Grace and Works Don’t Mix
Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
1 Corinthians 1:30
When you believe on Christ, God sends forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart and you become born again.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Created Righteous
What is this new creature like? What is this brand-new, born-again spirit like? Righteous!
He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
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God’s righteousness has been imputed unto you. It’s not
just a little bit of righteousness either. Your new man is truly
righteous.
Put on the new man, which after God is created in right-eousness and true holiness.
Ephesians 4:24
You don’t become righteous through your own actions— you are created righteous. When you were born again, God gave you a righteous nature. But the sad thing is that most Christians are ignorant of this. They don’t know their born-again spirit is righteous. They aren’t aware of the truth that righteousness comes as a gift from God. So they try to maintain a righteousness based on actions, which can never be the basis of our relationship with God.
Mutually Exclusive
We just saw in Romans 10:3 that there are two types of right-eousness—God’s righteousness and our own righteousness. They are mutually exclusive. You can’t be trusting in righteous-ness as a gift through the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting in self-righteousness at the same time. You can’t be self-dependent and God-dependent simultaneously. Someone who is trying to live a righteous life with the motive, “This righteousness that I do is going to earn me relationship with God,” cannot also be trusting
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in the grace of God too. You’re either relying on God’s grace or yourself, but not a combination of both.
If by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
Romans 11:6
God may treat you by grace, but people relate to you based on performance.
You’re either trusting grace or works for salvation, but not a combination of the two. This verse debunks the perversion of the Gospel that says, “Yes, you need a Savior. Yes, Jesus died for you. But you can’t be right with God through Jesus only. You need to maintain a minimum standard of holiness and then God makes up the difference.” No! Either you’re saved by grace or works, but not by a combination of the two. They simply do not mix.
Therefore, if you aren’t submitted to God’s righteousness— if you’re trying to establish your own righteousness as the foun-dation of your relationship with God—then you aren’t submitted unto the righteousness of God. You must be one way or the other.
Holiness Helps with People
Is it okay then to just live in sin? Of course not. You do benefit from maintaining a self-righteousness—your own
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holy life.
sin and live a
you to overcome
produce power in
The Gospel will
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actions of holiness. God doesn’t receive and relate to you based on your self-righteousness. Your actions have nothing to do with His grace, His mercy, and His opinion toward you. It’s totally unmerited and completely unearned. But you do need to maintain a righteousness in your own personal actions when it comes to relationship with other people. God may treat you by grace, but people relate to you based on performance.
Your employer doesn’t hire you by grace. They don’t say, “Hey, I understand God loves you no matter what you do. I’m a grace employer and I love you too. So whether you show up for work or not, I want you to know that you have a guaran-teed position, cost-of-living raises, and retirement. There’s nothing you can do that would make me fire you. You don’t have to
perform. It doesn’t matter if you ever do anything. I just love you by grace!” No, that’s not the way it is.
As far as your life experience here on earth goes, it’s impor-tant that you perform well. If you have a boss, you need to serve them well. They will relate to and reward you based on your performance. Although it shouldn’t be, marriage will likely be the same. We ought to be giving each other God’s unconditional love, but the truth is that you aren’t living with Mr. or Mrs. Perfect yet. Until they are perfect, they’re probably going to
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judge you based on your performance. If you perform badly, then you’ll suffer the consequences of it.
As a student, if you don’t do the work or perform well on the test, you’re going to suffer for it. If you don’t perform well driving a car, you could kill yourself or someone else. Your actions do cost you something in relationship with other people—and Satan is always looking to take advantage of your actions in any way he can. Therefore, it’s important to maintain good actions, but it’s vital that you never misunderstand the reason for holiness and the actions that go along with it.
Holiness helps you in your relationship with people. It shuts the door on the devil and keeps him out of your life. But it is not the way God views you. He looks on your heart—your spirit man—not your outward appearance. He doesn’t deal with you based on your external actions of righteousness. God relates to you based on the inner qualities of who you are in Christ. He deals with you totally by grace.
There is a purpose for godly actions, but it’s not so you can put your faith in them for relationship with God. That’s the whole issue. No one is saying that a Christian shouldn’t be living holy. It’s just a matter of where your faith is. Is your faith in your actions or in the Savior? If your faith is in the Savior, does that mean you won’t have godly actions? No, if you truly understand and receive the Gospel, you’ll live holier acciden-tally than you ever have on purpose. It’ll just flow out of you.
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Remember, the law was not given for the purpose of our justification.
The Gospel will produce power in you to overcome sin and live a holy life. But it will be a fruit of salvation, not the root.
The Law Fulfilled
Christ is the end of the law for right-eousness to every one that believeth.
Romans 10:4
End basically means “termination” here.1 For believers, the law has fulfilled its purpose. It’s no longer a way we pursue in order to try to obtain righteousness. In truth, the law was never given to produce right standing with God. It was given to show us how completely separated from Him we were. It was given to make the old sin nature rise up on the inside of us and overcome us. It was given to reveal to us our need for a Savior. When we turn from self to place our faith in Christ for salvation and to receive God’s free gift of grace, the law then has accomplished what it was given to do. Anyone who truly understands the Gospel and what Jesus came to do will recognize that the law is now over for producing right-eousness to everyone who will believe and receive righteous-ness as a gift.
“Well then, was there ever anyone who was made righteous through the law?” Yes, there was one person—the Lord Jesus
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Burnout is nothing more than trying to produce the
fruit of salvation through your own effort.
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Christ. He came and fulfilled every precept of the law. Through doing that, He literally deserved right standing with God. He had it by His very nature. He obtained it
through His actions. Therefore, Jesus had it by inheritance and by conquest. He obtained right standing with God through every means available.
