Stop Trying to Pay God Back. That Was Never the Plan. Ep 196

0:00If Jesus has already done everything necessary to save you, why bother trying to be good anymore? I mean, if salvation is completely by grace, and it is, if you can't earn it, if you can't improve on it, or contribute anything to what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross, and you can't, well then why obey? I mean, why fight sin so hard? Why forgive somebody who's hurt you? I mean, Jesus can forgive your unforgiveness, right? And your disobedience, right? I mean, why do the right thing when nobody's watching? The answer reveals something beautiful about the Christian life, and it's important we understand this. We don't obey God so that he will save us. We obey God because he already has. If you are truly saved, quick shout out to our friends at the Alliance Defending Freedom, the superhero lawyers fighting for our rights and our liberties, more about them in a minute.

1:00My routine in the morning is I wake up, I hear Rocky the Rooster in the backyard crowing, I love the sunrise, flip on a pot of coffee, and I start reading my Bible. Now, I've got a couple other helps like catechisms. I've been reading through the Heidelberg catechism, and on the Lord's Day, number 32, it asks this question. Since then, we are redeemed from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of ours, that echoes Ephesians 289, why then must we do good works? Now, not why should we want to, but why must we do good works? So, in other words, if Jesus already did it all, what's left for us to do? Now, if I'm Mormon, I might say, well, I'm saved by grace after all that I can do, right? Like, after all that I can do, then Jesus makes up the rest. Well, that's not what the Scripture say. The Christian life is not a payment plan for a loan that he's given to us to pay for our salvation,

2:04and then we pay it off like an installment plan, like a layaway plan that for something you bought it target. No, God doesn't save you in me and then hand us a bill. Jesus didn't make a down payment at Calvary, and then tell you in me to cover the rest with good behavior for the rest of our lives. Salvation, this is the beautiful thing, is entirely a work of grace, a gift from God. So, our obedience, according to the Bible, is not the price of our salvation. We don't pay for it by obeying God. It is the gift of God and the result of our salvation. I was reading this this morning in Romans chapter 6. Paul says, present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Okay, let me unpack that. The phrase is, you are alive from the dead.

3:05So, how did we die? We're walking around. We're living, breathing people. Well, we've died in terms of being disconnected from the life of God because of our sin. And now, we've been made alive through Christ and us being in Him. Jesus didn't simply forgive us and then leave us where He found us. Not guilty. He gave us His Spirit and began making us new. And then, there's another part of the work of Christ that we sometimes overlook. We often talk, and rightly, about Jesus dying for us. But Jesus didn't only die for us. He also lived for us. Here's a great story. Shortly before His death on New Year's Day in 1937, theologian, J. Gresham Makin, sent a letter to a friend. And he said, I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.

4:06Now, he's talking about a very precise aspect of the gift of our salvation. Think about this. Here's a man approaching death, a brilliant theologian. He wasn't looking back at his own accomplishments to assure him that all was right with God. No, his confidence that all was right between Him and God was Jesus. And specifically, he was thankful for the active obedience of Jesus. Let me explain what that is. Jesus did something that you and I have never done. He perfectly obeyed his father. Every command without flaw, every moment of every day, every thought, every word, every action. And theologians throughout history have sometimes described Christ's work as his active obedience and his passive obedience. So his active obedience refers to his perfectly righteous life, always honoring and obeying God.

5:08His passive obedience refers to his willingness to submit himself to humility, suffering, and death for our sins. So he both lived the life we cannot live and he died the death necessary to redeem us. That makes sense. So where does that leave our good works in light of these two things Jesus did? Well, one thing it's not is our works never turn into a means of earning our salvation. Christ did that on the cross. Rather, our obedience is the right response of a heart filled with gratitude. Imagine you're drowning. You're completely helpless. You're going under when all of a sudden someone jumps in and pulls you out of the water. You wouldn't stand up on the other side of the pool. Catch your breath and say, okay, how much do I owe you? No, you would say thank you.

