Tonight, an important lesson from discipleship land.   Let’s set the stage.

You’re a believer in Jesus.  You take the Bible as truth, and you want to strive to live it out as best you can.  In the pages of the Bible, you discover that following Jesus may require some sacrifice, but you’re up for that, because you believe that the God of the Bible is worth serving with whatever you have.   You’re stoked and ready to get started in being conformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  So you start looking for a place to begin with this “discipleship” business.  You read in the Scriptures that people are sinners, saved by a costly grace.   You come to understand that there is nothing you can do to earn your salvation as it relates to God–you’re miles away from saving yourself, and Jesus is your only chance.  But you’re supposed to be like Jesus…how?

Tonight, I’m here to tell you that Christianity is NOT a religion of self-help.  Truly, there is nothing you can do to earn your salvation.  Once God has saved you, there is nothing you can do to be conformed into the likeness of Christ.  There is no ten step program to ending your struggle with sin.   Trying harder will not bring the results you seek.   There is only one way that anyone is conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ, and that is meek submission to God and the conviction of God’s Spirit in you.  In other words, the work of making what you are now into someone who looks like God incarnate will not come as a result of you working harder.  If it was possible to work harder to become like God, we wouldn’t need Jesus, and Christianity would be unnecessary.

Hear me well.  What I am NOT saying is that it takes no effort to be a devoted Christian.  What I AM saying is that the work of being conformed into a holy being is entirely beyond your capability–it is a truly God-sized task.  You are a co-worker with God in the process, but the heavy lifting is done by God at work in you.  He’s the God of the universe, He built you and knows how you’re supposed to operate…He’s qualified to do this overhaul, and He’s got the tools.

At this point, it’s imperative that I make a brief stop off at legalism.  Legalism is the belief that people can sanctify (holyify, if that were a word) themselves by keeping a bunch of rules.   There are two main difficulties with legalism, though.  The first is that people become legalists so that they can please God, and then promptly create a bunch of rules that God doesn’t give in order to please Him.  Do you see the problem there?  Players don’t usually create new rules for a familiar game to prove that they are good at it.

If a baseball player decided he had 4 strikes instead of the normal 3 everyone else got when it came time to bat, it wouldn’t prove that they were good at baseball–it would prove they didn’t really understand the game to begin with.  (Just for the sake of argument, if the guy chose to have only 2 strikes instead of 3, it would prove the same thing, even if to succeed playing the game that way would be harder.)  Changing the way the game is played is no way to prove you’re good at it.  The second problem is that legalism confuses people as to what the actual rules of the game are.  If you walked into a game with the person who gives themselves fewer strikes before they are out, it would be pretty confusing (especially if everyone is playing by their own rules)!

As an example of this, pretend you walked up to the people you know in the faith and asked them about what they thought about alcohol.  There’s an excellent chance that there are people you know who revile alcohol because of their faith.  Likewise, there is a good chance there’s people you know who believe in Jesus and would be quick to point out that Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding reception because the host had run out (John 2:1-11).  Both sides are toying with a dangerous line.  What the does the Bible say about alcohol?  Actually, apart from a complete and repeated prohibition against drunkenness (Galatians 5:16-21 is perhaps the strongest wording of that), it says remarkably little.  The command against drunkenness is more about intemperance than alcohol, though certainly alcohol would be involved in any sort of drunkenness.  But do you see how tricky it is?  If you completely rule out alcohol as inherently evil, you’ve gone beyond the Bible.  If you encourage the use of alcohol, you’re subtly enabling the sin of intemperance.  Your best bet is to do two things:  affirm that the Bible doesn’t condemn alcohol and then affirm that the Bible is against ALL kinds of intemperance, including drunkenness.   After that, take counsel with yourself–if you struggle with intemperance, alcohol isn’t for you.  If you’re constantly in the presence of people who struggle with intemperance, alcohol isn’t for you when you’re with those people. (Galatians 5 in context makes exactly this point, though it’s not speaking specifically about alcohol, but another issue in that church.)

