He is careful to warn me that the only proper motivation for good works is the gratitude for the great grace bestowed upon us by Jesus. To do them for any other cause, he cautions―such as duty or obligation or utility or obedience―is to miss the mark and to operate in a worldly and unspiritual manner―and then he grows darkly serious when he goes on to warn of how doing good works under any hint of an understanding that they are required by God is nearing the heresy of “works salvation”.
And so we can observe that the man is quite serious about this motivation by grace. And one might naturally assume that he must be ever filled with it, and doing good works constantly from the overflow of his heart, for indeed, if you listen to him talk, he sounds like a champion of grace. Yet, as it turns out, he is not this sort of man at all. He is slow to help, slow to volunteer, slow to give. Slow to work. Slow to learn. Slow to grow.
And I wonder just how it is that he has come up short on grace after all.
He does not know the grace that Paul taught, which motivated Paul to work very hard in the service of Jesus:
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
Paul. 1 Corinthians 15:10. NIV.
Yet this man is ever talking about the grace of God, but without the exhibiting hard work that the grace of God motivated Paul to do. And how curious this is!
Further, he shows little concern for his own righteousness, where Paul showed the fruit of grace in that area, too:
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Paul. Titus 2:11-14. NIV.
This man is no good example of that “self-controlled, upright, and godly life”, and no one who knows him could honestly describe him as “eager to do what is good”. Yet even so, he is always talking about the grace of God, even while is he careful to warn others about doing good works for the wrong motives.
Figuring Out the Scheme
But I think I’m starting to figure out the scheme he’s got in play here. If you stand back and observe the guy, he only does what he feels like doing. And when he happens to feel like doing a good thing, he is certain to tell himself that this is indeed the grace of God motivating him―and from there, he tells himself that all is right in his little world. But he is not careful to always to good things. And in this, he disregards the command in Hebrews:
14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
Hebrews 12:14-15. NIV.
He does not make “every effort” to live in peace or to be holy (as this passage instructs), and he certainly does not have an attitude of diligently “seeing to it” that those around him don’t fall short of the grace of God. He will say he does, mind you, with his constant warnings about doing good works only from the gratitude for grace, but he does nothing to “see to it that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble”, for his own behavior frequently embitters others, and he doesn’t seem to care about this very much―and certainly not to the extent of “making every effort” to see that it doesn’t happen.
So, he himself is falling short of the grace of God, it seems―even though he is regularly talking about it. And it seems to me he talks about it to give the appearance that he’s keen on it, even as his very lifestyle shows that he is not keen on the kind of grace taught in the Bible at all. Rather, he seems to have perverted that grace into something else. And he is not the first to try this trick. Even in the First Century, the true nature of God’s grace was under attack, prompting Peter to write in defense of authentic grace:
I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.
Peter. 1 Peter 5:12b. NIV.
And Jude wrote rather explicitly about ungodly people denying Jesus by twisting grace into something it was not:
They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Jude. Jude 4. NIV.
If this was happening back then, why should we not be on the lookout for the same sort of monkey business today? And why should we not be considering it our own business to “see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God”?
He Does What He Wants
He does what he wants, even as he encourages others not to do what is good unless it is “motivated by grace”. But if you were to be able to get at his true thoughts on the topic, you’d see what what he means by is that we should not do good works “unless they are motivated by an overflowing of happy feelings”. But the Bible writers frequently used words like “servant” and “slave” to describe the proper mindset of Christians. And we all know that servants and slaves are not at liberty to do good works for the master only when they “feel like it”. Yet this is exactly this man’s modus operandi.
And it makes him uncomfortable when those around him are working hard to serve God in ways that he himself would not find enjoyable. That’s one reason he’s so quick to warn others against working from “wrong” motivations―because if he can get them to quit doing good deeds, their actions will quit shining such a bright light on his own lack of action. And the other reason is that by giving such warnings, he can buffalo them into thinking that he is extra-spiritual, and that when he does good works, he is feeling some truly-authentic emotional motivation that they know they themselves may not routinely feel.
He wants to come across as wise and learned, and all this “grace” talk is his way of signaling to us all that this is how we should see him. But James suggested quite a different way of demonstrating who is wise:
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
James. James 3:13. NIV.
