Chapter 5 - We Don't Work for God Anymore

Notes for "We Don’t Work for God Anymore"

Introduction:

What’s the difference between Christianity and the Christian religion? Many Christians, and almost everyone who is not a Christian, believe there is no difference…they are just a matter of semantics, two different terms that describe the same thing. Is it just a matter of semantics? I don’t think so.

The Christian religion is a system of values, rules of conduct and beliefs derived from the Bible that govern the devotee’s life. The first difference between the Christian religion and most other religions, is the source of authority. For the Buddhist, the authority is the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama; for the Hindu, it’s the Vedic scriptures; for the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, it’s the Book of Mormon; for the Muslim, it’s the Koran; and for the Christian, it’s the Bible.

The devotees of religion study their book of authority to learn what they must do to please their "higher power" and thus receive an eternal reward. They’re focus is on complying with the directives of their "higher power" in order to avoid the negative and gain the positive. The devotees of the Christian religion are somewhat different from other religions because they understand that they can never be "good enough" to "earn" eternal life and therefore, depend on God’s grace for their salvation. But once they have received the "gift," they understand that the next phase begins, God has done His part, now they must do their part and their life begins to very closely resemble the life of the followers of other religions. They study the Bible to learn what they must do to please God and strive to comply.

Christianity is not a religion at all, it describes the living relationship between Jesus Christ and those who, by faith, reckon themselves to have been crucified with Him, absorb into their consciousness the life of Christ and allow Him to express that life through their bodies. Biblical Christianity focuses on what God did for us at Calvary by taking away our sins and what He does through us when by the Holy Spirit, He lives inside us.

In Grace Land, we don’t work for God anymore!

What differences do you see between Christianity and the Christian religion?

	The Christian religion sees the Bible as God’s final revelation to humans and teaches that by careful study the truth can be understood and obedience can be realized. Christianity says that God’s final revelation is God Himself communicating to humans through the Holy Spirit who alone can illuminate the Bible so that truth can be understood and that the only obedience that pleases God is that which comes from Christ living His life through human bodies.
	The Christian religion sees the teachings of Jesus as the more complete revelation of what God requires from His followers and their emphasis is on personal effort and commitment to complying with these demands. Christianity sees the teachings of Jesus as the more complete revelation of what God requires from His followers and rejoices in the Good News that Jesus Himself has met all God’s demands and offers His life of perfect obedience in exchange for the believer’s life of failure.
	The Christian religion believes that its devotees are responsible for advancing God’s Kingdom in the earth and that if they fail, others will be eternally lost. Christianity believes that God alone is responsible for advancing His Kingdom in the earth, that He gives His followers the privilege of being physically present when He does the work through them. They understand that God has given each individual the sole responsibility of choosing their eternal destiny, and no one can be responsible for another’s choice.
	The Christian religion believes that the lesson to be learned from example of Israel is that failing to obey God always results in defeat. Christianity believes that the lesson to be learned from the example of Israel is that failing to trust God and depend on His provision always results in defeat.
	In short, the Christian religion stresses doing while Christianity stresses depending.

How does a Christian become vulnerable to becoming involved in the Christian religion and losing his focus on Christ?

We have seen several forms of government in different parts of the world. Of the following, which economic model has been clearly demonstrated to be the most efficient and effective?

	Dictatorship
	Capitalism
	Communism
	Socialism

To the unregenerate heart, capitalism is the most appealing economic model because there is a direct correlation between effort and benefit. The worker is paid, but the entrepreneur receives the greatest reward. When a person becomes a Christian, his righteous standing before God is immediate, but the regeneration of his heart is a process that continues through out the remainder of life here. Unless the new believer understands "the Christ life", he will be vulnerable to the Christian religion, which can be described as spiritual capitalism.

Let’s look at Joshua 6:2-5: Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Look, I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its fighting men. March around the city with your army once a day for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets made from horns of male sheep and have them march in front of the Ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times and have the priests blow the trumpets as they march. They will make one long blast on the trumpets. When you hear that sound, have all the people give a loud shout. Then the walls of the city will fall so the people can go straight into the city."

List three similarities between how God gave the victory to Israel at Jericho and how He wants to give victory to Christians today:

At Jericho, God broke down the wall that separated Israel from their promised reward. At Calvary, God broke down the wall that separated us from others and our promised reward.

