The title sure seems contradictory doesn't it? How can you earn something that is free? Well that was a sign at a gas station brand in Canada a few years back. The promotion was that if you bought gas at that branded station, then a percentage of your cost would go towards paying down your membership at the AAA or technically the CAA (Canadian Auto Assoc.) The idea being that if you bought enough gas there during the year, then you could get a big enough discount that it would cover the cost of your CAA membership, thus they considered that you would have "earned free membership".
One day when I drove into the station to get some gas, I looked at the sign, and the Lord reminded me that many Christians teach Grace the same way! It would be no different than if they put a sign up in front of church buildings that said "Earn Free Grace!" On a side note, I have seen church signs that have the quip "Sign Broken - Message Inside." And I have thought to myself, that I wonder if the message is broken, and the sign is okay instead!
If it is like most churches, that might just be the case. Oh, they may sing "Just as I am", but it is not long after that initial "come to Jesus moment" that the work begins on making you guilty about all of the sin in your life! And it doesn't have to be sin. All it has to be is a list of things that church does not approve of. "Don't smoke, drink or chew, or run with women who do!" Oh, it could be any number of things depending on what brand of church you go to. It is not much different than the gas station, where you can earn enough points to get offered free grace!
If you think I am kidding, then consider any church you want, and find out what it involves to be able to go there, or better yet, be a member there. The first evangelical church I went to after I got saved was a Pentecostal church, and I got an early introduction to "standards" for Christian behavior. I was a magician since I was about ten. I used to perform all kinds of shows, and in my naive youth, I intended to do magic professionally! I eventually had to make a living before I could make a living doing magic. But after becoming a Christian, I found out that certain people objected to certain types of magic. Most especially anything with a deck of cards. You never know when a card trick might just make someone run out and gamble at the poker table!
That is not all. Of course, like most churches, smoking is a big no no, along with drinking of any kind. And they objected to going to the movies, because while you may be going to see a "G" rated movie, someone may see you in line, and think that you are there to see an "R" rated movie, and it would have the appearance of doing wrong that may cause someone else to stumble! ha.
But hey, if they can get you to behave the right way, then you can boast about all the Lord has done for you, since you used to be a dirty rotten sinner, and now you are a clean sinner? Or would you boast about how much you have done to earn your free grace?
The funny thing is that I went to that church for about seven years. The Lord used that time to teach me many things. Like I said before; sometimes God will lead you into places, in order to teach you things you could not learn anyway else; and sometimes so when He brings you out, you can lead others out.
I was thinking today about how some churches are like a spiritual funeral parlor. As a matter of fact, that Pentecostal church I went to was a converted funeral parlor! Come to think of it, I wonder if it still wasn't a kind of funeral parlor. You know how when someone dies, they dress them up in fancy clothes, they try to preserve the body, and will put makeup, and whatever is needed to make them still look life like. The weird part is that I have not been to a lot of funerals, but none of the dead bodies I have seen look very lifelike to me! They look like creepy dead bodies.
Well, how different is that then some churches? Don't you know that your old man is dead? Adam was put to death on the cross! Jesus was the LAST Adam, and the SECOND Man. (oh there is a lot just in that statement) But most Christians are so busy with trying to patch up Adam. They are trying to fix up the old man, and dress it up, and put make up on it, and appear to give it life. Make Adam behave himself! Subject this dead man to obeying the Law! Did you know what the word Blessing in the Greek means? Here it is in part from the Strong's concordance "2129. eulogia yoo-log-ee'-ah from the same as 2127; fine speaking, i.e. elegance of language; commendation ("eulogy")"
Well it is about time the Church pronounces a eulogy over the Adamic man and begins to realize that we are saved by Grace! Grace! And ONLY HIS GRACE! Not one single thing can you add to it! Nothing you can do to take away from it. Every effort you make to add to your salvation by your own self discipline, so that you can make yourself more pleasing to God, is as the bible calls it "filthy rags", which translates as menstrual cloth! (which is a whole other symbolic spiritual meaning In short; it is lifeless blood, unable to reproduce life, which is the same as religion. Only the blood of Jesus has life enough to reproduce life.)
Even your faith to believe is not your own! It is His gift to you! God gives you faith to believe. So you can't even boast that you believe while others do not, as if your believing was your own doing! You are not saved because you believe, you believe because you are saved! You can no sooner choose to believe in God, than the man in the coffin can choose to scratch their nose!
The idea that some would say that they chose to accept Jesus into their heart. They chose to believe in God. "I have decided to follow Jesus!" the song goes, and yet it is a lie. You did not decide anything. It is all His Grace bestowed upon you, and it is Free, and there is nothing you can do to Earn it! You are a NEW creation in Christ Jesus. He came to give you Life (zoe GK.) more abundantly!
Okay, then if it is all up to God, then what about the people you know who died and did not believe in Jesus? If God is the one who supplies the grace for salvation, and the faith to believe; if you cannot believe other than He gives you that believing faith first, then what about all those people who died and who did not believe?
Good question..... Keep reading future posts for the answer!
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