6:10And if someone had actually given his own life to save yours, gratitude wouldn't simply be something you said. It would change the way you lived your life. You would feel indebted to that person until you're dying breath. That is the Christian life. And that's the right response to what Jesus has done for us. Mercy comes in to save us. Obedience is the response of gratitude that follows. So grace comes first, gratitude follows. And even then, we can't pat ourselves on the back and say, well, look how good I've become. Look how grateful I am. I'm proud of myself. No, because God gives us His Holy Spirit. And He produces all of that within us. Galatians chapter 5 says that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

7:11goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So think of it. All of the good deeds that you do, all the gratitude that you have, all of the obedience, whose fruit is that? It's not yours. It's the spirits. Yes, we obey. We discipline ourselves. We are the ones who have to resist the temptation. We're the ones who have to make difficult choices. But underneath all of it is God graciously working His miraculous power in us. Right? That's what scripture says. Paul says in Philippians, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. You see that? This isn't saying that your works purchase your salvation. It's God working in you that produces all of these good works. So maybe there's something that God has been putting His finger on in your life.

8:16Maybe a sin that you've been fighting. Something you need to forgive. Maybe an apology that you know you need to make. Maybe there's something dishonest that is turning into a pattern that needs to stop. Don't grit your teeth and say, man, I better straighten myself out so that God will not disown me. And He will love me. No, that's backwards. Instead, remember what Christ has already done. Remember His mercy. Remember what He did for you on the cross. Remember that you belong to Him. And then with a heart filled with gratitude, turn from your sin and honor Him. Obey Him. Remember 1 Corinthians chapter 10 says, therefore, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. Not so that you're going to get saved, but because He's rescued you,

9:17like the guy who rescues you out of the pool, whatever you do now, honor Him. You see, Christianity is not just a Sunday, be good kind of religion. Christianity should reach into your marriage and how you treat your wife or your husband. It should reach into your parenting, your business, your finances, the way you handle money, your friendships, the way you treat other people, including how you treat your enemies. And the people you don't like, your whole life as a Christian, becomes an opportunity to say, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for this difficult situation. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity and this temptation to find the way of escape that you've provided. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to deny myself, take up my cross and follow you, and to serve other people to consider this person who's being difficult and their needs as more important than my own. Thank you, Lord. That's how I can respond because of what He did for me.

10:18You see, our good works are our gratitude made visible and other people can see it. And it doesn't make sense to them. Your children can see it. Your spouse can see it. Your friends and your coworkers can see it. They may never end up reading the Hyalborg Catechism. They may never end up reading the Bible. They may not ever know the difference between passive and active obedience, but they will understand patience. They totally understand generosity. They understand forgiveness and integrity because it's so rare and they value it when they are in its presence. And then when they ask you why you live differently, you can point beyond yourself and you say, I'm just blown away by what God has done for me. He's been so kind. Jesus has been so incredibly good to me. So today, if you're working to please God and gain His acceptance,

11:24if you're looking to anchor your security and confidence about heaven in being a good person, ditch that plan. Don't ask what do I have to do to make God accept me, ask because of everything Christ has done for me, not just on the cross, but last night, giving me a good night's sleep, not treating me according to my sins, waking me up in his mercy. How can I honor him today? How can I care for the people he's put in my path today? How can I serve somebody? How can I forgive somebody who needs to be forgiven? I can think of a few. Then keep your word, tell the truth, love your family, resist that besetting temptation. Do the work that God has put in front of you with excellence. And then don't demand anything in return. Consider your reward, the opportunity to honor God and then give glory back to the one who gave you the strength to do it.

12:29Because good works will never earn what only Christ can accomplish. They only mean anything worthy if they are the grateful fruit of his kindness to you. I want to tell you about CHM. Is health insurance keeping you from finding the right doctor? If you're feeling restricted, now's the time to check into Christian healthcare ministries. CHM is a Christian alternative to health insurance, which means you only pay half the cost while getting even more provider options. My family and I love CHM and how it gives us the ability to find the doctor, the surgeon, the hospital that's right for us without worrying about provider networks. With CHM, members show up for each other in real ways. You're switching from a broken system to one that actually works and gives you assurance financially and spiritually. So if you're single or rowing your family or retired, there's options. Members can choose between four flexible, low-cost