(Christ himself is our peace. He made both Jewish people and those who are not Jews one people. They were separated as if there were a wall between them, but Christ broke down that wall of hate by giving his own body. The Jewish law had many commands and rules, but Christ ended that law. His purpose was to make the two groups of people become one new people in him and in this way make peace. It was also Christ’s purpose to end the hatred between the two groups, to make them into one body, and to bring them back to God. Christ did all this with his death on the cross. Ephesians 2:14-16)

At Jericho, the people participated, but none of them thought that their efforts made the walls come crashing down…noise doesn’t tear down stonewalls! In our victory, we participate, but God does all the work…He alone has the power!

At Jericho, Israel had the victory when God made the promise, but the walls didn’t fall down the first day…they came down according to God’s plan. We have the victory when we believe God’s promise, but the results don’t always show up immediately in our lives, they come according to God’s plan.
What does it mean to rest in Christ?

To "rest" in Christ means to trust Him as our Savior and our Life Source, depending on Him to empower our actions with His strength and direction.

What is the difference between resting in Him and being passive?

"Resting" does not result in passivity, it doesn’t mean that nothing happens, it just means that we don’t make it happen, He does! Passivity never comes from trusting Jesus to live His life in us, it only comes when we stop trusting Him, try to do it ourselves, fail and quit trying! That’s when we become passive!

What keeps the believer from the danger of passivity?

The same thing that keeps the believer from any danger…the indwelling Spirit of Christ!

What is man’s part in salvation?

Man’s part in salvation is making the choice to receive God’s gifts of faith to believe, forgiveness, reconciliation, righteousness, holiness, victory and sanctification, which bring both eternal and abundant life.

What is the Christian’s part in the process of his won spiritual growth?

The Christian’s part in his/her own spiritual growth is to surrender completely and "look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect" (Hebrews 12:2) and to trust Jesus to keep His promise "that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6).

The Christian’s only responsibility is to respond to God’s ability!!!!

Let’s look at Genesis 15:1-18:

1 After these things happened, the Lord spoke his word to Abram in a vision: "Abram, don’t be afraid. I will defend you, and I will give you a great reward."

2 But Abram said, "Lord God, what can you give me? I have no son, so my slave Eliezer from Damascus will get everything I own after I die."

3 Abram said, "Look, you have given me no son, so a slave born in my house will inherit everything I have."

4 Then the Lord spoke his word to Abram: "He will not be the one to inherit what you have. You will have a son of your own who will inherit what you have."

5 Then God led Abram outside and said, "Look at the sky. There are so many stars you cannot count them. Your descendants also will be too many to count."

6 Abram believed the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abram’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.

7 God said to Abram, "I am the Lord who led you out of Ur of Babylonia so that I could give you this land to own."

8 But Abram said, "Lord God, how can I be sure that I will own this land?"

9 The Lord said to Abram, "Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old male sheep, a dove, and a young pigeon."

10 Abram brought them all to God. Then Abram killed the animals and cut each of them into two pieces, laying each half opposite the other half. But he did not cut the birds in half.

11 Later, large birds flew down to eat the animals, but Abram chased them away.

12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep. While he was asleep, a very terrible darkness came.

13 Then the Lord said to Abram, "You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers and travel in a land they don’t own. The people there will make them slaves and be cruel to them for four hundred years.

14 But I will punish the nation where they are slaves. Then your descendants will leave that land, taking great wealth with them.

15 And you, Abram, will die in peace and will be buried at an old age.

16 After your great-great-grandchildren are born, your people will come to this land again. It will take that long, because I am not yet going to punish the Amorites for their evil behavior."

17 After the sun went down, it was very dark. Suddenly a smoking firepot and a blazing torch passed between the halves of the dead animals.

18 So on that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram and said, "I will give to your descendants the land between the river of Egypt and the great river Euphrates."

What part did Abram play in the covenant God made with him?

God told Abram the animals to bring and he did. Abram prepared the animals for sacrifice, but when God ratified His covenant with Abram, He knew that Abram would make promises he could not keep and so God placed Abram into a deep sleep…God took Abram’s place in the ratification of the covenant. In essence, God said, "Abram, you rest while I ratify our covenant and you trust me to do all the work and keep all the promises…you just be the recipient of all that I do."

What part do Christians play today in the New Covenant?

The New Covenant is no different…God, in Christ, is on both sides of the covenant and He says to each of us, "You just rest and trust that at Calvary, I ratified our covenant…you simply depend on Me and be the recipient of all I’ve done to make our friendship last for all of eternity."

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