Neither Passivity, nor Legalism, will be Present in Heaven
It is essential to understand the way the Christian life works. It is actually very simple, but it requires continual effort on the part of the believer. It is a yoke and a burden, though light and easy. It satisfies anyone willing to try it.
Jesus is the pattern we are to follow. The standard of life He exemplified is the minimum requirement to live with Him. Jesus didn't show us the pinnacle of obedience, and then tell us to expect a lesser expression of it in ourselves. Never.
When Jesus spoke of His brethren... His friends... He talked of even GREATER expressions of godliness:
John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
17 “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
20 “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
Search the scriptures, you will never find a passage where Jesus lays out a theology of Him being an amazing and unachievable example, and for us to "do our best." Never. The concept of expecting less and just doing our best is antichrist. It's evil.
We are called to a minimum of the same walk Jesus expressed in the earth:
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Without the full counsel of scripture, the truth I am describing would be a miserable burden to the human soul. You could never be perfect without a miracle.
That is the point. God refuses to give man the credit for holiness or salvation. All the glory will go to His Son, who paid everything for our salvation. It takes God to love God. This is what grace is: the power to do what God calls us to do.
"False grace" is knowing that, but then never APPROPRIATING grace in your own life. False grace would be similar to walking in to a restaurant, sitting down, being handed a menu, picking out an amazing entree, then never ordering, walking back out on to the street and telling everyone how wonderful the meal was inside! You wouldn't be full of good food, you'd be a liar! Many in the Church do this though. They claim they are without sin and tells others they should be, too... Yet their lives are full of compromise and failure in the heart standards that are REQUIRED.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you go to a restaurant and say you have no need of food, you will walk out hungry! Being at a restaurant doesn't make you full... Eating at a restaurant does!
Yes, amazing food was available, you could have ordered anytime, it was as simple as admitting you were hungry and asking for what you wanted, and paying the cost. BUT, if you never took those steps ^, you never actually ate. False grace, or taking the grace of God in vain, as Paul describes it, means you believe the principles of grace, but you never act on them.
2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
For my little analogy, the waiter is the Holy Spirit, the chef is the Father, what is on the menu is Jesus' perfect personality... the fruit of His Spirit, the works He did, and the humility He did them in. This is available to anyone who comes into His restaurant, which would be the Church.
Taking the grace of God in vain comes in two forms: Passivity (doing nothing, but saying it is done) or legalism (trying to do everything).
Passivity is never asking for anything and assuming it will magically come to you. Passivity is born from a false belief that you could somehow "eat by osmosis.". That will never work because it violates the basic principles of love: God made you to choose if you wanted Him. You have to choose salvation, and then you have to choose all the sanctification you'd like to eat. God is never going to make you order, or eat... he didn't even make you choose salvation!
Luke 11:9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
11 “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
12 “Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
To believe the menu is already yours because you believe in Jesus is ASSUMPTION, one of the enemies of faith. To ask for the items on the menu, believing God rewards those who diligently seek Him, is faith.
Passivity is a scheme of the enemy to keep you from eating. It is pride cloaked in assumption, which is not faith.
The other ditch is legalism. Consider legalism this way:
It would be incredibly offensive, messy, and unwelcome to walk in to a 5 star restaurant, look at the menu, then pull out your camp stove and try to recreate what was on the menu. Not only do you lack the proper tools to become Holy, to try to prepare your own food is a mockery of the extravagantly high price Jesus paid for you to eat in His house. No restaurant owner wants outsiders squatting in their dining room, making a mess, and then arrogantly thinking they could do what the chef has invested everything to do well for His patrons.
Legalism doesn't trust in the work God does. It lacks the humility to simply ask for incredibly valuable perfection, and instead grits it's teeth and tries to replace Jesus with human strength and will. It is one of the highest forms of arrogance to believe you could ever earn what God gives freely. It is just as arrogant as assuming you don't have to ask for what God wants to give.
Neither passivity, nor legalism, will be present in heaven. Those who pass through the gates of the New Jerusalem will see an impossibly high standard God calls us to, admit their own weakness to ever achieve it, see the amazing generosity of God to provide it, and spend themselves asking for it... All the while enduring the ridicule from passive and legalistic (read "worldly") believers. This is called a cross. Unless you take it up and follow Jesus in the simple obedience that is a demonstration on earth of salvation, you cannot be Jesus' disciple.
Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28 “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—
29 “lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 “Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 “Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.
33 “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
35 “It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
If you really do what Jesus says... If you really have faith... Not legalism or assumption, but genuine faith... you will gather with others and pray day and night until Jesus comes to right the wrongs... Starting with YOUR own disobedience.
If you are truly humbly appropriating grace, and not wasting it, You will never stop repenting until Jesus sees you have enjoyed all He has bought for you to eat. You would leave nothing on the table to be wasted.