13:34programs that will suit your needs. So why limit yourself? Make the switch before getting locked into another insurance plan. Start today by visiting CHministries.org slash Kirk and use promo code Kirk for a 50% credit toward your first month. That's CHministries.org slash Kirk and use promo code Kirk. As an American, staying informed and being prepared is an important part of participating in our elections. And that's why I'm excited to tell you that we've partnered with At Vote. So whether you've moved, changed your last name or haven't voted in a while, it's important to make sure that your voter registration is up to date. I just checked mine. The good news is that with At Vote, it only takes 30 seconds to check your registration and make sure you're ready when election day comes. So important. So if you're interested in being prepared and staying informed about upcoming elections, go to vote.online. Follow at vote at Instagram or tap the link in the show notes under this episode for more information. I want to tell you about my friends at Alliance Defending

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15:43All right, let's open up the mailbag and get to the questions that you've been writing to me. Thanks so much and continue to send in these really great questions in the comments section on our YouTube channel. All right, this one's from Jenna Carlisle. Hey, Kirk, I love your work with Ray Comfort at Living Waters and the great work of angelizing you did. Why don't you street evangelize anymore? I love working with Ray Comfort as well. And if you're not sure who Ray Comfort is, those of you who are hearing his name for the first time, he's the guy from New Zealand with the mustache and the beard and the funny accent. And he asks people, ever told a lie, ever looked with lust, ever of a stolen anything? And he asks people how you get to heaven and how you get to hell. We did a show called The Way of the Master. So those were great years and Ray and I are still friends. But we've we've really kind of answered the call to different ministries now after 10 years, 15, 20 years of being friends. Ray's continuing open air preaching. He's making documentaries. He's got a podcast. I'm doing this show hosting takeaways, other documentaries and doing a

16:45children's television show called Iggy and Mr. Kirk with Brave Books. So so glad that you brought up such great memories and highly encourage anyone who's interested in evangelism technique. Check out Ray Comfort at Living Waters Ministries. All right, Kendra Hollis says, hey, Kirk, I respect you a lot. But I do have a question. Oh, there's a but. Where does our value come from? I know the correct answer is God, but I feel like without stable finances and achieving goals in my life, I wouldn't be happy with who I am. Also, doesn't that message that our value comes from God make people less ambitious to become something? Kendra, I think this is a really good question. The scriptures say to your point, he who doesn't provide for his own family is worse than an unbeliever. Isn't that talking about being employed and paying the bills, staying up with stable finances and achieving goals? I would say yes, but there is a greater responsibility that we have that trumps everything else. As important as loving our families and taking care of our families are, I am completely missing

17:49the point as a father. If I focus all my attention on paying the bills, but I fail to honor God and find my value in him, because what happens if my identity and my worth is so rooted in my ability to pay my bills and be financially stable, if I lose my job, then what? Bottom gets pulled out, and I feel like a failure and I'm a zero. Often that happens to people and they wind up so demoralized, all the the wind has been taken out of their sales, think of actors or people who base their identity off of their achievements and their efforts academically or athletically, or with some sort of a skill in the arts when they get into an accident or they get older and those things are no longer supplying that identity. What happens to them? No, no, no. God says those things are gifts and they're all temporary. Your identity and worth has got to come from your relationship with Christ. You're made in his image. That's where you find worth. You have been saved by his grace.

18:49That's where you find identity and redemption in Christ. Now take all of these other things like your responsibilities and your skills and opportunities and serve God and care for others with those things. Does that make sense? So they go together. It's not either or. It's identity in Christ first, serve and take care of your sacred responsibilities as a person secure in God. I hope that makes sense. Okay, Graham Finley says, Kirk, your episode on forgiveness really hit home for me. A friend of mine recently did something that really hurt me and he apologized. I do believe he's genuinely sorry, but I don't trust him like I used to, especially after this. I want to do what's right before God and how I act, but does forgiving someone mean you have to trust them again? No. Forgiving someone is not the same thing as you have to trust them again. I have a very real situation in my life where I had a financial advisor manager who while I was on growing pains stole half the money I made as a

19:56kid on that show and other people's money, both in our show and other show because he was a trusted financial supervisor. Nobody would have expected and that this was the guy who was the thief. Well, I forgave him because I was a Christian. I felt sorry for someone who was just in such a place that he betrayed the very friends who trusted him most, but do you think I'm still going to hire him as my financial manager? No, of course not. Right? So if someone abuses a child, you can forgive someone for their evil act, but you're not going to hire them to babysit your grandkids, right? That's just responsibility. And so we've got to learn how to hold these two things. And I get it. It can be confusing. Sometimes we think forgiving someone means we act like nothing ever happened. Well, no, that's not true. That's just failing to have discernment, failing to protect people, failing to put up boundaries that are both good for the perpetrator and for the victim. Now,

