Are there works under Grace?

One of the more popular responses that we receive when we say "we are saved by Grace through faith and not by works" is that horrid and twisted misinterpretation of the verses-

"Faith without works is dead" and "Shall we sin that Grace may abound?"

Some people misinterpret and twist these verses to deceive churchgoers into believing that there are no works under Grace and that we Grace children are just looking for an excuse to be lazy and to commit sins. This deceit is just one of Satan's devices that are designed to prevent churchgoers from experiencing God's saving Grace Who saves from sins and transforms us into His people who are committed to doing good works. Beloved of God, Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him:

"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."

Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Being in Christ (under Grace) without living in triumph over sin and death and having good deeds/works to show for it is as impossible as being submerged in water unclad without getting wet.

Romans 6:14 says: "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace." Remember Grace is a Person.

There are two kinds of works - "Works of the Law" and "Works of Faith." Grace is on the side of Faith. "The Law is not of faith" is a popular Bible verse. Also recall "We are saved by Grace through faith" (Ephesians 2:8)

Both the churchgoer who is under Law (trying to live a godly life aka "be like God" by human effort) and the believer who is under Grace are DOING works. What is the difference between these two kinds of works? The difference is the mindset or what we believe about how these works come about. This is very important.

The difference is: the Law "demands" but Grace "supplies." The churchgoer who is under Law sees God demanding that he obeys the Law, live a godly life by his own power and do all sorts in order to get into His good books, escape punishment and enjoy His blessings. Doing these works of the Law cannot save anybody as it is written in Ephesians 2:8-9 - “We are saved by Grace through faith and not by works…” The Pharisees were full of such works.

The one who is under Grace sees God supplying through Christ the desire, willingness and the ability to do good works and the doing of the work itself. Even though we who are under Grace are doing work, we do not see it as a demand from God without which He would withhold His blessings and let His wrath fall on us. We see our works as "I would never have been able or willing to love/give/pray if God was not working in me and doing it all." Our heavenly Father in Christ is supplying as we are doing.

Works of the Law take "self-effort." But works of Faith take Grace (Christ Himself) to accomplish, even though it is we who are under Grace that are doing the work.

The churchgoer who is "under Law" does his works with the sense/belief that God is demanding it of him and that God will not bless or save him unless he does certain things- usually as prescribed by his pastor or some other church leader who has positioned himself as some kind of Old Testament high priest; like a "trade by barter" relationship with God. This churchgoer depends on his will-power/arm of flesh/human effort-driven works (giving, fasts, seeds, obedience, ability to live a holy life) to make God have a good opinion of him and bless him.

This reasoning is akin to man's physical flesh/body boasting that it can move about, play football and score goals by itself. The churchgoer in this situation thinks he has some good in him and does not realise (yet) that God's mercy in man is the "skeleton" that holds him upright, so he is always boasting about how God is blessing him because he has the good sense to obey the Law, pay tithe and avoid sins and how "I sowed my car and God gave me a jet." Notice no Christ's finished work in this antichrist equation? He does not realise that if God took away His restraining hand that restrains man from sins and which makes many churchgoers believe that they are or can be good by themselves, we would all devolve into committing the worst sins - collapse into the useless and helpless heap of flesh that we are of ourselves. There is no good in man of himself!

Paul addressed this truth in Romans 1 where a group who “suppress the truth” of righteousness by faith (verses 16-19) devolved into sin after “God lifted off His restraining hand…” —

“24 This is why God lifted off His restraining hand and let them have full expression of their sinful and shameful desires…”

If God lifted off His restraining hand that restrains us from devolving into committing heinous sins and let us rely on our human effort and will-power at keeping the law in order to be saved, godly or for whatever reason, we would all devolve into sin and see how utterly lacking in works we are of ourselves. But the churchgoer who is doing "works of the Law" aka human effort-driven works aimed at getting God to bless because "Faith without works is dead" does not realise this. He thinks he can be good and "sinless" by his own will-power. He does not realise (yet) that the reason why we are not committing particular sins is because God did not allow us to get tempted beyond what we can bear- like Peter when he boasted that he would not deny Christ. He believes that his (self) efforts at keeping the Law and doing its works play a part in getting God to bless him. He does not believe that God gives His children ALL things FREELY with Christ as it is written in Romans 8:32-

"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Beloved of God, let's not be found here. This is the fate of all such who believe that their own human effort at obedience and their righteous works done by human effort or will-power (self-righteousnesses) aka law-keeping is why God is pleased with them or blesses them- Galatians 3:10-

"Anyone who tries to please God by obeying the Law is under a curse. The Scriptures say, “Everyone who doesn’t obey everything in the Law is under a curse.”

