Effortless Christianity

It seems like a subtle twist occurs in lots of our conversations when we talk about our righteousness.

For the most part, we understand that our righteousness is completely established by the cross of Christ. We know that we can’t buy it, earn it, or otherwise deserve it. In light of our previous track records as sinners, this is pretty easy to believe. We know that we can’t be good enough to earn God’s favour. By grace we have been saved. That being said, we tend to live like the expression of righteousness in our daily lives depends on us. While we are saved by grace, I think that we generally live our Christian lives by the sweat of our brow until we return to the dust. Our experience usually seems to confirm this as we ride the “roller coaster” of highs and lows, which usually correlate with how much work we invest into our “relationship with God.”

What if Christianity is supposed to be effortless?

What if God isn’t calling us to “work on our relationship” with Him?

What if spirituality isn’t maintained with sweat equity?

When I first heard a friend talking this way, every fibre in me wanted to shout “baloney!” It seemed so obviously untrue. It was wishful thinking at best, and a damnable heresy at the worst. After all, we’re supposed to seek first the kingdom and its righteousness. We’re called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. God calls us to obey Him. Jesus wants disciples and not fans, right?

My reasoning seemed sound enough at the time, but the difference between my friend’s lifestyle and my own suggested that I was missing something. Situations where I would crumble under the temptation to compromise just didn’t seem to shake him. He saw the best in people that I couldn’t even bring myself to talk to, and it seemed like he flowed easily in obedience to the Lord in areas where I had to grit my teeth to do the right thing. Either he lived in a state of complete denial, or this guy was actually on to something. I was confused and honestly offended when he insisted that there was nothing he did to produce what was obviously the fruit of the Spirit in his life. I was doing my best to “press in to God” and to “grow spiritually,” and it seemed to be of no avail. I knew that I needed to take a second look at what I was believing!

Scripture instructs us in Colossians 2:6, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him…”. Our life in Christ was initiated by grace through faith, and can only ever be sustained in the exact same way. I have learned through my own experience that I only bear genuine fruit when I depend solely on His initiative in me, and on His grace working through me. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:10,

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (my emphasis)  

I cannot “position myself” to receive the love of God; God positioned His love to reach me when His Son died for me while I was still a sinner. I can never produce the love of God in my life; the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I cannot work up obedience to prove my love for God; instead, His love for me and in me produces conformity in my life to His will and nature. The effort is all God’s, and the benefit is all mine. The only way I can experience genuine fruit in my life is to forget my dependence on my efforts, and believe that God is able and wants to see His own character realized in my own character and personality.

How hard is it for an apple tree to produce apples?

It isn’t.

So how hard is it for a Christian’s life to produce Christ-likeness?

It isn't!

As believers, we reflect and manifest Jesus by default, by design!

Just like an apple tree naturally produces apples, Christians are designed and enabled to mirror the likeness of Jesus in every way. Scripture tells us in Romans 8:29,

 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

The destiny of every believer is for the expression of their life to look like Jesus.

I am convinced that unbelief is the stick in the wheel-spokes that keeps us “falling from grace” and dependant on our own efforts. When we don’t understand or rightly believe our inclusion in Christ’s finished work, we take over God’s responsibility for the production of fruit in our lives. This inevitably leads to comparison, doubt, envy, or even pride as we take our eyes off of the gardener and put them onto whatever “fruit” we feel like we are (or aren’t) producing. This is where the pleasure of tending the garden of Eden turns to a life of toil, frustration, hardship, and labour.

I’m not saying we are not responsible for our actions, because we absolutely are. My point is that when the expression of our lives falls short of the character of God, the answer is not to try harder or exert more effort, but to effortlessly return our trust to the cross of Christ and rediscover who we truly are because of His finished work.

I’m also not saying there is no role at all left for us as believers. In John 15:4-5, Jesus tells us the prerequisite for bearing fruit:

 “Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Let’s be very clear about this: abiding is not work! To abide is to remain under the influence of who Jesus is and who we are in union with Him; to try to bear fruit through our own effort is to operate outside of that union relationship. It is Jesus who produces the fruit- we are just the branches! As we remain under the influence of this amazing truth, the Son sets us free to become living expressions of the character of God.

As I looked at my understanding of how I lived as a Christian, I experienced (and am still experiencing) an amazing season of repentance. There are still days when living and abiding in Christ feels difficult, and I still fall short and fail often. But, thank God, my failure does not negate or distract from the reality of what Jesus accomplished for me, or of who He is in me. Through experience, I have learned that the answer to the failure and frustration is always the same: 

“It is an agonising situation, and who on earth can set me free... ? I thank God there is a way out through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25, Phillips)

As I have learned to live in that reality, I have experienced authentic love, and a freedom that I never thought was possible for me. More and more I have begun to see people, including myself, for their identity, created value and potential in Christ. Old temptations have by and large lost their draw and influence on me. My desire and capacity to serve others has grown. I have seen a dramatic increase in the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit in my life as I reach out to show God’s love to others. Instead of being an anomaly, joy has become my daily bread! Every day, my life becomes a clearer expression of Jesus.

It is through exclusive dependence on the reality of Christ living in and us and through us that we walk in genuine liberty, free from pretence and free from natural effort. As we effortlessly behold Jesus, remaining under the influence of what we see in Him, we reflect Him as a mirror, and live as Christ-epistles to be known and read by all.

