Walking in God's Favor.

People who hold to a performance behavior as the way to a relationship with God believe that "good behavior leads to God's favor" and "bad behavior leads to God's disfavor", as if what God thinks of people or the way He treats people is based on them and their performance.

However, what God thinks of me or the way He treats me is not based on my doing. My focusing on my doing to gain God's favor causes me to be obsessed with my performance and give rise to self-righteousness and hinders me from seeing and understanding what God has done that disqualifies my performance as a way to gain His acceptance or favor. The Gospel is not what I can do or should do for Jesus, it is based on what Jesus has already done for me and is doing through me.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:13-15)

When we create rules for ourselves to please God, we become parasitical legalistic and rebellious. On the other hand, Grace provides the power for us to walk in obedience because our relationship is love based not performance based.

Religion provides a bunch of rules to follow. Grace empowers us to follow the way of love...the way of Jesus. For us to walk in God's favor we must live in Grace.

Don't fall into the religious trap of trying to earn God's favor...you cannot earn what is already yours.
Photo: Walking in God's Favor. People who hold to a performance behavior as the way to a relationship with God believe that "good behavior leads to God's favor" and "bad behavior leads to God's disfavor", as if what God thinks of people or the way He treats people is based on them and their performance. However, what God thinks of me or the way He treats me is not based on my doing. My focusing on my doing to gain God's favor causes me to be obsessed with my performance and give rise to self-righteousness and hinders me from seeing and understanding what God has done that disqualifies my performance as a way to gain His acceptance or favor. The Gospel is not what I can do or should do for Jesus, it is based on what Jesus has already done for me and is doing through me. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:13-15) When we create rules for ourselves to please God, we become parasitical legalistic and rebellious. On the other hand, Grace provides the power for us to walk in obedience because our relationship is love based not performance based. Religion provides a bunch of rules to follow. Grace empowers us to follow the way of love...the way of Jesus. For us to walk in God's favor we must live in Grace. Don't fall into the religious trap of trying to earn God's favor...you cannot earn what is already yours.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DO NOT FORSAKE THE ASSEMBLING OF YOURSELVES TOGETHER! by David Yeubanks

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" (Hebrews 10:25), is a common verse cited by Christians who believe that if you're not attending weekly meetings or plugged in a church denomination that you are somehow out of sync with Scripture and, for all practical purposes, "backsliding". Some refer to the out of church crowd as rebels, or the walking wounded and this verse is often given as the prescription. But is "attending church" really what the author of Hebrews had in mind here? YES THE BIBLE SAY’S NOT TO FORSAKE THE ASSEMBLING TOGETHER? NOTICE IT DOES NOT SAY DO NOT FORSAKE THE "ASSEMBLY" OR CHURCH BUILDING. First of all, it is essential that we understand the meaning of the word "church" as it is used in the Bible. These comments, while being historically and biblically sound, are not meant to suggest that Christians should not meet together, share fellowship, pray or preach the Word of God. If that is the conclusion
Read more

A Bloggers Take on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and "Hell".

Image
HAPPY DADS AND THE HORRORS OF HELL by Jeff Turner Jonathan Edwards once said the following words: “Reprobate infants are vipers of vengeance, which Jehovah will hold over hell, in the tongs of his wrath, till they turn and spit venom in his face!” Elsewhere, Edwards asked the question: “Can the believing father in Heaven be happy with his unbelieving children in Hell?” Now, a bit of clarification: Edwards is not referring to God when he speaks of the “believing father in Heaven”. Rather, he is speaking an earthly father who enters Heaven, while His children are sentenced to an eternity in Hell. One would assume that Edwards’ answer to this question would be something akin to, “Nay! And a thousand times nay!”. Unfortunately, his answer was as follows: “…it [the sight of his children in Hell] will increase rather than diminish his bliss.” To be honest with you, I’m not sure if I’ve ever read more demonic, and putrid words in all of my life. I have a level of respec
Read more

The Abusive Tool of Fear-Mongering.

Image
  Fear mongering is an abusive tool used by religion which cripples and limits one's spiritual growth to mature to the full stature of Christ. The fear mongering propaganda that is used as a means to get people saved speaks volumes about the quality of love used to try and scare people to become Christ followers. The scriptures declare that is is the “goodness of God that leads to repentance.” Another characteristic of  fear mongering believers is that they believe that natural disasters are God’s doing and are warnings or punishment for the sin of sinning people. Their sin consciousnesses has blurred their God consciousnesses to where they see God as the big bad wolf waiting to pounce on somebody for sinning. Natural disasters have happened at different times throughout history. Theses events have been used by money hungry fear-mongers to write books of impending doom, passed of as the gospel by using out-of-context scripture verses to validate the acceptance and sale of t
Read more