But what about works under Grace?

In Christ, we are under Grace - undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Does this mean that we just twiddle our fingers all day and do nothing but wallow in sins as antichrist pastors falsely say? Certainly not! We are doing works too, just like those who falsely believe that it is their good sense, self effort-driven obedience, giving and sowing that gingers God to bless or protect them. But by Grace, our mindset is different: for all of our receiving from God and the good works we get to do - loving, giving, obedience, generosity, witnessing and the many exploits that we get to do - we know that of ourselves, we can do nothing. Jesus Christ - The Lord our Righteousness - is the "skeleton" that put and holds us upright. Even blood that is the life in man is produced in the bones:) Without Him, we have no life. He makes us strong and able to do exploits. We see by Grace that of ourselves, our will-power to live right is utterly useless and that there is no good whatsoever in us as was Paul's experience in Romans 7:18-

“For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

God's word says human effort (the arm of flesh) will fail, is powerless and cannot. But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort at obedience) that will fail says:

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can keep the law and resist temptation to commit sin by my will-power. Faith without works is dead so I must and I can do works to prove that I have faith. Since I can do it, others must too. They are just lazy and love to sin.”

God's mercy - the skeleton that keeps many self-righteous churchgoers from crumpling into the useless and helpless heap of flesh that man is of himself - is why such churchgoers and even pastors can condemn and threaten people that they have classified as "core sinners" with hell fire, all without considering that these poor sheep are struggling to overcome their sins and are failing because the arm of flesh will fail.

To think that all sinners enjoy their sins and don't want to give them up is akin to thinking that Peter enjoyed denying Jesus and could not wait for another opportunity to deny Jesus. What do we think is the major cause of depression and suicide even among unbelievers? It is guilt for sins, fear, anxiety, hopelessness and sorrow in the heart for sins aka not measuring up to particular standards - no different from what happened to Judas who was full of remorse for his sin. What the lost sheep need is not more Law that kills but super(hyper)-abounding Grace: Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd who saves from sins, cleanses us, transforms us and makes us able to produce good works (Titus 2:14.)

For we who abide in Christ, Christ our Saviour gets all the glory for all the works that we get to do in Him. Our works (e.g. the hundreds of articles proclaiming Jesus that I have written, time spent talking about Jesus, all of my giving (to man) and receiving (from God) and my boast for every blessing that I freely receive is found in Christ (Grace-personified) alone who gives freely. We receive freely. All that we who are under Grace can give to God is thankgiving, praise and freely taking more and more from Him who freely fills us to overflowing with His goodness and mercy so much that with what is spilling over, we cannot but be a blessing to others and do exploits, yet not us but Christ in us. In Christ who is Grace-personified, our life is like that of Paul who worked harder than all the other apostles. See 1 Corinthians 15:10-

"But because of God’s grace I am what I am. And His grace was not wasted on me. No, I have worked harder than all the other apostles. But I didn’t do the work. God’s grace was with me."

How is God's grace wasted on a person? See this in Galatians 2:20-

"I do not get rid of the grace of God. What if a person could become right with God by obeying the law? Then Christ died for nothing!"

Trying to get right with God or get Him to bless by keeping the Law (human effort at living a godly/righteous life) and doing its works is throwing God's Grace into the trash. It is also the sure way to get cut off from Christ- Galatians 5:4.

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace."

Believer, the same Vine life that is flowing in Christ flows in us too. And because we continue to abide in Him (rely on Him and not look elsewhere for our righteousness and salvation,) we get to bear fruit, more fruit and then "much fruit."

