Christian Message Boards: Grace vs. self-effort

This is topic Grace vs. self-effort in forum General Discussion at Christian Message Boards.

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Posted by Lar (Member # 14133) on :

Hello all,

I happened to find a webpage that might be of interest to many here. It deals with living the Christian life by way of Grace, rather than living the Christian life by means of self-effort:

http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/xian/works.html#gsc.tab=0

Living by Grace definitely does *not* mean having a "license to sin!" Rather, it has to do with a Christian's looking to and at the Lord Jesus Christ to live *His life* through them. Because trying to live a Christian life by means of self-effort is not what true Christian Grace-living is all about. (Please see Hebrews 12:1-2)

I hope that the thoughts shared on this particular webpage will be a blessing and a help to you.

-- Lar

Posted by Bloodbought (Member # 4365) on :

Amen brother, good post.

Sanctification is by Grace through faith in Christ
It’s not what we render to God through rule based living, its what we receive from God through grace-based living.

Paul says,
Galatians 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Galatians 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Here is a sermon on the transition From Rule based living to Relationship and Grace based living.
https://vimeo.com/17751458

Posted by Betty Louise (Member # 7175) on :

Lar,
Thank you. I will check it out.
Betty

Posted by Lar (Member # 14133) on :

Hi Bloodbought,

Thanks for your positive feedback to my post. And thanks too for the thoughts that you shared, and also for the webpage link to the great sermon. [Smile]

My wife and I had a pastor years ago who preached Grace in a way - (I believe) - that it needed to be preached. He emphasized that living by Grace is so much more about having a relationship-living type of response to God than it is about living - in a Christian's own strength - by means of rote rules and fleshly self-effort.

Many pastors are reluctant to preach Grace as it should be preached, because they think that it will perhaps lead to people living "any old way" that they want to - in a state of sinfully ignoring God. But strangely, once a Christian really knows about how they are accepted by a *truly loving God* - as His beloved children - in His wonderful Grace, they will respond with love in their hearts - both for God, and also for other Christians! They *won't* sin more! On the contrary, they will finally start to live - in the Spirit - in a truly authentic Christian manner.

I used to be in the military... And there, just about everything seemed to function by means of rules and punishment: that is, punishment for not obeying those rules. (Sadly, many Christians live like this too - trying to "earn" God's love and "earn" His acceptance - by stringently obeying "do or don't" type rules. But doing things that way is not living victoriously in the Spirit at all. On the contrary, it is just another way of "living in the flesh" - always striving and always frustrated. It's very sad...

Christians who are taught to live by means of God's Grace - and by means of "...faith which worketh by love..." (Galatians 5:6) will actually discover what it is like to have *liberty* in Christ (please see: Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13)

Thanks again for your gracious response to my post, Bloodbought.

-- Lar

Posted by Lar (Member # 14133) on :

Hi Betty Louise,

Thanks for reading my post on this topic. [Smile]

May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and keep you - in every situation that you are facing!

-- Lar