians 2:8-10.
If believers stay on the word, meditate asking the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) to teach the Word nobody would miss the crux of the matter.
It is sad that many sincerely receive God’s grace, then maintain grace by working on in till the finish line believing that Christ work on the cross is not enough. So they labor from ministry to ministry, missions and giving here and there to maintain their salvation.
Why would the church believe so? Is it because of the world view that nothing is free? No pain no gain? So the rush and business on ministry work but loosing time on fellowship with Jesus His word and keeping still listening to God’s ministering and our walking in obedience.
Oh people perish for lack of knowledge! (Hosea). Preach Pastor Ernie the Enemy is so busy in this area of deception but the word of God sets us free! John 10:10.
Glory to Jesus!
Thank you for this encouraging post.
Thank you also for letting me know that you were encouraged. It is my prayer that people get impacted by the message just as the message has impacted me. Take care and hope you follow this blog. You are blessed.
We don’t need to strive for what we already have… Jesus is enough.
So true. Jesus is enough and more than enough
“In Christ, God recreates us for good works. They are the fruit of our salvation.”
Hello, Pastor Ernie,
I was once condemned by a brother who asked me how many my “fruits” were. He was referring to the number of disciples I have. He started asking that question since I stopped attending our Government of 12 meeting in the Church. I really feel condemned whenever our he checks the number of disciples I had for the whole week.
I really thought that the fruit of our salvation is the number of disciples we are discipling. But, after reading your blog entry, I am now at peace to say that good works in Christ not the number of disciples are the “fruit” of my salvation.
Blessed to meet you at the National Grace Conference.
Stay blessed, Pastor.
Deborah
Hi, Deborah. Sorry to hear about your experience but I guess we all have gone through something similar. Someone the other night also told me about a similar experience. I told him that not all people are at the same point of their journey in understanding grace. Just hold on to the Word that says that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is true whether the Devil, other people or even our own hearts condemn us. Let us pray that they understand grace even more. We can be more understanding of them because we ourselves were in the same position ourselves before.
Regarding the fruit of salvation, the Bible, in different places refers to a few things. For one, good works. Galatians talks about the fruit of the Spirit which is Christlike character: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I do believe, the Apostle Paul also refers to other believers as our fruit. It’s not just one thing.
Regardless, you need not feel condemned because that’s just exactly what these are: fruit. You don’t work on the fruit. Our “responsibility”, or rather I should say our joy, is to abide in the vine by fixing our eyes on Jesus. It is He, the True Vine, who allows the branches, that’s us, to bear fruit. Bearing fruit is not our job. That job belongs to God.
Hope this helps. You are blessed.
Ernie