SPIRITUAL GROWTH BY GRACE NOT BY LAW.
The objective of this essay is to address the subject of spiritual growth, which has been stunted in the average Jehovah’s Witness by the WTS placing itself as the only means of spiritual growth for the Jehovah’s Witness. This is done by having the convert follow a list of rules instead of seeking after a relationship. True intimate relationship with Jesus and God the Father has been blocked by exaggerating and sometimes rationalizing God’s commandments. This has eclipsed the ability of a Witness to show true love and compassion within the organization and towards others outside. Traditions and legal requirements that originate outside of God are wrong regardless how holy they seem. Legalism is not the absence of rules, it is giving the rules a power that God never meant for them to have. It is trusting in the religious activity or practice rather than trusting in God who made the rule. The WTS rejects the Holy Spirit and puts itself as a divine mediator which must be obeyed in order to get to Christ and God.
In order to have spiritual growth, we have to understand that our need for spiritual growth will always be met by God according to His will. It comes from the understanding that not only is our salvation a gift from God that we were never able to obtain, but our salvation is something that we are never able to maintain. The majority of Christians these days carry a “do it yourself” attitude when it comes to their Christian walk. They thank God for their salvation, acknowledging that it was all by Him, and in the same breath tell God that they will handle it from there. They fully believe that they could never measure up to the standard that God set for them to be called just, and that it was by the grace of God that they were elevated to that position, but that they are capable of maintaining that position without the help of God.
Reading into the epistles of Paul, I can feel the frustration that Paul had when dealing with this problem and the teachings from which it originated. Paul was constantly at odds with a group of converted Jews called the Jewdiazers. They believed and taught that salvation came by the grace of God and that maintenance comes from the law.
Paul addresses this in Galatians:
3 1. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
2. This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3. Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
The translation down toned the anger that Paul expresses in verse one. He calls the Galatians unintelligent, and morons. He asked them, ‘Who tricked, who chumped you, who got you thinking that you can begin your salvation by God and then perfect it by yourself?’ The majority of Christians address their relationship with God in this manner. They thank God everyday for their salvation, but never look to him for the strength to keep them there. We as Christians believe firmly that we are unable to obtain salvation by good works [ the law],and that good works will never bring us up to the standard that God requires in the relationship for us to have fellowship with Him, therefore how can we logically believe that by our own effort, we can sustain it. It will always be a losing proposition. When a Christian tries to address his sin problem by himself, excluding God from the equation, he will always fail because he is concentrating on the problem and not on the solution.
When a Christian gets up in the morning and does his “Christian calisthenics,” he starts with his Christian push ups by saying, “I will not lust. I will not lust. I will not lust. MMM she did look good. But I will not lust. MMMM She should come jogging by about 12 , but I will not lust. I will not lust.” Guaranteed at twelve he will be there waiting for her to come by because since morning he was concentrating on the sin to help him cope with the sin, which lead him to sin. To get the flesh to deal with the problems of the flesh by getting the flesh to concentrate on what makes the flesh sin will always be a losing proposition. It is the same as instructing a crack addict to concentrate on crack to help him deal with his addiction. What will happen? That man will end up smoking rock because that is all that he thought about. And the same goes for the things of God.
But if we cannot concentrate on the sin, should we concentrate of the Law or the restrictions to help us cope with sin? The Commandments and the Law are good because they point out sin to us, but they were never given with the intention of being the solution to the problem that they point to. Just as we cannot concentrate on the sin we cannot concentrate on the law to help us. The Ten Commandments and the law were given to us by God so that we can see our sin. It was never given to us to be used to cope with our sins. The law points out our problem but never the solution.
It is the same as going to the doctor and telling him that you are experiencing chest pains. The doctor takes an x-ray to find out the problem. He shows you what is wrong with you with the x-ray, but he does not then take the x-ray and rub your chest with it. The x-ray was made with the intention of indicating the problem but never to be used as the solution, and the same goes for the things of God.
If concentrating on the sin or the law is not the solution that what should we tune into? Paul givesus the means of tapping into the solution in Gal 5
16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Notice what Paul does not say. He does not say that you will not have the lust of the flesh. You will always have the lust of the flesh but as long as you walk in the spirit you will not give into the lust of the flesh. The Spirit and the flesh are always at odds with one another. We are like an old TV. We receive two stations THS “The Holy Spirit” or TFC “The Flesh Channel” and you decide who you will tune into. For which ever one you tune into it will keep the other one in check. If you tune into the Spirit it will keep the flesh on a short leash. Or if you tune into the flesh the flesh will smother the work of the Spirit.
In Matthew 16 we see this happening with Peter. Here Peter switches stations on his spiritual turner.
13. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14. And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
15. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Jesus says that the answer Peter had for his question could have only come from heaven. This only came to Peter because he was tuned into the Spirit. Notice it only took from vs. 17 to vs. 22 for Peter to change channels.
21. From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
23. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Somewhere in vs. 21 Peter tunes into the flesh and receives transmissions from Satan. Peter adopts the ideas as his own and starts to rebuke Jesus, even gets spiritual about it. Jesus knowing the origins of Peter’s ideas does not rebuke Peter but Satan. Jesus knew that it was the ideas of Satan that were being picked up by sin that was in Peter’s flesh. In the flesh dwells no good thing because sin dwells in the flesh. Sin the receptor of temptation, which is being transmitted by either Satan or one of his demons.
Notice the fruits that you will bear depending on who you are tuned into.
Gal 5:19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21. Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Paul gives us the source of the solution in Gal 2
20. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Paul says that upon his acceptance of Christ his old sin nature died, and this was only possible through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Now that his old sin nature is dead, Christ deposited in him, a new nature the Spirit of Christ, and it is this new nature that now lives in him, Paul operates in the flesh by faith in the work of Christ.
So how does this work for me? Bring it home and how can I apply this?
Simple, when you wake up in the morning don’t do your Christian exercises. Just say “Lord, today, without you I will sin. Without you today I will lust, I will be angry, I will hate. But I pray that you will come into me and manifest yourself through me, so that I can love that person, so that I do not lust, or hate. Work through me so that I can experience the Christian life. {For the only one who lived the Christian life was Jesus.] When you understand that the solution will never be found in your performance but in our dependency on the sufficiency of God, then we will concentrate on the solution not the problem.
The solution is only found in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Throughout the Gospel Jesus speaks on many occasions on the subject of personal relationship.
Matt. 11: 28. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
John 14: 15. If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Jesus says in Matt. “Learn of me and you shall find rest.” Rest based on our relationship. In John Jesus says to his disciples that they will keep his Commandments because they love him, because of their relationship. Keeping the Commandments was a willful act because of the love, not the proof of the love. Jesus is not saying “learn of me” as an academic exercise. It is a personal connection. You need the academic knowledge to find your relational knowledge but it’s your relational knowledge that keeps your salvation. Notice the warning in Matt.
7: 22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Here Jesus accepts or rejects based only on relationship. Academic knowledge was not sufficient enough.
Just like the old saying, It’s not what you know but who you know that will get you in.
Heb 7: 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that comes unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Jesus is our advocate, mediator between us and God. He looks after our interest and presents them to The Father.
Jesus has a personal relationship with his father. For us to get our request to the Father we have to have a relationship with Jesus. Jesus is the middle man who we need to connect to personally so that we can connect with God.
In 1980 Pope John Paul came to New York. He stayed at St Patrick’s Cathedral for two days. On the morning of the second day he was holding audiences. There was a long line of individuals who wanted to see the Pope. In the line were politicians, governors, mayors, ambassadors, and leaders of private industry and leaders of other religions. If they were lucky to get in they would get three to five minutes with the Pope. During the drizzle up walked an old couple, and there was nothing important about them, nothing that made them stand out. They walked up to the door gave their names and were whisked in. They had a private audience with the Pope that lasted for about 45 minutes. They spoke like they knew each other for years. After looking into the couple they found that they were middle class, somewhere from the northeast, he was retired blue collar worker, and she was a housewife. They lived in a simple single family house. There was not one thing special about them. Now what was so important about them that got them in? It so happened that their son is a priest; this priest is the personal attendant of the Pope. He follows the Pope around every moment the pope is awake. This couple had a person al relationship with someone who had a personal relationship with the Pope. This old couple did not get to see the pope based on their performance, position, power, or wealth. Their entry was solely relational. And so are the things of God.
It is based on grace. A grace based Christian understands that salvation
came by the grace of God and maintaining it will come solely by the grace
of God, based on his relationship with Jesus. The grace based Christian will
follow the moral things of God because he wants to, because he enjoys them,
and finds no restrictions in following them. The law based Christian does
it, hates it, is miserable over it, and it suffocates him. Now if you find
your Christian walk being described as law then you have not yet reached your
full potential. You can be stuck on two of the three levels of morality that
which are levels of undeveloped personal morality. The first is pre conventional
morality -- punishment and reward. Do the right thing to avoid a punishment
or receive a reward. This is the Law Christian. He follows God to avoid punishment
or receive his reward. In other words- heaven or hell. The second is conventional
morality to conform to the social norm, to go with the flow. This Christian
follows what is ever acceptable at that time by his church. He goes with the
flow without question. This type does not do much thinking and only follows
orders. This one has the most tendencies to be found in the jungles of
You have two dogs, the grace dog and the law dog. The law dog is taught obedience. He gets hit with the paper, or the shoe when he does something wrong. He is walked on a choke collar to keep him in line. This dog fears its master. It approaches its master with its tail between its legs, because it is afraid that it has not lived up to the standard that its master has set for it. Now the grace dog walks without a leash. It does the same things that the law dog does without having to experience the pain of obedience. He wags his tail when his master comes home. Why? Because the grace dog and his master have a relationship based on love. It is because of the bond that they have between them that the grace dog does the wishes of his master without being told and wags his tail while doing it.