To Jesus, the law was a way to bring salvation not only to Him, but to everyone who would put faith in Him. But He’s the only One who has ever kept the law. Nobody else has ever been justified by the law—and you and I aren’t either. Remember, the law was not given for the purpose of our justification.
As Paul continued to write about righteousness, he began quoting Old Testament scripture about the law:
Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
Romans 10:5
This is talking about a person who is legalistic and trusting their own goodness as the foundation of their relationship with God. Due to this, they are consumed with doing. They live by their doing. That leads to the treadmill effect.
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The Treadmill
When you start thinking that you are justified with God through your actions, you may be motivated and hopeful for a brief period of time. You might think, Hey, I can live better than this and then God will accept me. But it’s a treadmill you can’t get off.
In Shreveport, I tried to get some exercise once while running on a treadmill. Since I wanted a workout, I had that thing cranked up to nine miles per hour (which is a very fast pace). After awhile, the towel that I had put on my handlebars to wipe my face with fell. Not thinking, I bent over to pick it up. That treadmill kept right on going, knocked me flat on my back, and shot me ten or fifteen feet across the wooden gym floor. That’s how I learned the hard way that once you’re on a tread-mill, you just can’t stop! It’s the same with trying to be justified by your actions.
Once you start trusting in your own holiness, it puts you under this burden and pressure to perform, and regardless of how much you do, you always could have performed better. This causes frustration and it’s the reason Christians get exhausted. Burnout is nothing more than trying to produce the fruit of salvation through your own effort. It’s legalism. But when you trust in God and His grace instead, you’ll experience His strength, joy, and peace.
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In context, this word translated live here in Romans 10:5 means “to continue to remain alive.”2 In order to live, you must do certain things to continue to remain alive. Once you start trusting in justification through the law, then you just have to start feeding this thing. You have to maintain this holiness that just isn’t natural. Since you will make mistakes, when you do, you’re going to bear the guilt and punishment that goes along with it.
A legalist is basically a perfectionist. They try to perfect this flesh, which isn’t the system that God has set up. He’s estab-lished becoming righteous through accepting it as a free gift based on what Jesus has done. Place your faith in Christ’s performance, not your own.
A Legalistic Approach
The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Romans 10:6,7
How then does the righteousness that comes from God speak? Paul just talked about how the righteousness that is of the
Instead of demanding you to come up to Him, He’s already come down to you.
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law—a legalistic approach—is totally consumed with doing. It’s work, work, work. It’s a treadmill. It’s tiring, frustrating, and impossible. Nobody can keep up.
So how does the proper way of receiving righteousness with God speak? Well, you don’t have to say in your heart, “I must be so holy that I live like an angel here on the earth.” You don’t have to climb a ladder of perfection in order to ascend into heaven through your own holiness and good works. The Lord isn’t demanding that you approach Him in heaven. He’s not requiring you to become perfect and live up to His standard. Instead, Jesus came down to you and now offers righteousness as a gift.
Verse 6 is saying that you don’t have to be so holy that you earn your way up to heaven. Christ has already come down and done everything He needed to do for you to become righteous. Verse 7 is saying that you don’t have to do so much penance that you go to hell and bear the punishment for your own sin because Christ has already done that for you. Jesus has already descended into hell and literally bore your separation from God so that you don’t have to bear it.
Do you see the point Paul was making in verses 6 and 7? It’s not your great holiness that earns you relationship with God. Instead of demanding you to come up to Him, He’s already come down to you. Instead of requiring you to do penance and suffer punishment for your sin, Jesus has already been sepa-rated from God and gone to hell for you.
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borne it for you.
punishment and
taken your
Jesus has already
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Doing Penance
I met a man in Arlington, Texas, once while ministering along these lines. Earlier in his life he had been under this deception of thinking that what Christ suffered for us wasn’t enough. He actually thought he had
to do penance too. He showed me the grotesque scars on his elbows and knees that he had received down in Mexico. During the week of Easter one year, he had crawled three miles over broken glass on his hands and knees to do penance. He told me that there were people who actually got up on a cross. Some were tied with rope and others were actually crucified. Their purpose was to try to bear the sufferings of Jesus and do penance for their sins.
Most of us would say, “That’s foolish! There’s no reason we must do that. Jesus has already paid that for us.” That’s true, but the devil has some other more subtle ways of enticing us into the very same thing. We all fail sometimes and sin against God. Instead of just trusting what the Scripture says about forgive-ness, we still feel like we have to do penance. We must go through a few extra days bearing remorse until God will really forgive. Maybe we feel we must spend an extra hour reading the Word or praying, or we must give some extra in the offering to make up for the failure we had. There isn’t anything wrong with extra study, prayer, or giving from the right motive.
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But if your motivation is to do it as penance, then you are— in a sense—bringing Christ up from the dead. It’s like He didn’t go to hell and suffer your payment for you. You’ve got to suffer it. That’s double jeopardy! Jesus has already taken your punish-ment and borne it for you. Therefore, you don’t have to bear it again or add anything to it.
It’s probably human nature to think, Well certainly, I must suffer something. It just makes sense. I’m the one who has caused all this grief. How could Jesus suffer all of this for us? The truth of the Gospel is that He did. Jesus has already borne your punishment and suffering for you. So now you don’t have to ascend into heaven through your own holiness, and you don’t have to go down into hell through penance and remorse. Just receive what God has already done.
Faith’s Confession
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.
Romans 10:8
What do you do if you don’t have to go up to heaven or down to hell in order to receive salvation and the free gift of grace? Simply confess the word of faith—that you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior. Don’t mix works and grace!