So, when it comes to legalism, it fails in a pretty complete way.   Sadly, legalism is EVERYWHERE in the Christian church.  People are constantly making up rules about what ‘real’ followers of Jesus look like.  But before we criticize those folks who want to make new rules, we need to stop and take a look in the mirror and realize that there is a part of all of us that does this subconsciously.  We all have an idea of what “real faith” looks like, and how others should be living their lives.  We might think that certain music or clothes or language or whatever is “inherently unChristian.”  You may be right, but my suggestion to you tonight is to stop having the conversation about how others should live.  Your life is probably more than enough for you to handle.  Second, I would suggest that you make only one rule for yourself when it comes to rules:  that the Bible is the only one you’ll follow.  Be ruthless about making sure that these guidelines you’re setting for yourselves are in fact Biblical guidelines.   Forego the temptation to give yourself a hard and fast rule about things the Bible doesn’t condemn, and be 100% serious about things lying or intemperance or gossip or sexual impurity, which the Bible clearly condemns.  (And by the way, if you could somehow focus on just the four things I’ve just mentioned, you’d be doing pretty well.)  No one becomes a legalist on purpose–they do it because they’re trying to protect themselves and others.  But unfortunately, all rules we make for ourselves beyond the Scriptures end up being, in reality, our own form of legalism.  Don’t be a Pharisee!

So, if you’re following carefully, you’re asking yourself a question now:  “So what do I do?!?”

Glad you asked!

Start with reading your Bible.  Regularly.  God indwells the pages of your Bible and He is waiting for you to find Him there.  (John 1:1-18, Hebrews 4:12-13, 2 Timothy 3:14-16) He works through people reading what He has to say.  Before you read, ask God to show you what He’s like through what you read.  As you read, look for yourself in the pages–your struggles, your issues.  As you encounter things in the text that challenge you, stop and pray again that God would give you the attention it takes to look for places in your life where you need help to be more like Jesus.  When you go about your day, continue to remind yourself of what you’ve read and be on the lookout for places where you’re not living up to the standard.  To begin with, just try to notice how often you’re having a “sin issue”, but your goal should be continual prayer so that God’s Spirit begins to point out to you where you’re having that problem so that you can ask for the strength and help to overcome it with God’s help. (1 Corinthians 10:12-13) Notice here that two things are happening.  First, you’re really trying to figure out what God wants and you’re constantly asking God to help you become more like Him–you’re doing your part.  Second, when the moment comes when you could sin, you are trying to be more keenly aware of God’s Spirit both reminding you that you shouldn’t do it, AND you’re trusting in God to give you that strength to not do it.  You’re working side by side with God.

For example, if you struggle with lying, and you read Proverbs 6:16-19 and you remember you’ve told a lie recently and you realize you’re repeatedly not doing things God’s way, you should pray that God will show you your sin (how often you’re lying and to whom).   Because the Holy Spirit dwells in you as a follower of Jesus, there’s a part of you that should tweak on the inside when you lie.  (If there isn’t, the place to start to ask God to convict you of the sin of lying!)  The next time you consider telling a lie, try to catch yourself in it before you do it.  If you do, great…be sure to thank God for that!  If you don’t, at least do everything you can to catch it right afterward.  If you do tell a lie, you then have to do the next hard thing, and go and confess your sin to the person you lied to (talk about motivation for catching yourself before hand)!  While it’s never easy to go to someone and admit you lied, it is the Biblical thing to do.  If you manage that, you’ll have gone an important step towards being conformed to Jesus, and He’ll be working with that!

Your obedience and repentance are the portions of the equation you control.  Obedience is a continuous activity for disciples, the ongoing willingness to do things God’s way.  Repentance once God has convicted you of a sin is the other part–making the conscious decision to turn away from it and to ask God for help in overcoming it.  The rest of the process–you being convicted of a sin, acknowledging it, and being changed into the kind of person who doesn’t commit that sin anymore, is God working in you.

So forget the self-help approach to discipleship and throw yourself into obeying Jesus and repenting of the sins that He brings to your attention.  In case of life, skip trying harder and try smarter, with the God of the universe working along side you.  You’ll save yourself a ton of angry frustration from “trying harder” failing!