Paul writes on many occasions that we cannot benefit from grace and keep the law.
In Galatians 5 he addresses this.
1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
3. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
4. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Paul is telling the Galatians to rely on the grace of God to help them threw and not to revert back to the law to help them, because the law only became their master and not their solution. He warns that any man that reverts back to the law is obligated to keep the whole law, and he has fallen from grace because he did not put his trust in Jesus to help him threw but himself.
Romans 7:1. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Here Paul uses marriage to make an analogy of grace and law. Paul states that a woman is bound to her husband as long as her husband is alive. But when her husband dies she is not bound to him anymore by law. But if her husband lives and she marries another she is an adulteress. And the same goes for grace and law. Because of the work of Christ, the law is dead to us and we are not bound to it anymore. But if we want to live by grace and law, we are spiritual adulterers.
There was a story of a girl named Amy. She was married to a man named Phil. Phil was a rule driven law, list motivated man. He did this at seven because of this, he did this at six because of this, and he had a list for Amy everyday. Amy always walked on egg shells, not because Phil was a bad man or that he wanted Amy to do bad things it was because Amy did not know if she lived up to the expectations that Phil put in the marriage. One day Phil dies. Amy was so used to living under the thumb of Phil she could not live without Phil. So she has Phil stuffed and brought home. Now she can continue to ask Phil what to do. “Is this a good dress Phil? Where shall I go Phil?” Phil was there in her life because she always had Phil in her life. One day her car breaks down. In walks a man named Jim. They hit if off. He likes brunettes and she has a thing for men with tool belts. Jim loves her, Jim adores her, Jim brings out feeling in Amy that long have died in the relationship with Phil. Amy finds herself doing things for Jim without the requirements of Phil, because of the deep relationship between them. She did it because she wanted to not because she had a list of rules to follow. They decide to get married, and live in Amy’s house. When Jim carries Amy into their new home, his jaw hits the floor, because he sees Phil sitting in the living room. Amy tells Jim, that she loves him but she had Phil around so long that she still needs him. She brought her new love into her old house to meet her dead husband. Jim being true to himself tells Amy that she must either bury her old husband and live with her new love or leave her new love and go live with her dead husband, she cannot have both.
When we came to Jesus Christ, we were told that we were free. But many Christians that are stuck in pre conventional or conventional thinking have been married to Phil for so long they cannot let Phil go. Jesus states clearly that he will not abide in the inner most being of someone that still has a dead man calling the shots.
It is not that the rules are bad; it is that many Christians have placed their eternal destiny on their performance based on those rules rather than on their faith in Jesus Christ. They give the rules a power that the rules were never meant to have. God never gave the Ten Commandments or the Law as the means for salvation; otherwise there will not be a need for Jesus Christ. God sent Jesus Christ as our only means of salvation and that is where we should put our trust, not a list of rules. You can spend your whole life editing your list of rules and trying to follow them, or you can tear up you list and put your trust in the one that knows the journey and has offered to take you there.
One day when I was driving my rig I needed directions to get to my destined
delivery point. So I asked someone who knew the area for directions to get
to my destination. He told me go three lights turn left; two lights turn right,
come to a McDonalds turn right, bear left at the fork. He gave me the rules
that I had to follow to get to where I wanted to go. I heard the rules, and
I wrote down the rules and I had to follow the rules to get to where I wanted
to go. What would it be like of that person said, “You’ve been slamming gears
all night, you look tired, and why don’t you let me drive you there?” That
would change the whole journey. Now I became the passenger and someone else
took over the driver’s seat. I did not need to worry if this is the third
right, or the right McDonalds or can my truck make it down that road. Someone
else that did not need a list and knew where he was going was doing all the
driving and I can sit back and relate with him. Many Christians go to church
in search of a list that will lead them to victory, lead them to freedom,
lead them to liberation, but Jesus Christ says, “If you just move over and
let me do the driving and I’ll take you there, because I know the journey.”
That is grace.
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