20:58when the man asked Jesus how many times do I need to forgive my brother? Jesus said, uh, 70 times seven times, right? Forgive the way that you've been forgiven. How much do you hope God will forgive you, like endlessly? Um, because we sin much more often than we wish was the case. And so we're to forgive others, but we're also called to discern between good and evil to provide and protect for our families. That doesn't mean that we have to trust them again in areas where they've demonstrated that they're not trustworthy. It just means we can't hold an IOU over their head and make them pay till the day they die. Get the difference. All right. Wyatt Monroe says, hey, Kirk, I have two sons, and one of them has recently been asking me questions about God that I don't have the answers to. My wife and I do our best to pray as a family before dinner, and I try to read my Bible and take everyone to church. But it seems like the questions my son has about God are above my pay grade.

21:59But I don't want to dismiss them or pretend I know something I don't and deceive him. I guess my question is how do I point my son to God when I don't know the answers to his questions? We appreciate your input. Thanks. Wyatt, welcome to the Christian life. Welcome to parenting. And your instincts are exactly right. One of my favorite Christian apologists who answers lots of difficult questions on college campuses posed by skeptics is, while he can answer many of his their questions, he has a response that sounds like this. forward. I do not know. And you know what's so great about that is that he demonstrates his humility, his humanity, and his transparency. Somebody who pretends or thinks they know everything is lying. Right? Because it's impossible. Some questions are above everyone's pay grade. The Pope doesn't know certain things. The top pastors in the Protestant or Orthodox world don't know certain the top theologians, the godliest men don't know certain things. Right? And the scripture say this. Right? Moses didn't know everything. The secret things belong to the Lord. And

23:04sometimes out of the mouth of babes come the most profound and difficult questions. Like, dad, why is the sky blue? Uh, dad, why does gravity work? Dad, how can the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit all be god? And yet you say there's only one god, the Trinity. How do you explain that? Well, we can describe things in the parts and and give them all labels and explain physics, but we can't tell you why God made the world the way that he did. There's many questions like that that we can describe, we can articulate the way they move, but we don't know the why apart from revelation in scripture. So I think get comfortable saying it's a great question, son. I don't know. Let's find the answer together. And then that's your opportunity to do some homework and discover the answer together with him, which by the way is better than you just giving him answers. Do you know why? Because you're teaching him how to look for answers to difficult questions,

24:06which he's going to have to do as a teenager. He's going to have lots of questions about girls and about relationships and other religions that he doesn't have yet. And when he has those questions, he might not feel comfortable asking you about them, but he'll know how to find the answers because you did it with him when you were with him. So this is actually a great situation that you're in. Kaysadhi Kross says, my grandpa passed away a few months ago and he was one of the most important people in my life. He was a really good man and always treated people well, but as far as I know, he never believed in Christ. I've been struggling with the loss, but also with the fear of where he is now. I know we're not the judge of someone's heart, only God is, but it's hard for me to wrap my head around. If God is good, then why does he send good people to hell for not believing in him? Sadie. I recently had an uncle who died, who I would describe very similarly to the way that your grandpa is described here in your email. It's really hard for me too.

25:11I believe the scriptures that salvation is possible and it cost God a great deal to provide it. The blood of his own son, it's a precious gift. It's rare and unique. We don't need a different way to heaven. Jesus also said that nobody is actually good enough to earn it. Not me, not you, not my uncle, not your grandfather, nobody. It's a gift that is freely offered to those who will receive it by faith. I can't change the way it works. Heaven and its doors open wide for those who receive the gift. Sadie, I want to say to you that your grandfather, the man he was, the impact that he had on you and the impact that he had on others that he treated fairly is real and it means something. He was a gift of God in your life and in everyone else's life. As far as where he is

26:18now, let this just be a reminder, a sobering reminder to all of us that each one of us will give an account of our lives to the God who gave us life. And our comfort and our confidence can always come back to knowing that God is good. His judgments are fair and righteous every single time. And this should motivate us to share the gospel with as many people as we can. Thank you all for your questions. These are so thoughtful and these are so heart probing into the very heart of our faith and what it means to be a human being in this life. Thanks for watching. I hope you have a great rest of the week. I'll see you next time.