Believing "Contradictions"

It seems like there has been a massive influx of teaching on grace, identity, and the finished work of the cross within mainstream evangelical Christianity. Like all movements in the church, some of this teaching has been good, some has been bad, and some has been downright weird. I personally believe that this return to the basics of the cross of Christ is a legitimate move of God, and that it has been bringing many believers into a deeper revelation of the freedom that we have in Christ. While every movement has its fringe, I believe that the church has been and will continue to be blessed tremendously by the fresh revelation that has been circulating through the church on these topics.

A serious criticism levelled against of a lot of the popular identity teaching has been that it fails to address a lot of the Scriptures that seem to conflict many of the main premises of the teaching.

Yes and amen, it is true that as believers, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:21) It is true that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. (Romans 6:11) It is true that we have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son. (Colossians 1:13). It is true that we have crucified our flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24) In my own experience in church, however, I have rarely heard these truths preached, much less heard them taught as being any more than “positional” or “judicial”. Personally, it brought supernatural freedom and joy to my life when I began to understand these verses not as positional statements that would one day be true in heaven, but as mystical realities to be believed on and experienced in my day to day life.

That being said, it is imperative that we deal responsibly with the whole council of Scripture. New Testament writers use language that most identity teachers (think Todd White, Dan Mohler, John Crowder and the likes) would see as being completely inappropriate for born again believers. James referred to his readers as sinners, and exhorted them to cleanse their hands and to be wretched, mourn, and weep. (James 4:8-9) Paul even referred to himself as the foremost of sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15) So the question remains, how do we deal with the tension that this use of this language brings to our interpretation of Scripture?

I believe Paul delivers a key to understanding this tension and accounting for statements that are apparently contradictory in his conversation with the Corinthians:

" Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we             might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught               by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are                       spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are                 folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."                 (1 Corinthians 3:12-14, ESV)

It appears that even in the New Testament, truths are conveyed to two different audiences using two different languages. Paul continues to the Corinthians:

"But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as                     infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And                         even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh." (1 Corinthians 3:1-3, ESV)

I hold that the New Testament writers address their audience from two different perspectives, depending on their level of understanding and maturity. One perspective is “according to the flesh.” The natural mind, or the mind set on the flesh, uses the five senses as its reference for thought and communication. The flesh is the only reference that makes sense to the natural human mind.

The second perspective is the viewpoint of being “in Christ.” This perspective sees life from Christ’s perspective, as it truly is. Letters such as Ephesians and Colossians are chock full of these “in Christ” references. Paul consistently appeals to the “in Christ” realities as the impelling, overarching truths to motivate and to enable believers to walk as saints.

One of the best instances of this is in Colossians 3, where Paul instructs the disciples: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:2-3, ESV) Paul expected mature believers to think, function, live, and operate by faith from the basis of what Jesus had accomplished in them by grace through his death and resurrection to redeem their humanity through His union with them.

A clear example of the difference between these two viewpoints is in second Corinthians five:

                

"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all,   therefore all have died; and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for           themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we   regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:14-17, ESV)

For the sense-ruled or “carnal” mind, our natural human experience is the sole reference for understanding reality. For the believer, however, that reference becomes the revelation of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ. In a very real sense, the entire world becomes brand new to us as we begin to see reality as it is in Christ. I believe this is what Paul is referring to in Galatians 6:14-15: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”  Paul’s entire perspective on reality had been reframed through the revelation of what God accomplished for us in Christ, and his behaviour and lifestyle became a reflection of that reality.

I believe strongly that God ordained for Scripture to be written in such a way that the mind of the unbeliever and the immature believer alike can be engaged, in order that he may be brought to faith in Christ, and that this accounts for the strong language directed to naturally minded believers and unbelievers. Paul, James, and the other writers “call it like they see it” to draw the naturally minded believer’s attention to areas where their behaviour or lifestyle fell short of their true identity in Christ. To other audiences, they would appeal to the unseen realities in Christ as the motivation and empowerment to live in communion with Jesus.

The maturing often occurs in my own life when the “in Christ” truths seem to contradict what my senses tell me is obviously the case. For example, many of us have lived as believers with a chronic, subtle sense of guilt for shortcomings, or have viewed our relationships with God with some performance anxiety, as if God’s pleasure with us as His children depends on how well we obey on a day to day basis. God has clearly spoken the opposite in Christ! As believers, there is a calling for continual repentance, not just from sinful thoughts and actions, but from believing what our senses/flesh, experiences, or circumstances tell us to be true about God and about ourselves, to believing what God has said in Christ. It is in this repentance that we experience life, joy and peace, and where we experience the grace that enables us to abide in Jesus and to walk like Him. And this is where faith comes in. The success of my day to day walk, and the quality of the choices I make, is consistently determined by what I choose to believe in the moment in any given situation. If I believe it is my nature to sin, I will effectively empower sin to rule in my life through my own faith. On the other hand, if I believe that Jesus has made me new, pure, and righteous through His cross, and that He is willing and able to produce His own integrity and goodness in my life through His Spirit, my walk and my choices will reflect that truth.  The more I walk in that truth, the more I see that reality expressed and manifested in my own life, and the more my thinking and language reflects these realities.

The natural mind does not understand or respond to spiritual reality, and we do a disservice to unbelievers and immature believers alike when we expect them to. As we see in Scripture, there are circumstances that require us to appeal to sense-knowledge to make a point or express a truth. That being said, as believers, we walk by faith and not by sight/flesh/sense-knowledge. While “sight language” may be useful in certain situations to get a point across, we should never use it at the cost of the understanding of what Jesus accomplished.