For all his talk, the man is short on authentic grace, and can rarely find the motivation to do good deeds―even of the sort that most humans, Christian or not, will routinely admit are in need of doing. He’ll not go all out for anybody, even if he does a token good deed here and there to get somebody off his back, or to make himself feel better about himself as a person.
He is so willing to find cover for himself that he has even resorted to twisting the teachings of Jesus and his apostles. And this is particularly troubling if Jesus really does hold people accountable like the scriptures say he does, because it means the man is going to hear about it from Jesus when they meet. Indeed, he may well hear something like this:
…I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
Jesus. Revelation 3:2b. ESV.
And ironically, this man will not think Jesus could ever say such a thing. But it’s because the man does not listen to the Lord. Indeed, one of his favorite sentences in the Bible comes right before one of his least favorite sentences in the Bible:
FAVORITE: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
LEAST FAVORITE: 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This man doesn’t really want to do these good works most of the time, and does his best to pretend that Verse 10 doesn’t count. He won’t listen to its message. He refuses to believe that Jesus would have him exist “for” good works, as if he knows better than the apostle. He refuses to consider himself responsible for becoming purified and transformed to the point where he is eager to do good works:
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Paul. Titus 2:14. ESV.
He doesn’t see his lack of interest in good works as the result of impurity or ask a signal of his own defiance regarding God’s ownership of him, but is more inclined to see it as simply an innocuous feature of his personality type. But how is it that his personality type has not been transformed by the renewing of his mind in Christ? Consider Paul’s directive to the Romans here:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Paul. Romans 12:1-2. NIV.
Why can’t this man seem to acknowledge that it is God’s will for him to be rich in good works, and not stingy with them? Is it not because he has never given himself over to God “as a living sacrifice”? Is this not why his mind is not available to Jesus for the transforming and renewing that Jesus had in mind? Indeed, what reason is there for the observer to think that this man is interested in “what God’s will is”, and isn’t simply interested in his own will?
Yet even so, the man is quite interested in warning us all against acting from motivations other than the gratitude for God’s grace. But he doesn’t understand the grace in the Bible very much at all. He doesn’t “say no” to ungodliness and he doesn’t “work harder”. So what can I conclude except that whatever “grace” this man is operating on is not the same as the grace taught in scripture?
Very Common
And what this man is doing is quite common, actually. Many people do this in one way or another. They fail to listen to the message of scripture in various ways because they’re not interested in that. Rather, they’re interested in making use of their religion for their own ends, and not for God’s ends. They don’t want to be the self-sacrificial slave or servant who is “eager for good works”, and they certainly don’t want to be subject to a master that would judge a servant by the work he does. So they discount all such language in the Bible*, and try to cherrypick from the texts only the parts they can pretend to twist into something else.
* They’ll avoid passages like these:
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Matthew 25:26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? …30…throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
They are charlatans. Frauds. Impostors. They do not understand the gospel of Jesus, yet they presume to teach us all what they consider among its most important points: that grace should motivate our good works. But I say, “Let’s see it, then; let’s see your good works; let’s see how much grace you have.” But it’s all just a ruse, for what they really want to do is to cover for their lack of good works by claiming they are so pious as to refuse to do those good works inauthentically, for that would be “unspiritual”. Uh-huh.
Sadly, this man, and others like him, can find shelter in a great many churches, who will not in fact “see to it” that they don’t fall short of the grace, but will let him carry in their fellowship as he pleases. And in this way, the whole camp becomes a haven for those who aren’t listening to Jesus―and scarily, they will do this in the name of Jesus himself, quoting some of what he said, while ignoring the rest.
Jesus said much in condemnation of such behavior, but such people are not willing to hear it, for they insist that Jesus is only kind, and not also stern:
22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
Paul. Romans 11:22. NIV.
This man’s world is one in which Jesus would never cut anybody off, as long as the person still claims to honor Jesus. So he has no room for such scriptures about God. And such are the common peddlers of this particular brand of “grace” that yields congregations full of entitled and disobedient people. They are looking for a church that will affirm their way of life, even as they remain committed to neglecting the good works Jesus created in advance for them to do.
And little will be as distasteful to them as being taken to task, as I am doing with them in this article. They will despise this, even though I am not saying anything that Jesus and his prophets did not already say again and again such a long time ago.
They are not listening.
