What we Believe
Everything hinges on what you believe.
Politics. Relationships. Actions. Faith.
The Christian Faith is founded on a belief system. Salvation itself is based on a belief. Belief in Christ.
Salvation is not believing that Jesus is the Son of God. Many believe that, and are not saved. Satan himself knows that to be true. Nor is devoting yourself to His ways the path to salvation. (Matthew 7:22) No. That does not save you either.
Believing that Jesus paid fully for your sins on the cross is the only way we are Saved.
Believing is everything. What you believe makes all the difference. It literally defines you. Let’s be clear. God, The Father and our Creator has defined you, but what we believe is what defines us to ourselves. If we believe what God says about us and how He defines us then we are defined by Truth. But if we believe anything else about ourselves then we are defined by something other than the truth, because the truth is in God. The Truth is God.
Believing We Have a Need
The enemy knows that belief is so important. It is the game changer. For the unsaved, the enemy blinds their minds to keep them from believing that they have a need. What is the need? The need for Someone to pay for their past and future sins.
But something I used to not realize is, the enemy also uses ways to blind the minds of believers. I experienced this for many years in my own Christian Life. The enemy used legalism in the church to veil my understanding. This is an effective tactic he uses to blind the minds of believers. The enemy has already lost their soul, so one might wonder what is in it for him. His gain is to steal the joy, life, and freedom they could experience and make them doubt and focus on self righteousness and self condemnation. This serves to confuse those inside the church making them scared, insecure, and less effective to those outside the church. Not to mention it makes them off putting to people because they are often perceived as measuring their personal holiness to all others around them – believers and non.
The need that every believer should have is to believe that Someone earned their righteousness in their place. The enemy desires to blind believers from this need so that the believer will remain boastful (or sorrowful), striving, insecure and off putting.
The Holy Spirit
It is not until the Holy Spirit convinces (where we get the word convict) the non believer that he needs a Savior and convinces the believer that she needs the gift of righteousness, that the scales fall from both of their eyes.
Conviction of Holy Spirit has 2 purposes:
⁃ Convict the unbeliever of their sin
⁃ Convict the believer of their righteousness
The Holy Spirit convinced me of the need of a Savior some 30 years ago, but it was only a few years ago, after being a believer for over 30 years that the scales fell from my eyes to realize I needed the gift of righteousness. I had been made to believe by religion my whole life that I needed to earn it. Not only through Old Covenant laws, but also in silly things that aren’t even in the Bible. I have been in religious environments where new rules that do not even exist in the Old or New Covenants are made up to make you holier. One example is believing that those who allow their kids to dress up in princess, superhero, or other fun costumes on a certain day of the year and get candy from their neighbors aren’t as holy as others who don’t. Or those who don’t keep the floorboard of their car cleaned aren’t as holy as those who do. You see, if you buy into the belief that our own works make us holy or better than others, you can quickly go down a dangerous path and start to believe these things that have nothing to do with morals (certainly not holiness) and more to do with preferences and personalities which can be used to elevate one believer over another. This is certainly not of God. But it is the comparison and judgmental mindset where the enemy thrives. He wants to cause comparison, competition, and the never ending striving to be holier. These are the exact tactics he used with Adam and Eve in the garden – comparison, competition, self-righteousness.
Dangerous Traps of Religious Thinking
Once we buy into this mindset we can easily be controlled by the enemy. He appeals to our desire to be good. The enemy has found a clever way to make the church, through works-focused teachers and leaders as the puppeteers, a place where unsuspecting congregates are oblivious to the fact that they could be playing into his schemes. Not realizing these lies can come within religious organizations, they follow the instruction they learn in church which is sometimes masquerading as truth by teachers who use tactics of twisting and manipulation of scripture out of context. They teach attendees false information (often unknowingly because it was what they were taught) by mixing the Old and New Covenants as ways to relate to God when the only way we can relate to God is through Jesus. That is the New Covenant way. That was the entire reason for the New Covenant. It’s the only Covenant that we have been invited to. Mixing the two Covenants as instruction for New Covenant believers is the most effective way the enemy causes confusion in the lives of believers and the Church as a whole.
My Story
This was me until 2.5 years ago. I was confused and oblivious that I had been taught this works-based mindset for many years. I was and have been since I was a small child, a devoted follower of Christ who loved Him and served Him to the very core of my being, but was blinded to the fact that I don’t/can’t earn my own righteousness. I was blinded into thinking that good things I do more of make me more holy and bad things I do, when I mess up, make me less holy. I knew that salvation comes from Jesus alone, no works from me, but I thought after I was saved, I had to do more and more to become holier every day. Therefore, every day I tried as hard as I could.
Maybe you were taught this way too. I happened to be someone really good at doing good and even for good reasons. Like anyone I certainly mess up, but by and large I happen to be someone for whom “doing good” came easy. I used to actually think that very statement made me holier than others. That doing more good and good being easy for me, made me holier. (This is embarrassing, shameful, and humbling to write and admit). I never even contemplated that the reason doing good comes easy to me is because Jesus lives on the inside and because He already made me holy. I was taught for so many years to be good, so I thought I, Angel Moore, just did a really good job in accomplishing that. And I did. By all moral and church standards, that was very true. But by God’s standards it was never about what I did, but what Jesus did. What Jesus did for me, in me, through me and around me. It was all Jesus. It is all about His works, not mine.
Those who don’t believe they have a need for a Savior will not be saved and those who don’t believe they have a need for the gift of righteousness will try to earn their own – and sorry to spoil the ending, but the truth is you never can. No one can. You will be miserable trying. When you succeed, you feel prideful. When you mess up, you feel condemned. This is a miserable cycle. The enemy wants you in this cycle and has successfully used religion to get you there. Neither pride nor condemnation are from Jesus.
Jesus Is The Way
Jesus has a better way. The answer is Him! Righteousness is something only He earned and offers to each one of us as a free gift. When someone offers you a gift you have 3 options.
1. Accept it
2. Reject it
3. Accept it and store it away
All believers have accepted the gift of righteousness because it came with the package of placing their faith in Jesus paying for their sins on the cross, but I for one, stored away the gift of righteousness and instead tried to earn it on my own for many many years. In my mind, I was doing such a good job doing so many good things, that I didn’t even know I had a need.
It wasn’t until I went through a dark time in my life which began about four and a half years ago rendering me physically and emotionally debilitated for about 2 years, that I realized I had a need. Because I physically and emotionally couldn’t “do” all the good I had successfully been able to do my whole Christian Life up to that point, I realized I had a need for righteousness. I couldn’t supply it in my own strength because I had no more strength of my own. I literally couldn’t get out of the bed or off of the floor long enough to “do” anything good. I was worthless. And I believed that. Because my whole foundation of “holiness” had been built on “doing” and serving God and others. Since I no longer could do and serve, I was worthless. I had no value to God or people. I believed this because this had become my definition. This definition worked well as long as I could keep doing and striving to do more and more and build accomplishments making me holier and holier. But that all shattered when I couldn’t “do” anything at all.
I now recognized that I had a need. The first real need in my life since realizing my need for a Savior as a small child. That is when I became “poor in spirit.” (Matthew 5:3) I had the need to be righteous and holy and worth something, having value in some way other than by what I “do” because I couldn’t “do” anything.
We All Have Need
Before I had a need, I don’t know that I would have been impacted by someone with my story now. I would have possibly thought it inspirational, but still not realized my own need. Maybe that is you. Maybe you don’t have a need. Maybe you are doing well in all that you “do” like I was. I pray, that it doesn’t take going through something like I did for you to realize your need. Because we all do have it. We all have 2 fundamental spiritual needs
⁃ Salvation from our Sin
⁃ The gift of righteousness
Jesus offers them in a BOGO deal – and the way to “buy” is to buy-in through faith.
Self-Righteousness
I now see people like the old me all through the church. In fact, in the Bible Belt, people like me and my story are what most leaders and therefore their congregants look like. I see my old self everywhere in the church today. Those who have received salvation, but are storing the gift of righteousness. Ignoring it on a shelf trying to earn the status of righteous themselves.
The Man Who Didn’t Realize his Need
It reminds me of the many who Jesus said will try to impress Him by saying ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ (Matthew 7:22a) but Jesus won’t be impressed.
If you look at this guy’s resume, he did much more than pray, study the Bible, fast, give, sacrifice and serve. I mean wow! If you can earn righteousness then I would say the things that this guy did would beat out any of us today, but they didn’t. I’ve heard some teach that this scripture is just saying we have to have a relationship with Christ in addition to our works. Relationship is something that certainly results from or even leads to faith in Him. Relationship is key, but that is not what the scripture is saying in its context. In context, Jesus is speaking of how only a tree that is holy can produce holiness. Jesus is emphasizing that it’s not what we do, no matter how noble and devoted or good and godlike. All that matters is realizing we have a need. A need that can only be fulfilled in Jesus. Once we realize this need we can receive His gift of salvation that comes with righteousness. Only He makes us holy. Apart from the righteousness we receive from Jesus, even though at times we do good things, we all practice lawlessness. Jesus’ reply to the man was strong: “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:22b) The man seemed to boast in an effort to impress Jesus, but Jesus isn’t impressed by our works…However, He desperately longs to impress us with His.