Luke 18:7 “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
8“I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
The disciples did this for 10 days, the fire fell, the wind blew, thousands got saved at a time, and they went back to asking and receiving. They kept asking for more of Jesus until the day they died. Read the Book of Acts and the Epistles and it is plain to see:
Acts 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,
45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Jesus is the pattern we are to follow. The standard of life He exemplified is the minimum requirement to live with Him. Jesus didn't show us the pinnacle of obedience, and then tell us to expect a lesser expression of it in ourselves. Never.
When Jesus spoke of His brethren... His friends... He talked of even GREATER expressions of godliness:
John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
17 “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
20 “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
Search the scriptures, you will never find a passage where Jesus lays out a theology of Him being an amazing and unachievable example, and for us to "do our best." Never. The concept of expecting less and just doing our best is antichrist. It's evil.
We are called to a minimum of the same walk Jesus expressed in the earth:
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Without the full counsel of scripture, the truth I am describing would be a miserable burden to the human soul. You could never be perfect without a miracle.
That is the point. God refuses to give man the credit for holiness or salvation. All the glory will go to His Son, who paid everything for our salvation. It takes God to love God. This is what grace is: the power to do what God calls us to do.
"False grace" is knowing that, but then never APPROPRIATING grace in your own life. False grace would be similar to walking in to a restaurant, sitting down, being handed a menu, picking out an amazing entree, then never ordering, walking back out on to the street and telling everyone how wonderful the meal was inside! You wouldn't be full of good food, you'd be a liar! Many in the Church do this though. They claim they are without sin and tells others they should be, too... Yet their lives are full of compromise and failure in the heart standards that are REQUIRED.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you go to a restaurant and say you have no need of food, you will walk out hungry! Being at a restaurant doesn't make you full... Eating at a restaurant does!
Yes, amazing food was available, you could have ordered anytime, it was as simple as admitting you were hungry and asking for what you wanted, and paying the cost. BUT, if you never took those steps ^, you never actually ate. False grace, or taking the grace of God in vain, as Paul describes it, means you believe the principles of grace, but you never act on them.
2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 6:1 We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
2 For He says:
“In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
2 For He says:
“In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
For my little analogy, the waiter is the Holy Spirit, the chef is the Father, what is on the menu is Jesus' perfect personality... the fruit of His Spirit, the works He did, and the humility He did them in. This is available to anyone who comes into His restaurant, which would be the Church.
Taking the grace of God in vain comes in two forms: Passivity (doing nothing, but saying it is done) or legalism (trying to do everything).
Passivity is never asking for anything and assuming it will magically come to you. Passivity is born from a false belief that you could somehow "eat by osmosis.". That will never work because it violates the basic principles of love: God made you to choose if you wanted Him. You have to choose salvation, and then you have to choose all the sanctification you'd like to eat. God is never going to make you order, or eat... he didn't even make you choose salvation!
The Holy Spirit will bring as much love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control as you'd like, but He won't bring them if you don't ask for them:
Luke 11:9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
11 “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
12 “Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
To believe the menu is already yours because you believe in Jesus is ASSUMPTION, one of the enemies of faith. To ask for the items on the menu, believing God rewards those who diligently seek Him, is faith.
Passivity is a scheme of the enemy to keep you from eating. It is pride cloaked in assumption, which is not faith.
The other ditch is legalism. Consider legalism this way:
It would be incredibly offensive, messy, and unwelcome to walk in to a 5 star restaurant, look at the menu, then pull out your camp stove and try to recreate what was on the menu. Not only do you lack the proper tools to become Holy, to try to prepare your own food is a mockery of the extravagantly high price Jesus paid for you to eat in His house. No restaurant owner wants outsiders squatting in their dining room, making a mess, and then arrogantly thinking they could do what the chef has invested everything to do well for His patrons.
Legalism doesn't trust in the work God does. It lacks the humility to simply ask for incredibly valuable perfection, and instead grits it's teeth and tries to replace Jesus with human strength and will. It is one of the highest forms of arrogance to believe you could ever earn what God gives freely. It is just as arrogant as assuming you don't have to ask for what God wants to give.
Neither passivity, nor legalism, will be present in heaven. Those who pass through the gates of the New Jerusalem will see an impossibly high standard God calls us to, admit their own weakness to ever achieve it, see the amazing generosity of God to provide it, and spend themselves asking for it... All the while enduring the ridicule from passive and legalistic (read "worldly") believers. This is called a cross. Unless you take it up and follow Jesus in the simple obedience that is a demonstration on earth of salvation, you cannot be Jesus' disciple.
Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28 “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—
29 “lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 “Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 “Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.
33 “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
35 “It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
If you really do what Jesus says... If you really have faith... Not legalism or assumption, but genuine faith... you will gather with others and pray day and night until Jesus comes to right the wrongs... Starting with YOUR own disobedience.
If you are truly humbly appropriating grace, and not wasting it, You will never stop repenting until Jesus sees you have enjoyed all He has bought for you to eat. You would leave nothing on the table to be wasted.
Luke 18:7 “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
8“I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
The disciples did this for 10 days, the fire fell, the wind blew, thousands got saved at a time, and they went back to asking and receiving. They kept asking for more of Jesus until the day they died. Read the Book of Acts and the Epistles and it is plain to see:
Acts 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,
45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
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