Grace-driven effort

"Grace is not opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning". - Dallas Willard

These are my notes from Matt Chandler's sermon on 6/6/10. I have heard the following quote used a lot lately and he unpacks it in this sermon so I thought it was worth writing down as much as I could.

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." - D.A. Carson

Nobody accidentally becomes godly. So how do you pursue godliness without stepping outside what has freely been given to you and instead find yourself pursuing a Christian checklist of godly behavior? Christian living requires movement. It's not static. The following are 6 ways that godliness is properly pursued through grace-driven effort.

1) Grace-driven effort comes from a new heart. The idea of regeneration. Romans 1 - walking in darkness and God justifies us and gives us eyes and ears to see and hear. The legalist pursues God out of pride that comes from living up to a certain standard. The motivation is applause of men. The idea of godliness to a legalist usually involves killing one sin with another, i.e. killing lust with self righteousness. But no matter which wins...sin wins.

2) Grace-driven effort uses the weapons of grace...the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13), the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and the promises of the new covenant (Hebrews 9:15). Where you have earned the wrath of God, Christ has intervened. The Scriptures are the primary weapon against the residual effects of the old creature. The legalist uses the Law to try to conform to perfection but it has never worked for anyone. It's an arrogant thought to think you are the one who can pull it off.

3) Grace-driven effort attacks the roots and not just the branches. You can't separate your heart from your thoughts and actions. The latter is an indicator of the former. You get to the heart so the behavior may be changed.

4) Grace-driven effort fights for a reason that goes well beyond easing our conscience and finding temporal peace. It's not built on, "Oh, I feel bad about me." It says, "I have grieved the Holy Spirit and have sullied the image of the Creator of the universe." Our hearts break because God has been so good to us and we have mocked Him with our thoughts and actions. David says, "I have sinned against you alone." Conviction is a great indicator of a heart issue. Our motivation sbould not be, "I hate this about me." Paul says to be wary of worldly sorrow as it leads to death in the end. Godly sorrow leads to repentance.

5) Grace-driven effort comes from being dead to sin not just forsaking it. The believer will not serve sin because his nature is contrary to sin. You don't have to say "yes" to your sin. You are not bound to it any longer.

6) Grace-driven effort is rage-filled and violent toward residual sin inside of us. Our holiness wants to murder sin in our heart...mortifying the flesh. The legalist doesn't necessarily want to kill sin...they want to train it. So if they need some comfort it is there to run back to rather than running to God. Sin will eventually turn on you and kill you no matter how much you have tried to control it. We need to understand that when sin takes us out it isn't just about us...there is always collateral damage to others in our lives.

Colossians 3:11 - "Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all."

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/some-proven-weapons-in-the-fight-for-holiness

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/06/14/gospel-driven-effort/