“The letter (law) kills but the Spirit gives life" is a very popular Bible verse. With the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by might nor by power. It is impossible for doers of works of the Law to deceive themselves in this matter: if you knew and believed that it is Christ in you doing the works and not your own might and power, it would be difficult for you to point accusing fingers at others who are still living in sin and threaten them with judgment if they don't change. Rather, you would see how helpless man is to overcome sins and produce good works and point such to Christ who saves from sins and transforms the sinner who truly believes to live right as He is doing for you.

Works of the law are useless human attempts at attaining godliness and are not acceptable to God. In fact, Isaiah 64:6 describes such works of righteousness that are driven by self-effort at getting right with God thus:

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

There are works (much fruit) under Grace too. And it is not angels that do this work while us Grace children sit by idly. It is we who are under Grace that are doing these works, yet not us but Christ in us. It is the MINDSET or what we believe about how we are doing these works that makes the difference. At different times, people have tried to give me credit for being a dedicated Christian, generous, a good parent or for being a hardworking employee and even tried to say that this is why God blesses me. But I know who I am of myself and apart from Christ in me- I am the worst of sinners! I would be wallowing in sins and utterly lacking in good deeds were it not for the Grace of God (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) - Christ Himself- working in me.

God's goodness comes first. Then repentance (changing your mind about God.) He is not a hard Taskmaster who is demanding obedience and works of the Law from us in exchange for His blessings. He is not eagerly waiting in the wings to punish us or let the devil have a go at us when we cannot comply. To we who are in Christ, He is "Abba, Father." Our Daddy God. He knows how frail we are and how screwed up we can be. Psalm 103:14 says of Him-

"For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust."

Because He so loves us with an everlasting love, He sent His own Son to bear our entire lifetime of sins and die our death that we might have life and live right. And He does not just leave us to continue to wallow in sins after making us His own as antichrist pastors preach. Our heavenly Father in Christ corrects and disciplines us, but never with death or any of the ills that Christ suffered and died to save us from. According to Hebrews 12, His correction is for our profit, that we might live, that we might be partakers of His holiness (we have none of ours) and that we might live right.

The one who believes that he can keep even a jot of the Law and live a godly life (be like God) by his own human effort is deceiving himself. He only gets to produce a harvest of sinful deeds that lead to death. The very law that he tries to obey by his useless will-power causes sin to have dominion over him. See this in Romans 7:5 below. But the one who, despite his many good works and godly living that the world can see, knows that he can do nothing by himself and trusts/depends utterly on Christ the True Vine, gets to produce a harvest of good deeds for God- see Romans 7:

"4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. 5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit."

Notice that the one with the old nature is the one who is still under the power of the law. He is yet to be released from the law. He is trying to serve God by obeying the letter of the law, just like the unbelieving and antichrist Pharisees. But false doctrine teachers interpret “When we were controlled by our old nature” as desiring to commit sins with reckless abandon! Not so. The one with the old nature strives to get right with God and escape His wrath by keeping the law thus rejecting God's gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might freely have. He does not believe that he has been made right with God through the blood of Jesus as Romans 5:9 says of how God sees all who believe in Jesus-

“And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Also Romans 5:19- “By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.”

The difference between the two kinds of works (Law and Faith) is the MINDSETor how we believe that these works come about. The earlier every churchgoer realises that it is God's mercy that makes him able to stand and keeps him from devolving into sins, the better. Of ourselves, there is no good in anybody.

Truly "Faith without works is dead." But what works are we doing? Is it works of the Law that man can take credit for or works of Faith where God gets all the glory?

The Law is not of Faith.

Only when we live our lives putting no confidence in the flesh (human effort at obedience) and utterly trusting and depending on Christ do we get to bear much fruit aka works of faith - these are the evidences of our salvation that the world can see and are produced only as a result of the life of Christ that is now flowing in us. See Christ's words concerning this in John 15:5-

"I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.”

Remember how to get cut off from Christ the Vine: "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace." Galatians 5:4.

