How Many “Jesus Points” Do You Have Today?

If you smoke marijuana, you get -3 Jesus points.   If you read your Bible, you get +1 Jesus point.  If you spend time in prayer, you get another +1 Jesus point.  If you say a cuss word, you get –1 Jesus point. If you share the Gospel with someone, you get +2 Jesus points.  If you attend church you get +3 Jesus points.  To get a girlfriend, you have to have at least +6 Jesus points.  To get into heaven, you have to have +7 Jesus points.  So, you may have to choose between going to heaven and getting a girlfriend depending on how many Jesus points you have.

This is the hilarious offbeat humor my son, Andrew, and his buddies would kid each other about during their many summers as Christian camp counselors.  Of course, it was all in good fun.

Yet, each week behind the smiles and “I’m fine” automatic responses of many Christians, the idea of earning “Jesus points” is no laughing matter.  I doubt most are aware of this underlying belief because it’s a system of thinking that has infiltrated every one of us.  We inherited it from Adam, whose mind was negatively reprogrammed with it when he ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

It was a real tree which represented one of two ways to live in a relationship with God.  The second and and optimum way to live was to be found in the Tree of Life.  The first tree was all about adding up our +’s and –‘s to determine our acceptance before God. (Genesis 2:9)  This is living with a “law mentality”.  The second tree was also a real tree which represented living from the life Christ in us in delightful intimacy, which was to spill over as unconditional love with other people.  This is living with a “grace mentality”.

Unfortunately, the “law mentality” doesn’t automatically leave us when we become Christ followers.  I wish it  did. Don’t you?  This is why Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:23 exhort us to reprogram our minds with grace and truth from an understanding of the “full” Gospel taught in the preceding chapters of each letter.  This is what God does to transform us more and more!

Why is it so easy for us to say to a young child who does something good that they are a good boy or good girl?  Why is it so easy to default to believing that God loves us less when we sin?  Why is it so easy to jump to the conclusion that God is mad at us because bad things are happening? It’s because of the “law mentality”.  Living from a grace mentality thinks and lives the opposite way.

When I asked a 13 year old girl if her dad, a pastor, was any different since he’s learned the grace message in our ADT, she said with a smile. “Oh yes!  It’s like he won the lottery.  He’s so happy now!”

When our family notices we are different, that’s the “grace mentality” of Christ in us!  

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Objections to Our Freedom from the Law

Occasionally, someone challenges me when I teach that under the New Covenant, Christians are not obligated to keep the 10 Commandments.  I appreciate their honesty and prefer that response, rather than automatically dismissing what Grace Life International and I teach.  It provides an opportunity for dialogue so we can reason together with Scripture.  Here are a few of the challenges I have received and my responses using Scripture.

   1.      Christians need the Law to show us our sins.

   2.      The Law helps Christians sin less.

   3.      The Law can't save us but we need the Law to sanctify us.

We Died to the Law

The moment you die you will no longer have to pay taxes because your death frees you from the tax law.  In the same way, when your old nature died with Christ on the cross, you were freed from the Old Covenant Law so that your new nature could be united to Christ instead.  "So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God."  Romans 7:4 (NIV)  Having Jesus is so much better than having the Law!

The Law Was a Shadow

When I come home late at night from speaking, sometimes my wife sees my shadow first.  If she gets in the floor to hug my shadow, I'm calling 911!  The shadow tells her I am coming in.  The Law was a shadow according to Hebrews 10:1, telling us that Jesus was coming.  "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming..." (NIV)  Don't hug the shadow.  Hug Jesus!

 The Law Is Not For Righteous People

 The only righteous people in the world are those in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21)  As a consequence, we don't need the Law.  "We also know that the law is made not for the righteous..." (1 Timothy 1:9)

 The Law's Purpose

1. To Show Unbelievers their Sins  "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin."  (Romans 5:20 NIV)
2. To Prepare Unbelievers for Salvation  "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."(Galatians 3:24-25 NASB)

The Law Cannot Sanctify Us  

To sanctify means to grow spiritually.  For those who say the Law is not needed to justify us but it is needed to sanctify us, meditate on this verse written for believers."For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:14  NIV)   To deepen it's meaning, let's read it backwards.  "For sin shall be your master, because you are not under grace but under law".  Spiritual growth is a result of living under grace not law!

The Law Provides No Power to Live a Righteous Life

 Many don't realize Paul was writing about how he came to the end of himself by using the law to try to live a righteous life in Romans 7:15-25.  That is why he said in verse 15, "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate." What we see in our counseling at GLI is that victory over sin for Christians increases dramatically when they live by grace instead of the Law!

Our identity in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit has replaced the Law. (Hebrews 10:16, Romans 7:6) All of the New Covenant in Scripture exhorts us to understand this and to live in a way consistent with it.  This is how we live an "inside out life" by faith, which pleases God.

    

Believe it!  It's the Gospel!

Live Free In Christ,


Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding