Grace, the Forbidden Gospel - Online Christian Library

condemnation, even if we don’t do everything right, because Jesus has already hit the bull’s eye for us! We
are Christ’s and God is forever pleased with us.
The Old Covenant tried to deal with the outward behavior problem, with man’s sinful acts and godless deeds.
But under the New Covenant God changed our hearts (He dealt with the inward problem) and when our
hearts are changed, the good works will automatically follow. This is what the writer of Hebrews meant when
he quoted the prophet Jeremiah:
Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put
My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.
First we have to believe correctly (that God loves us regardless of our performance and that we cannot earn
His approval) before we will start doing the right things. Right believing will lead to right living, but simply
living right in itself will not lead to right believing.
Back to the James verses, the writer is saying that if we are truly saved, there will be evidence of our faith in
the form of good works. But since our minds are not fully renewed, we sometimes mess up and neglect to do
the good works which God meant for us to walk in. But this is where the grace of God comes in: God does
not condemn or judge or punish us if we don’t do the works the writer of James talks about. He simply keeps
on loving us the same.
Not to take away any of the power of James’ words though. After all, what is the purpose of faith if it doesn’t
flow over into works? We can for example have faith that a beggar in the street should be helped by
somebody else, but do nothing about it ourselves. James’ writings explain what it looks like to have faith in
Jesus. But these are only the elementary principles. The apostle Paul then widens our perspective on grace
to demonstrate that we’re not saved by works and don’t live by them either - grace is what saved us and
grace is what keeps us saved. But works are the evidence of our faith.
Let’s look at what John Piper said about being judged according to our works:
“It is by grace we are saved through faith; not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. But the heart that is full of
faith will overflow in attitudes and actions very different from those which flow from unbelief. Therefore, our
deeds will testify truly to the genuineness or absence of faith, and it is not inconsistent for God to judge us
according to our works. But we must understand that this judgment according to works does not mean we
earn our salvation. Our deeds do not earn, they exhibit our salvation. Our deeds are not the merit of our
righteousness, they are the mark (proof) of our new life in Christ. Our deeds are not sufficient to deserve
God’s favor, but they do demonstrate our faith. Please keep that distinction clear in your mind regarding our
attitudes and actions: they do not earn, they exhibit; they do not merit, they mark; they do not deserve, they
demonstrate. And therefore, “God will render to every man according to his deeds,” including Christians.”
Simply a New Law System?
The biggest difference between the Old Covenant Law and the commands found in the New Covenant is
this: To be accepted and blessed by God under the Old Covenant people had to obey the law. Under the
New Covenant we want to obey the commands because we are already blessed and accepted! We cannot
however devise the commands written in the New Covenant into a modern day rule keeping system,
because that would mean putting ourselves under a religious scheme again, something which Paul warned
against vehemently:
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of
slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any
other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. (Gal
5:1-2 MSG)
What we can do however is trust that the Spirit inside us will bring to completion the work that He started,
stop fretting about our imperfect conduct and enjoy the life of God in us and through us. Life truly finds its
purpose when we learn to simply let go and let God be Himself through us.
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