Grace versus Works

What is grace?

 

The Bible tells us that “There is none righteous, no, not one;

There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12.)

And further in verse 23 “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4.)

It does not matter how well you have lived your life, how many times you have resisted temptation and obeyed the law instead. You have sinned, we have all sinned. The ONLY one who has ever lived a perfect and sinless life was Yeshua. The rest of us are under the death penalty “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23.)

The rest of that verse introduces the concept of grace. “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Our Savior Jesus the Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach) divested Himself of His glory and came as a mortal man, lived a sinless life, and then died a horrific death to pay the penalty for our transgression of the law. We were under the death penalty as sinners, but He redeemed us by His own blood. That is grace.

It is a gift that we can not earn. 

Furthermore, if we do not accept His gift of redemption, then we will have to pay it ourselves. When we die though, it will be forever. There will be no resurrection from the dead. It is the end. 

Accepting the blood of our Savior as payment for our sins is the ONLY way that we don't have to die forever. It is the only way that we may become immortal and join the family of Elohiym. 

Yeshua said “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9.)

Yeshua is the door we must go through. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12.)

Grace is “the gift of God,” it is our Savior sacrificing Himself to save us from our lawlessness.

Works.

Romans 6.

[1] “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

[2] Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” 

If we have just been rescued from the penalty for our sins, why would we jump back in?

Grace will abound just fine as we will still unintentionally mess up from time to time. We are still physical and even with the holy spirit we do not live perfectly. But we should try.

It is a matter of the heart.

[3] Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

[4] Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

[5] For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

[6] knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

Baptism is a physical symbol of a spiritual event. It represents our old sinful self being washed away (by the blood of our Savior,) our former self is dead and buried and we are to walk in newness of life. It is us accepting the new covenant.

[7] For he who has died has been freed from sin.

[8] Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

[9] knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

[10] For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

[11] Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we are baptized into the death and resurrection of our Savior, then permanent death is no longer our destination. We have been purchased by our God, and we now live our lives in service to Him. 

[12] Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

[13] And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

[14] For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 

If we get baptized and then continue living in sin we are letting sin reign in us. We should rather live as instruments of righteousness to our God.

[15] What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

[16] Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

Either we live as slaves of sin or as slaves of our God. Our actions, and the way we live our lives show whose slaves we are. 

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24.)

“And Elijah came to all the people, and said, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions? If Yahowah is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him…’” (1 Kings 18:21.)

We must get off the fence and choose a side.

[17] But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

[18] And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

[19] I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

Before conversion we were slaves of uncleanness and lawlessness, but now we must become “slaves of righteousness for holiness”

Not that our actions can save us, as was mentioned above, Jesus/Yeshua is the door and the only way by which we may be saved. But our actions and the way we live show whose servants we are. If we accept His blood as our covering we must play for His team, the team of righteousness.  

[20] For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

[21] What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

Serving our sinful, carnal nature is quite literally a dead end. 

[22] But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

[23] For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Our “fruit to holiness” are our deeds, actions, works etc. 

Grace is a gift that we can not earn, the gift of being freed from the clutches of sin and from its service, it is the gift of eternal life.

Works are the natural result of being freed from the clutches of sin and the death that it brings. 

Our works show who's servants we are. Whether servants of our God or of the Adversary.

You can not accept an invitation to join one team, and then continue playing for the other team.

Our works matter. 

Yeshua said “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15.) 

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10.)

“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:14.)

We keep His commandments “the law” not to earn our salvation, but because we have chosen to be on His team, so we play by His rules.

We keep His law because we love our Savior and want to do what pleases Him. 

Grace and works are not contradictory, they go hand in hand.

“Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:17-18.)

1 Peter 4:1-5

[1] "Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

[2] that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

[3] For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

[4] In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

[5] They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead."