Let Go...And Let God

Galatians 3:2-3 (NIV) ² I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? ³ Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Philippians 1:6 (NIV) being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Today we're continuing another our series of messages: Calming the Chaos. For the last few weeks, we've been looking at our crazy lives, the hectic activities we can get ourselves into—and we've been looking at ways to simplify our lives, to get back to basics, to calm the chaos.

One area where we make things too complicated and chaotic is religion. Religious activity can distract us from the simple relationship God wants to have with us. Religion weighs us down with heavy obligations; knowing Jesus sets us free.

Jesus nailed the experts in religious law: "...you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them" (Luke 11:46). That's what religion does—it weighs you down but it won't help you up.

Religion is like a man trying to lift his canoe out of the water while he is still standing in it...

Experts in word history think the English word "religion" comes from the Latin word "religare" meaning "to tie up or bind fast" or to "place an obligation on." Throughout history, people wanting to gain God's favor often would take monastic vows—vows that would "bind them" to a certain way of living.

Religion is a system of rituals or practices structured to follow one's beliefs. But do you know the devil can use religion to mess us up just as easily as he can use temptations or addictions?

C.S. Lewis, who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, also wrote The Screwtape Letters—an imaginative collection of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, written to his nephew, Wormwood, about how to become a better tempter. One piece of advice Screwtape gives in the book: "One of our greatest allies [in leading someone astray] ...is the church itself"—in other words, religious activity can distract you from what really matters. [C.S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters. New York: Macmillan Co. 1959.]

Later, Screwtape explains that "it will be an ill day for us if what most humans mean by ‘religion' ever vanishes from the Earth. [Religion] can still send us the truly delicious sins." [C.S. Lewis: "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" in The World's Last Night and Other Essays. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1960. pg. 70.]

Another writer, Robert Capon, says: "The gospel of grace is the end of religion, the final posting of the CLOSED sign on the sweatshop of the human race's perpetual struggle to think well of itself. For that, at bottom, is what religion is: man's well-meant but dim-witted attempt to approve of his unapprovable condition by doing odd jobs he thinks some important Something will thank him for." [Robert Capon: Between Noon and Three: A Parable of Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace. San Francisco: Harper and Row. 1982. pg. 166.]

When it comes to pleasing God or developing a right relationship with God, the human race has been getting it wrong ever since the beginning.

Some people work very hard at being religious, but they've never been really changed at the core of their being. The surface appearance seems good enough, but inside they are just as bad as ever. They're like an apple that looks shiny and red on the outside, but when you bite into it, you find that it's rotten at the core—it's dark and ugly and tastes bad.

They're like the Pharisees Jesus challenged: "...you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness" (Luke 11:39)

Many people are religious like those Pharisees! They work diligently on the surface stuff; they try to look good, try to impress each other with their religious exterior, but inside at the core they're full of all kinds of rotten attitudes and ugly thoughts.

Religion is the effort people make, trying to take spiritual matters into their own hands. They want to gain God's favor so they do good works; they make up a bunch of legalistic rules; they follow religious rituals—but it's all surface stuff. It doesn't get to the heart of the matter. Their religion is merely for show—hoping to impress God, they work hard trying to impress each other.

The result of all this effort is spiritual chaos and confusion. To calm this religious chaos we need a fresh encounter with God's grace. Instead of adding religious activity—human effort—to our faith, we need to open our lives to a fresh supply of God's grace.

You might say: "Well, I've experienced God's grace. I'm saved only by grace through faith." That's good, but we need to understand: grace doesn't end with salvation. God has more grace to give. And we must grow in grace—and stop relying on human effort to reach spiritual goals.

In the letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul asks some rhetorical questions: "...Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" (3:2-3). His point? You cannot accomplish God's work by trying harder. Human effort could not start it. And human effort cannot finish it. Only God can accomplish his work in you.

Then Paul wrote to the Philippians and said: "[I am] confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (1:6). For our salvation to be complete, we must look to God! Not to our own efforts. Not to religion. He who began the good work in us is the one we must trust to finish it.

The Living Bible paraphrases it like this: "...I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns."

Peter wrote: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." (2 Pet 3:18).

Are you growing in grace? You will grow in grace if you...

1. Stay near the source of grace.

God's grace isn't like a glass of water—get one good drink of grace and you're set for life.

It's not enough to taste God's grace one time! We need a continual supply. God's grace isn't a glass of water; it's more like a river that keeps on flowing—and we need to live by the river.

John 1:16 (NASB): For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

(NIV) From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

The Bible often uses pictures of water, streams, and deserts to describe spiritual blessings—or souls that are parched and dry.

"Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away" (Psalms 107:4-5).

There's a reason why so few cities are built in the desert—because you need a source of water to sustain life. Yet some people want to fill their canteen with grace and then strike off on their own, building their lives in the barren wastelands that this world has to offer. You can't survive in the wilderness with only a canteen of grace!

Whenever we get too far from grace—out in the world we try to refill our canteen with the world's lies; we start drinking from the world's ways; and our spirits become dry and parched.

This is a picture of those who wander from grace. Whenever we try to make it on our own, try to set up our own religious rules, try to be good enough on our own, try to solve our own problems—we're wandering in desert wastelands. We're not living by the river of grace.

We cannot simply fill up on grace and take our canteen off where we want to go; we need to camp by the river of grace. We need to keep on drinking from the river that keeps on flowing. A canteen won't carry us through—we need an never-ending supply of God's grace!

1 Timothy 1:14: "The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." We must stay near the source of grace; we must stay close to the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Treasure God's grace...value grace highly!

God's grace is extravagant—it's a luxury no one can afford, but one that no one can afford to be without. So we shouldn't treat it as a common, ordinary thing.

Ephesians 1:7: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

We devalue God's grace when we ignore it, or reject it, or exchange it for something else. We devalue God's grace when we substitute it with what we have to offer—our human effort. We must not devalue God's grace. We must treasure it.

God's grace may be free, but it is not cheap! God's grace is priceless. It cost him his Son, who gave his life on the cross for us. His grace cost him heaven's very best! His grace goes beyond our comprehension.

It's true that God pours his grace out on sinners and lavishes it liberally upon each one who asks for forgiveness, but he will not waste his grace. It's too valuable. Every drop of Jesus' blood was precious! Grace comes at an extreme cost—the sacrifice of the perfect Son of God.

If you received a blank check in the mail from Bill Gates, you wouldn't believe it was real. This must be some sort of sick joke. But let's suppose you were curious enough to investigate and you were able to verify its authenticity. The check was real and it was made out to you and the amount was left blank for you to fill in. Would you leave that check lying around? Would you keep it buried in a pile of junk mail where it could get tossed out with the trash? What would you do with that check?

God's grace is infinitely more valuable! And yet people reject it, people ignore it, people choose something else—some substitute for grace. People leave it lying around like so much junk mail. People have devalued God's extravagant grace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor during the days of Hitler, was appalled by what he called "cheap grace," which led to external religion but no real repentance and no inner transformation. In his book The Cost of Discipleship, he writes:

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like a cheapjack's wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut-rate prices... In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin... Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. 42

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, [it is] baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. 43-44

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods... it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him...

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us...

Romans 5:17 speaks of "God's abundant provision of grace," which the Message paraphrases as "this wildly extravagant life-gift." We must treasure God's grace!

3. Put grace to work.

Grace is not a free pass. Grace—to be effective—must be put to work. If you're going to grow in grace, then you must allow grace to work in you and through you.

A few years ago all the right numbers came together for one person in the Illinois lottery. His ticket was worth 14 million dollars! But the winner never came forward to claim the prize. They announced the prize on television stations across Illinois and the entire country, but after 12 months the winner had never showed up—and by law the prize was forfeited.
Grace is like that. You've got to claim it. You've got to receive it. You've got to "claim your ticket" and let grace loose in your life if there's going to be any benefit. If you don't let it do its work in you, it's just the same as if there was no grace at all.

Grace is intended to do something. God pours out his grace in order to change you! He's begun the good work, but he still wants to finish the job. He still wants to complete his work of transformation in you.

If you want to grow in grace, you've got to put grace to work in your life.

Paul said: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." (1 Cor 15:10).

(NCV): "...his grace to me was not wasted..."

How many people "waste" God's grace? They want to be forgiven; they want to go to heaven. But they're not that excited about changing their ways. They're not too thrilled about "working harder" for the Lord because his grace was working in them. And so they "waste" God's grace.

2 Corinthians 9:8: "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."

There is no grace deficit, no shortage of grace. God has ALL grace—enough for ALL things, ALL times, for EVERY good work.

Where grace abounds, good works will abound. When you grow in grace, you will grow in good works. Not religious works—the things the Pharisees were into—but genuine, good works that come when someone values grace and allows it to flow continually through them.

During the depression Mr. Yates owned a sheep ranch in Texas. However, he wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.
Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.
At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.
And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it. [Bill Bright, "How to Be Filled with the Spirit" (Campus Crusade publication)]

There are resources of God's grace waiting for you to tap! God has more for you! Are you growing in grace? "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." (2 Pet 3:18)