Thursday July 20, 2017

 

Everything we do is judged, and we judge everyone on the basis of performance. If we perform well we are rewarded and if we perform badly there is no reward. From the moment we are born, until the day we die, our lives are judged and we will judge others on the basis of how well or how badly they performed. Imagine for a second a world where no one is judged by their actions; that would be a very unjust and unfair world. This is why our parents disciplined us and encouraged us to perform well since our infancy. This is why our parents taught us that Santa Claus had a list of those who had been naughty and nice, and this is why if you grew up in a religious environment, you were more than likely told to be good because God is watching you.

 

In our world however, the performance-based system has its exceptions. Lets say you are traveling at 5 MPH above the speed limit and a police officer stops you, he might be gracious with you and let you go with a warning. Perhaps if you are in sales and you are just $50.00 shy of reaching your goal, your boss might be gracious with you and give you the bonus anyway. It might happen that if you were a few days late with your mortgage payment, the bank might extend your grace period and forgive the penalty. In a performance-based system, grace is the exception not the rule. However, when it comes to our relationship with God, grace is always the rule and never the exception.

 

Without grace nobody would ever be good enough to achieve a righteous relationship with God. If this were not true then please tell me, how good do I need to be? How many of God’s rules do I need to keep? How many good deeds must I perform? How many sins am I allowed? At what point do my bad deeds disqualify me? What it is that I need to do to attain a righteous relationship with God absent His grace? And while we are at it, how did the criminal who was crucified next to Jesus make it to heaven? This criminal had no good deeds to speak of and probably broke every one of God’s laws. The problem with a performance-based system as it relates to our standing with God, is that there is no possible way for us to ever perform our way into a right standing with Him; for this reason it is by grace alone.

 

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIRV

 

God’s grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn’t come from anything you do. It is God’s gift. It is not based on anything you have done. No one can brag about earning it.