Graham the hard task-master

In his latest book, Billy Graham writes, “To those who say you can have Christ without giving anything up, Satan is deceiving you. Do you become part of your country’s military force by just saying you are?”

Here are just a few more similar outtakes:

·        “Jesus is bigger than life, so when He comes into yours, there is no room for anything that does not glorify Him.”

 

·        “Many people who are thinking about becoming Christians ask, ‘What’s in it for me? How can I benefit?’
“If the answer is only to keep you from Hell, you haven’t considered the cost of living for Christ on earth.
“The right question is not, ‘What’s in it for me?’ but rather, ‘Is Christ in me?’ That very idea is unsettling for most because it means forfeiting control. It means the Lord Jesus Christ will come into your life and reform, conform, and transform you into an obedient follower. If that is not your desire, you have every reason to question whether or not you have been saved.”

·        “To be a Christian means to surrender yourself to the lordship of Jesus Christ, to give up whatever stands between you and the Lord. This is God’s truth . . . You must be willing to be changed . . . if we continue to feed our desires and serve our imaginations, there is reason to doubt our Christianity.”

*****

Satan's policy of evil is to make the Christian life empty, vain and useless by adding the "works" of religion so that Believers seek to live their lives for the Lord by their own viewpoint based on the principle of the law.

The only hope any human has is that God takes care of our sin problem FOR us and that's the “good news” of Scripture to those who simply believe in Jesus Christ. Because Christ put away our sin on the Cross, there's nothing to condemn us for.

Grace is the exact opposite of the world's performance system that says, "If I do this and this, I'll get the blessing." Trusting in a performance system makes a person dependent on their performance and goodness to try and win.

Paul says, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." (Rom. 5:20)

One of the most important verses in the entire Bible for a Believer to internalize is Romans 11:6: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work."

Paul's saying, " 'Works cancel out and destroy grace." God actually pulls His grace OUT of any message that tells a Believer to work.

*****

Paul rebukes the Galatians with, "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:3)

"The word 'foolish' there means 'slow thinkers,' " explains Jordan. "Paul asks, 'Who hath bewitched you?' The Galatians weren't able to detect the difference between living their lives on the free gift principle of grace—responding in gratitude to what God's done for them—and the law principle of trying to earn the blessing.

“Instead, they got to looking at outward appearances and great big swelling crowds of people and great entertainment with music so fine. They thought, 'It's so grand, it has to be right!' "

*****

The word "religion" comes from the two Latin words "re" and "ligio." "Re" means to "go back," and "ligio" means "to bind.” It has to do with man's efforts to bind himself back to God. Involved in it are "good works," in which man tries to earn righteousness with God by his own means.

"Religion is designed to satisfy the lusts of a person's flesh just as sure as liquor is," says Jordan. "It's the desire of your flesh to do something, perform something, and feel good about having done it, obtaining something on its own.

" . . . The law is a hard task-master. It doesn't say, 'Keep up as best as you can.' It says, 'Do all of them or you're dead meat.' The penalty of the law is death. The law demands absolute perfection. The law tells us were sinners."

*****

"Doesn't it thrill you to know that when God placed you in Christ, He made you as righteous as His Son—He counts you as worthy as He counts His Son? God counts us just as righteous because we have the Lord Jesus Christ’s righteousness!” (II Cor. 5:21)

Having been justified freely by His grace, Believers in Jesus Christ have peace, access and privilege with God that is in no way based on a performance system.

Because we're dead to sin and the law, it's not about following commandments to win God's favor and avoid curses.

(Editor’s note: More on this tomorrow)