The book of Proverbs says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but it’s way leads to death.” (Prov. 14:12) I believe this “way that seems right” to us, in our fallen mindset, is the way of religion and works.
In modern western Christianity, we still haven’t seen that our beloved Trinity is SO GOOD that They’ve given us all things unconditionally.
Religion makes too much sense to us. Striving for blessing makes too much sense to us. “Pressing in” through some spiritual act, or prayer, or worship, or even faith; it’s become the bread & butter of the western mindset.
It is understandable.
In every area of the world we usually get more if we do more.
If you practice more in sports, you have greater success.
If you do more at your job you often get promoted and make more money.
This way seems right to us.
But, the kingdom of God doesn’t work that way.
Our God is a God of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE AND GRACE!
The Trinity never required a thing from one another in order to bless one another!“He who did not withhold even His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us, will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” - Romans 8:32
We absolutely need to BEHOLD the beauty of our Triune God of Grace who only know how to give and give and give without condition.Western Christian folk religion has traumatized us by making all of the most important things in life conditional upon our performance and behavior. But, our beautiful Jesus communicates something completely different.
Early church leader, Clement of Rome, said it this way:
“We are not justified of ourselves or by our wisdom or insight or religious devotion or the holy deeds we have done, but by that faith by which almighty God has justified all men from the very beginning.”
Paul, the apostle, took it further:
“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” - 1 Corinthians 1:27-30
And…
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…” - Ephesians 1:3-4a
Our beautiful God gave us ALL THINGS, a right relationship with God, wisdom, holy hearts, and every single blessing heaven has FOR FREE in Jesus Christ!
Somehow in the Western church, even with all our talk of Grace and forgiveness and unconditional love, we have missed this.
Almost every conversation you have with a Christian will eventually comeback to what you need to do to be blessed. Or what “those people” need to change. Billboards that shout, “GET RIGHT WITH GOD,” and sermons filled with fear and guilt about how we’re not doing enough, they completely miss the Gospel.
“The true reason for this opposition is that it opposes the pride of man. He therefore opposes it. There is indeed something very striking in the perverse ingenuity with which he endeavors to dilute the medicinal virtue of the Gospel. He must have self to lean on, and so when he is obliged to surrender his own works, he resorts to his own faith as his prop. But this is still self… And surely this is the chief reason why the Gospel contains so many evident declarations on the part of God that beside Him there is no Savior…” - Thomas Erskine
We have even turned faith into the surcharge for grace. It is not.
Jesus Christ alone is our Savior, and the “one faith” spoken of in Ephesians chapter four is his faith. Galatians 2:20 in several translations indicates that it is Christ’s faith, standing in as our vicarious representative that appropriates all of God’s blessings to all of humanity!
So then, what is left for us??? What is our role? What must we do to be saved?
Nothing! It’s all a free gift all the way through.
Yes, Romans chapter 10 says that we must confess and believe!
But, that is merely a response to the free gift.
You won’t experience salvation if you don’t believe that it’s true, anymore tha a billionaire won’t live like a billionaire if he doesn’t believe that his bank account is full of money!
And, salvation is far more than “going to heaven someday after we die.”
There is nothing about going to heaven after we die in the Bible. Look for yourself!
Salvation is union with God which produces having every blessing in heaven. Health, wholeness, removal of selfishness, being full of love, joy, peace, and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, prosperity, wisdom, and every good thing.
The word for salvation in Greek is sozo. It includes being restored to all those things. This is what we have in Christ!
It’s all a free gift!!!
“There is a sense in which the doctrine of (free salvation) is a very dangerous doctrine, dangerous, I mean, in the sense that it can be misunderstood. It exposes a man to this particular charge (of preaching a “cheap grace.”) Nobody has ever brought this charge against the Church of Rome, but it was brought frequently against Martin Luther; indeed that was precisely what the Church of Rome said about the preaching of Martin Luther. They said, ‘This man who was a priest has changed the doctrine in order to justify his own marriage and his own lust’, and so on. ‘This man’, they said, ‘is an antinomian; and that is heresy.’ That is the very charge they brought against him. It was also brought against George Whitefield two hundred years ago. It is the charge that formal dead Christianity … has always brought against this startling, staggering message, that God ‘justifies the ungodly’, and that we are saved, not by anything that we do, but in spite of it, entirely and only by the grace of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” - Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
What Christ has done in freely giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness is a scandal that challenges us every day in this world of earning and pride and competition, but may we learn to simply enjoy the Gift!
Hearts are dying for unconditional Love all over the world… and Trinity is this Love. May we see the Light and get over ourselves, extending the party of the extravagant Father to every prodigal and every elder brother. Everything in Papa’s house is ours!!!
“Salvation is not some felicitous state to which we can lift ourselves by our own bootstraps after the contemplation of sufficiently good examples. It is an utterly new creation into which we are brought by our death in Jesus’ death and our resurrection in his. It comes not out of our own best efforts, however well-inspired or successfully pursued, but out of the shipwreck of all human efforts whatsoever.” - Robert F. Capon
Matt Spinks - Author, Speaker, and Director of The Firehouse Projects
My body is not the Decider of healing/health or not. The body and blood of Christ Jesus is the DECIDER...
All gifts are free; are they not? I've never heard of someone saying anything like "Merry Christmas! Here, this is for you -- it's a free gift!"
The term reminds me too much of all the advertising ploys of receiving a "free gift" with purchase. Perhaps this is why many people who hear it are suspect.
Our loving God simply offers us a gift, and they would be delighted if we would accept it with a "thank you" and enjoy it. 🙂