Putting The Horse Before
The Cart
“For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith—and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—not of
works so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8
In John Townsend and
Henry Cloud’s book, False Assumptions, they talk about the fact that we often
make the dubious mistake that by changing our behavior; we can develop
spiritual and emotional maturity. But
that means putting the cart before the horse.
Change is the cart. Receiving
God’s grace and implementing His truth is the horse. Too many Christians try to
work their way to emotional and spiritual growth and always end up more
frustrated and less free. Because, they
have already received God’s approval and are living like they haven’t. When
you have God’s approval, you are freed to follow Him without a yoke of bondage.
Paul wrote in Ephesians
2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God—not of works so that no one can boast.”
Martin Luther, during
the Protestant Movement of the 16th century, after having tried to
live his life as perfectly as possible, soon discovered this verse to free
him. After having tried to live a life of
perfection, he became more frustrated than ever. He found that salvation does not come through
works. But as the book of James says,
“True faith will produce a life of action.” At that point we learn to just
trust Jesus.
I guess with all that
Christ has done for us, it’s only natural that He ask that we do something, as
well. When we
consider all that Christ has done, is doing, and will do for us, we might
easily think that He might ask something over-whelming. He could very easily ask us to live a perfect
life. But we know we couldn’t do it. Or
if we work real hard our whole lives, maybe that will merit what He’s
done. Paul says: It is not of yourselves. It is not of works. But rather it comes “through faith.”
The question then is,
“What is faith?” Actually
every person is a person of faith. Now
that doesn’t mean we all have faith in the same areas, but everyone is a person
of faith. When you are sitting down, you
have faith in the chair. When you climb
on your roof, you have faith it won’t collapse.
When you get in your car, you have faith. Neil Anderson writes about faith by saying, “The fact you claim to believe is not the
issue of faith. It’s what or who you
believe in that will determine whether or not your faith will be rewarded. Everybody walks by faith everyday…Your belief
isn’t the problem; it’s the object of your belief that either rewards or
destroys your faith.” Maybe it has
been in a person, but people will let you down.
Maybe it was in your finances. Maybe it is in the hopes of something you
are working out. These things aren’t all
bad. You have to trust people and other things.
Notice what this passage says, “For by faith are you saved, through
faith…” The original word for faith
(pistis) actually means a “firm persuasion or a conviction based on hearing,
faith in God or Christ, or something trustworthy.” This applies to
salvation. It also applies to maturity.
In this case, a firm conviction regarding what Christ has done. There is nothing we can do to earn it because
it is a gift. There are no works. There is no boasting.
Kenneth Philkens wrote a
poem entitled “The Pit.”
A man fell into a pit and he couldn’t
get out.
A Subjective Person came along and
said: “I feel for you down there.”
An Objective Person came along and
said: “It’s logical that someone would
fall down there.”
A Christian Scientist came along and
said: “You only think that you are in
the pit.”
A Charismatic came along and said:
“Just confess you are not in the pit.”
A Pharisee said: “Only a
bad person would fall in a pit.”
A Fundamentalist said: “You deserve your pit.”
A Buddhist said: “Your pit is only a state of mind.”
An Optimist said: “Things could be
worse.”
A Pessimist said: “Things will get worse.”
Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the
hand and lifted him out of the pit.
Jesus only asks that we trust Him.
Though our insufficiency is the bad news, Paul brings the good news. He says, “But because of His great love for
us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead
in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.” Because of God’s grace,
we no longer have to be led by the cart but carried by His love. Now that’s putting things in the right order.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1)
Why
do we fall into the patterns of trying to live out our Christianity through good actions?
2)
How
does grace change us from an old way of thinking to a new way of thinking?
Copyright
2014- Terry Risser
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