“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV
Yes, salvation is a free gift…
You do not earn it, merit it, work for it, or generate it on your own…
Grace is absolutely the nature of God’s salvific work…
But get this…
While grace is free, it is not synonymous with slothful or lazy…
I have already written against antinomianism which is cheap grace, but alas, now, it seems appropriate to address anti-effort grace…
For some people claiming Christ as Savior, there is this thought that any act of obedience, any discipline, any conviction, any (shall we say) effort to “practice righteousness” is somehow antithetical to grace…
To respond to biblical imperatives of expectation are somehow “works” based righteousness and therefore…optional.
“I don’t have to go to church; I’m under grace”…
“I don’t have to read my Bible; I’m under grace”…
“I don’t have to pray; I’m under grace”…
“I don’t have to (fill in the blank); I’m under grace”…
The logical (and biblical) concomitant of such thinking is that Christianity is the lazy man’s religion…
“I don’t have to do anything because Jesus did it all”…
Yes…
But that needs further parsing…
If that were absolute doctrine, who would…
Go to the foreign mission field?
Feed and shelter the needy?
Preach the Gospel?
Witness their faith in the culture?
Build hospitals, orphanages, and rescue missions…
Who would DO anything; if we didn’t have to?
Christianity is not an anti-effort religion…
Christ’s work is free…
But His work is active and empowering inside of you…
Grace isn’t about, “I don’t have to”…
Grace is, “Now I’m empowered to”…
I GET to go to church…
I GET to read Gods Word…
I GET to pray…
but what if I don’t feel like it?
“And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
II Corinthians 12:9 NKJV
The sad reality concerning the western Church is that we have become soft because of cheap grace…
We have developed an anti-effort Gospel that when challenged, the challenger is accused of “legalism”…
If the grace of God is at work in me, I am empowered to obedience, discipline, and righteous effort…
Perfectly?
Of course not…
But perfection is not the excuse of the pursuit…
Truthfully, those who are actually “under grace” are the ones demonstrating grace’s empowerment…
Jesus didn’t die for His people to be couch potatoes…
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