Much fruit (good works) on the branch comes from abiding (to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy) in the Vine. But this is illogical and too "easy" for branches that think they have the power to obey the Law and do its works in order to be right with God to accept -

"For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18.

Believer, we were formerly dead branches that could produce only dead works (works from law-keeping aka human effort at obedience the result of which are like a menstrual rag in God's sight.) Now we have been grafted to Christ "that we should bear fruit to God": Romans 7:4-

"Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God."

Verses 1–4 of the same Romans 7 describes our relationship with Christ (Mr. Grace Himself) in terms of a marriage relationship. We who believe were formerlymarried to Mr. Law. Mr. Law is righteous, moral, rigid and unbending. He is 100% perfect. He has every good virtue and every blessing but he cannot impart any of his virtues to man freely. He also has the curse, all of which he does not hesitate to lavish on those who try to keep him. With him, you have to give 100% perfection to get his blessing and escape his curse. He demands that man who is nothing but flesh of himself be perfect by his own power. Mr. Law cannot abide sin in any form and will judge and punish every tiny imperfection with death. All have sinned. Mr. Law condemns the best of those who have any kind of relationship him.

But now, we are married to Mr. Grace- Christ Himself who died that we might freely have God's gift of everlasting righteousness in Him. Having any kind of relationship with or going under our ex-husband Mr. Law in a bid to bear the fruit of moral excellence or to give birth to good works while claiming to be married to Mr. Grace is adultery according to Romans 7. Even worse, those who preach this “neither cold nor hot" horrid mixture of part-Law and part-Grace imply that our Bridegroom Jesus Christ who is Grace, godliness and moral excellence-personified cannot cause we His bride to bear the fruit of godliness, morality and good works!

Under Grace, for all our loving, giving, obedience, generosity, witnessing, and the many exploits (much fruit) that we get to do, Christ gets all the glory. This is why it is difficult to find a true believer in Christ boasting in "dead works" such as:

"God blessed financially me because I pay my tithe regularly" or

"God healed me because I sowed a mighty seed" or

"I am now a parent because I was kind to children in orphanages" or

"I am free from satanic oppression because I fasted for 70 days."

Notice no Christ saving, providing or doing anything in these stories of salvation from earthly ills? No God giving us all things FREELY with Christ as it is written in Romans 8:32-

"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Personally, I cannot number all of the innumerable benefits that the Lord loads me with daily but by Grace and only by Grace, far be it from me to chalk His many benefits in my life down to money that I gave to the needy, my witnessing for Him, my (non-existent) self-effort at being a good person or my good deeds. None of these things would I be able to do by my own human effort (arm of flesh.)

Beloved of God, this is the way of the Lord:

He works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13) and then He rewards us for the good deeds that He Himself gave us the desire to do and which He did in, through and for us. He rewards us for taking refuge under His wings. He is our exceedingly great reward - rewarding us for believing in and utterly trusting and depending on Him for everything. We would be nothing without Him. None of self. All of Christ.

We who believe in Jesus Christ are mere pipes. He is the flowing and unlimited Reservoir of God's freely-given gifts that flows in us and gives us rich and everlasting value. And our being connected, remaining and being useful in Him is a gift of Grace. He says in John 6:44-

"Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do My work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End."

There are works under Law and there are works under Grace. The difference is the MINDSET of the doer - HOW do we believe these works come about?

Is it through self-effort (arm of flesh that will fail) at obeying the Law and doing righteous works which Isaiah 64:6 says results in righteousnesses that are like "a menstrual rag" in God's sight? This is wrong believing that gives sin dominion.

Or is it by putting absolutely no confidence in our own will-power but attributing all of the good works (much fruit) that we get to bear to our being one with Christ the Vine and having Him as our ONLY Source of righteousness and strength? Romans 7:4 says this results in us producing a harvest of good deeds for God. This is Right Believing. All the glory goes to Jesus Christ.

Believer, rest in Christ is not inactivity. Rest in Christ is Holy Spirit-directed activity. In Christ, we live life “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” Philippians 1:6.

Right Believing always produces Right Living.