Myth 12: The Hyper-Grace Gospel Makes People Lazy

The problem about the so called making of lazy Christians does not lay in the “Grace” but in what many Christians do want to believe about the sanctification and about the allowance to enter the Kingdom of God.

Grace coming over all people doe snot mean that all people will enter the Kingdom of God, but also does not mean that once a person is saved he will be saved for ever. People should look carefully in the Bible and come to see that people have to continue to work at themselves and have to show works of faith, because otherwise their faith is dead.

*

To remember:

• fruit of assurance was not laziness but creativity, charity, and fun.
• The unconditional love of God gives you wings => inspires to take risks and be generous with your life.
• frolicking in the grace of God =work feels like fun.
• duty to serve the Lord.
• responsibility + duty = cattle-prods of performance-based Christianity.
• obligation => debt-conscious <= rather than grace-conscious.
• Jesus didn’t suffer and die to put you in his debt.
• idea that you are obliged to repay him for his priceless sacrifice = ludicrous.
• nothing to give him in consideration for his grace
• instant you give him anything = it ceases to be grace.
• salvation itself, justification is non-meritorious and unearned = It is a gift (Romans 3:24), but when you receive a gift that does not mean you do not have to do any thing after it.
• according to the many stories in the bible we can see it is not sufficient just to have a only “duty” to say, “Thank you, Jesus!”. No! We do have to take on a certain conduct.
• feel the pressure to perform and live up to the expectations
• walk under pure grace ==> find no pressure ==> only freedom not to be who God made you to be, but whom you try to become under God’s commandments
• It is not like the writer of the article thinks that “Manmade religion will tell you that you have a responsibility to deliver results for the Lord”, It si clearly indicated in the Holy Scriptures that we do have to do something:
  1. chosing for God,
  2. accepting Jesus, the son of God,
  3. repent,
  4.become baptised,
  5. continuously read and study the Word of God,
  6. go out and preach the Gospel of the Good News of the coming Kingdom,
  7. live according the Will of God and not according the will of the world = without works Faith is dead (James 1:3; 2:5,14,17-26; 5:15; Exodus 5:13; Proverbs 16:26; 28:19; John 6:28; 7:18; Romans 4:2,4,6; 9:12,32; ; Ephesians 2:10; Romans 1:12,17; Philippians 1:25,27, Colossians 1:23; 2:5;)
• responsibility is to shine as a dearly-loved child of God.
• we have to bear the fruits

+

Additional reading:

1. How do I know what God’s will is
2. Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
3. Heroes and saints
4. Old age
5. Glory of God appearing in our character
6. What Is Sanctification?
7. All Souls’ Day
8. Shabbat Pesach service reading 1/2
9. Shabbat Pesach service reading 2/2

+++

Related articles

• The Mustard Seed by The Church of Christ, Sangotedo (slideshare.net)
  In the Bible, the mustard seed is used by Jesus in the parable of the Mustard Seed as a model for the kingdom of God which initially starts small but grows to be the biggest of all garden plants. Faith is also spoken about in the context of a mustard seed
• Called From Your Mother’s Womb (christianmotivations.weebly.com)
  If Paul, a terrorist to the early church, could be touched by Christ to become an apostle of grace, what about today’s terrorists who blow up people in the name of their god? For all you know, if they receive Christ, they might just become trailblazers in the kingdom of God!
  Now, don’t think that your calling has to do with your qualifications, abilities, achievements or even your walk with God. You were called from your mother’s womb by His grace. As a fetus in your mother’s womb, there was not much you could do—good or bad. That is why your calling is all by His grace. And since He has given you a calling, ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern the desires that He has placed in your heart, the passions that drive you in life, and fulfill your calling and destiny in Christ!
• The Man That Resurrected (dailytwocents.com)
  His earthly father was a carpenter. Like any obedient child, he worked with his father helping him. The bible has not recorded his youth life, although it says that he endured all temptations yet he was without sin.
  Read more at http://dailytwocents.com/man-resurrected/#qXkLULb8dj1X0DeL.99
• A Dispensational View of the Spiritual Life, or Homage to He That Is Spiritual, part 2 (randomtheoloblog.wordpress.com)
  The state of every man prior to the moment of salvation is said to be that of spiritual death.
  +
  unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
  +
  Christ makes the distinction between the natural man of the flesh and the spiritual man who is born of the Holy Spirit.
  Like salvation itself, justification is non-meritorious and unearned. It is a gift (Rom. 3:24).
• Growth in Grace 4 – Effort Is Necessary! Practical Conclusions (reformedontheweb.wordpress.com)
  God does not just command men in general or Christians to do these things in order to show us our inability. He commands us to do these things, because we can as redeemed men and women, and because if we do not, the process of ongoing sanctification will not take place. The religion which dislikes all human activity and thinks of all human activity as of the flesh, as dutyism, as legalism, or as Arminianism is not the religion of the Bible.
• If You Can’t Be Thankful For The Past Or Present, Be Thankful For The Future (rohmbible.wordpress.com)
  while I am thankful, there are a lot of people in this world who haven’t received the blessings I have received. So thanking God for my blessings, somehow sounds to me like “thank you, God, for all the good things you gave me, while millions of other people have gone hungry, homeless, and generally live in severe poverty, due to no fault of their own.”
• Thursday (December 11): Who is the greatest in the kingdom of God? (shechina.wordpress.com)
  Jesus praised John the Baptist as the greatest person born. Who can top that as a compliment? But in the same breath Jesus says that the least in the kingdom of God is even greater than John! That sounds like a contradiction, right? Unless you understand that what Jesus was about to accomplish for our sake would supercede all that the prophets had done and foreseen.
• I will follow you… (betsybeadhead.com)
  Jesus said to him “Anyone who turns aside from the work I plan for him to do is not fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
• Israel and the Kingdom of God! (fggam.org)
  The Gospels are rich with the many parables of Jesus and his inspiring teachings on the coming Kingdom of God. Many of his sermons begin with the words, “the Kingdom of God is like unto…” He also told his disciples that the Kingdom was breaking out around them. And for many Christians down through the centuries, this was considered a new message about a soon-arriving Kingdom of God that was being introduced only in the New Testament. Yet the truth is that the Kingdom was already there in the Old Testament in the form of the nation of Israel. But it was being transformed and placed into the hands of the Jewish followers of Jesus who would finally bear its fruits.
• Putting the author in authority (kingdom777.wordpress.com)
  When Jesus was on earth, He taught with authority, not as the teachers of the law.