1058. Grace Will Expose the Motivations of the Heart

When we discover a revelation of God's grace, Christians who have been inundated with doctrines of doing in order to maintain right standing with God will be confronted with something that may challenge their past mindset.

Under a legalistic, self-righteous, mixed-covenant church culture, it was more about 'doing things' in order to please God; to receive blessings, to keep from being punished, or to be noticed by others (all in the name of having a good testimony). We were programmed to think it was up to us and our obedience to remain tethered into fellowship with God. Many came from a mindset where failing to do 'enough of the stuff' might risk how God will react to them. The motivation was based more upon avoiding God becoming angry with them or withholding blessings.

While living in the unchangeable grace and perfect love of God at all times, what is our motivation compared to the above? Now that we know blessings and forgiveness are secure and complete in Christ by the gift of His grace, what is the motivation for loving and helping others and doing good things? In short, we'll find it in knowing and believing in God's perfect love and who we already are in Him.




"Clash of the Covenants" book available on Amazon

New Year 2025 - Revisiting Podcast 880: The Gospel of Grace - There Must Be a Catch!

Mike and Joel are off this week - but not wanting to leave you podcastless this week, we're bringing back a previous episode. We'll be back in the new year with more new Growing in Grace episodes, including our upcoming celebration of 20 years and our 1,000th episode!

Is the gospel of grace really as good as we’re making it out to be? Someone asked us if there was any kind of a catch … meaning is there some fine print that has God requiring certain expectations from us when it comes to contributing to our justification? The religious flesh will scream that there must be more to it than the grace of God and the blood of Jesus. It sounds too easy and too good to be true!

The religious business will usually pitch a gift of grace initially, but once you sign up, there will be plenty of fine print regarding what you need to do to ensure your salvation—and it leaves people in fear, hungering and thirsting for something God already provided. Religion will set aside the grace of God to emphasize various works requirements. But Paul stated that if right standing with God comes by any other way than grace, then Christ died needlessly. He also said to the one who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. Some good news reminders for all of us.



   
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880. The Gospel of Grace - There Must Be a Catch!

Is the gospel of grace really as good as we’re making it out to be? Someone asked us if there was any kind of a catch … meaning is there some fine print that has God requiring certain expectations from us when it comes to contributing to our justification? The religious flesh will scream that there must be more to it than the grace of God and the blood of Jesus. It sounds too easy and too good to be true!

The religious business will usually pitch a gift of grace initially, but once you sign up, there will be plenty of fine print regarding what you need to do to ensure your salvation—and it leaves people in fear, hungering and thirsting for something God already provided. Religion will set aside the grace of God to emphasize various works requirements. But Paul stated that if right standing with God comes by any other way than grace, then Christ died needlessly. He also said to the one who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. Some good news reminders for all of us.



   
Get the book