My kids and I were doing our bible study a few days ago and my daughter came across the ten commandments in her bible. She asked if she could read all the commandments out loud to us. She loves to find things in her Bible and read them aloud to everyone.. When she got done reading, I asked my kids, “ So what do you think? Do you obey all these commandments?” I asked them this because I wanted to make a point. I was curious to know how they would answer. My son answered just as I thought he would, "of course I follow the commandments.”
“Really!?!?”, I said….. “How about respecting your parents? Do you always do that?.... He sort of chuckled... How about being content and happy with what you have? Are you ever wanting what your friends have?” As I questioned him, he began thinking a little bit more.
My son saw the commandments as sort of like a scorecard that graded him on his performance. It is so easy to assume that we are being graded on our performance. I used to have the same skewed perspective of God and that’s why I wanted to teach my kids the truth. I explained to the kids that the law isn’t meant to be a set of rules to follow in order to earn God’s favor, but the law is intended to reveal the condition of a person’s heart. I explained that the law was intended to show us our inability to keep it. We can not meet the standard, which reveals to us our need for a Savior. I went on to explain that Jesus is not concerned about our performance. He is concerned about our hearts.
Obeying scripture is very important, but obedience to scripture should be evidence of a transformed heart, not us trying to earn God’s favor. It’s all about our motive. The Lord will empower us to live like children of the King, it’s Him working in us, not us working for Him. He does not expect, nor does He want us to try to attain holiness in our own strength, that is impossible. It is so easy to make our relationship with God into a religion and that is exactly what we do when we try to work to earn God’s favor or work to attain holiness. The truth that the Lord is not grading us on our performance should put us at ease. I was often plagued with fear and doubt because I always assumed I was not good enough and God would not accept me if I didn’t perform to a certain standard.
This is religion masquerading as Christianity. This is one of the lies Satan had me believing and it kept me from the Lord for so long. I constantly thought I had to measure up somehow. Religion tells us we need to perform, but when we do that, we spend our whole lives trying to meet a standard that is impossible to meet. No matter how hard we try, we will never be holy enough to meet God’s perfect standard. Even if we can perform with the best of them our performance will never be good enough.
Jesus made this point very obvious by rebuking the Pharisees, who were the religious elite. They performed with the best of them. This is what he said, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too." Matthew 23:25-26.
Jesus condemned the Pharisees’ because He knew what they were doing was blinding them. They were so obsessed with their outward perfection, they didn’t acknowledge the presence of inner sin, like anger, bitterness, jealousy, greed, pride and self-righteousness. As a result they didn’t see their need for repentance and a Savior.
I’m not going to say I didn’t make the same mistake as the Pharisees, I did. UGH! I went through all the religious motions, I worked so hard to try and be a Chrisitan, but the whole time I was missing the point entirely. As I worked to be religious, I missed Jesus…How in the heck does that even happen? It’s easier than you think .... It wasn’t until I began really struggling in sin (behind closed doors of course) that I experienced Jesus for the first time, in a very personal and intimate way. It wasn’t like religion, it was far different.
I hid my struggle for a long time because as a Christian I didn’t want others to know that I struggled with sin. I was essentially just like the Pharisees, I thought I had to perform and keep up with the religious elite. I felt like such a fake and a failure as I struggled, but that didn't stop me from stepping into the church doors, smiling and acting like everything was fine. I put on a performance because that’s all I knew. I didn’t necessarily think about it as a performance, I was just too embarrassed and ashamed to admit that I was struggling (with sin of all things), what would people think of me?
I was struggling so bad and thought my religiosity was going to save me. I said the prayers and did the classes, I went to church but nothing was able to save me from the anger that was devouring me. ONLY JESUS is able to do that. This is how the Lord revealed to me the truth. I got so exhausted trying to do it myself, I finally just gave up. In this desperate and dark place, I began realizing that what I was doing in my own strength. .. was not working. WHY NOT? It was so frustrating.
I was doing everything I thought was expected of me, why was the Lord not helping me? I didn’t see it at the time, but He WAS helping me. Oh how merciful and loving the Lord is to humble my heart in this way. I finally saw what I needed to do when I was laying desperate and helpless on the bathroom floor. I FINALLY surrendered. I begged Jesus to teach me His ways. I told him that I would follow (once I figured out how, haha) and I admitted to Him how much I needed Him.
Jesus was raised from the grave to offer new life in his Spirit. Jesus gives this new life to all who call upon Him in faith. It is the Spirit's work in us that changes and transforms us. Don’t ask me how it works, but all I know is how utterly amazing it is. We cannot change our own hearts, we don’t have the power to do that. No matter how religious I was and how many hoops I jumped through, I could not make myself into a more patient person, no matter how hard I tried. My anger had me in chains, but it was Jesus who saved me. We don’t have to perform, we just need to surrender. If we give up our own way, stop working in our own strength, forget the performance and instead follow Jesus, that’s when the Spirit can do His work in and through us,“The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23.
Many of us have experienced religion, but I often wonder how many actually experience Jesus. I feel like religion is so easy to walk away from, but I cannot imagine I would ever want to walk away from Jesus, I will follow Him until the very end. I need him every day, every hour, every minute of the day "The Lord is my strength and my song; He has given me victory." Exodus 15:2
Galatians 2:16
Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
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