6/10 Out of “Being” comes the “Doing” in Christian Foundations
Before we launch into further discussion on the basics of Christianity, we need to know the Foundations of the Christian message.
1. What did Jesus really teach?
From that basis, we can see where the other ‘streams’ of the Counterfeit are coming into the church.
An important part of Christian growth comes by understanding the concept of God’s Law versus God’s grace. Any striving to please Him – which can even be ‘following instructions to gain His approval’ – or the approval of others, is working under ‘law’.
Jesus came to bring the message: “Hey! Dad isn’t angry with us anymore! It is safe to come home!”
2. Out of our response of love for Him we can “do” for Him.
We need to see that ‘doing the business’ of being a Christian, is not earning your salvation. Doing and being are two different parts of Christian walk.
3. Grace calls us into ‘being’ because of His love
In Jesus, we begin a new covenant with blessings and responsibilities. We begin with Jesus and end with Jesus; His work is sufficient for us to find God. I can add nothing to the process of His work.
My part is responding to His work – to ‘rest’ in what He has done for me, Hebrews 4:7-10. We don’t ‘do’ because we have to – to be saved and brought to heaven – but because His love so touches us that we want to. We live His will naturally as He wants us to live.
4. Avoiding a ‘Sin Based Theology’ or just try harder!
We are all were born with what the Bible calls ‘the old nature’, an inherited inner heart self-centredness, following the path Adam and Eve started in the Garden of Eden. This includes an endless amount of unresolved, inherited and learned ‘baggage’ we all carry around. We live out of these inner attitudes and motives that our heart has stored away.
As Christians, the Lord wants us to deal with things that hinder our growth or block relationships with others. Sometimes confession aims at the “sin” but then pushes us into trying harder to not do that sin again.
This then becomes a ‘sin-based theology’ with a ‘just try harder not to do it again’ attitude.
If we haven’t reached a heart understanding as to why we did what we did to start with, we use self-effort to keep from committing the sin again.
We need to understand Jesus’ real Message – ‘grace versus works’. Only then will be find the living Lord Jesus at work in our life! Join us as we continue with Reader’s comments and ….remember to add your comments to each of our posts!
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info/blog
Tags: Grace versus Works
Filed under: Challenges to the Christian Faith
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