Jesus isn’t impressed by our works, but He desperately longs to impress us with His
At the Gates of Heaven
This scenario is metaphorical of standing at the gate of heaven and Jesus asking – “Why should I let you in?” (which is not Biblical, but it paints a picture), and you responding with your Christian resume: I went to church, I served, I gave, I prayed, I fasted, I tithed, I was “convicted” often, and didn’t do a lot of bad things that other people did. I acted holy.
The point isn’t that these things are good or bad. They just aren’t the reason that we have life in Christ. None of these things make you holier and not doing them doesn’t make you less holy. It’s as if Jesus is saying to the man: it sounds like you only know yourself and what you did, sir. You were only focused on you and your works. But to enjoy life in Me, you have to know Me and what I did. You have to know that righteousness comes from Me. No one comes to the Father except through Me, so boasting of your works means I never even knew you. Boasting of My works instead, reveals I know you well because my blood covered every stain that would have separated you from the Father, and instead I made you holy. You were poor. You realized you had a need. And I know you because I made you rich in spirit.
Realizing the Need
Maybe you are like I was 2 and a half years ago when I realized my need. I realized that I was poor in spirit. Maybe you are realizing that about yourself now. If you are realizing this need, I pray that in this very moment the scales will fall from your eyes. That you will see what you have never seen before. I pray that you will see that you have been given salvation that paid for your past and future sins and that you have also been given the gift of righteousness. Whatever you are doing to be holier is null because you already are. You already are holy and righteous and spotless because of the Lamb of God. Nothing you can ever do will make you holier than that. In fact, it’s an insult to the cross to believe otherwise.
You Are Righteous
Maybe you have been rendered physically, or emotionally debilitated like I was for a time and you need to hear that you are holy. You are already righteous. As righteous as anyone else in Christ. Do not think of yourself as less than someone else that is “doing” more. Jesus doesn’t. You shouldn’t either.
The Light of Christ
Maybe you aren’t debilitated in any way other than by the lies you have believed that you are earning righteousness and becoming holier. Maybe you have been lead to believe that you will earn more blessing or favor by doing righteous and good things. Friend, that is how karma works, not Jesus. If that is you, then I pray you would feel the shackles of those lies fall to the floor. That the striving and trying, would fade away into a deep dark distance and the light of Christ and what He did on the cross to make you righteous would come into perfect focus. Now you will find that good works will be a result of who you already are. They are a passionate overflow of the One living in you instead of a checklist or litmus test to determine if you are holier than you used to be or holier than those around you. All of that is rooted in insecurity and false doctrine that the enemy has used to blind minds and create confusion. You are no more holy or less holy than the moment you declared Jesus as your Savior and you will never be any more holy or any less holy than anyone else who has declared Jesus as their Savior. We are changed from glory to glory. At salvation we start out as holy as we ever will be and the earthly behavior improvements that happen after, are a result and evidence of that constant holiness, not a notching increment of becoming something that we weren’t before. It’s a declaration of what already is, as we continue to learn and discover more of Christ lived out in us.
God prepared in advance good works for us to do because He has already made us righteous and able to do them. It’s not the doing them that makes us righteous. It’s because we are righteous that we can do good works.
Discipleship and Sanctification
Some might ask, “What then about discipleship and sanctification? Even biblical writers in the New Covenant have much to say about behavior.” This is a valid and accurate point. The purpose of the behavioral instruction given in the New Covenant is to exhort Christ followers to act on the outside as they have already been made on the inside. One example is when Peter reminds us to be holy because God is holy. (1 Peter 1:16) He doesn’t say become holy because God is holy. He says “be.” One can’t “be” unless one already is. Peter is basically saying act holy because that is what you are. Be who you are. Holy.
We don’t do to become, we are so we do.
Freedom of Christ
Christ offers freedom. Complete freedom.
But we don’t experience it when our beliefs don’t line up with His truths. His freedom alludes us
⁃ When we don’t believe we have a need
⁃ When we believe we can earn righteousness
⁃ When we don’t believe righteousness is a free gift or that all believers are equally holy
The Holy Comparison
To believe you are holier than someone else because of what you do or don’t do, is aligning your thoughts with the thoughts of those who went to throw stones at the women at the well. Jesus gave her grace and forgiveness because she had a need. Jesus is full of Grace and Truth. (John 1:14)
Grace and Truth
However, When you read the sermon on the mount, you see a different tone from Jesus. One that is thought to be less grace-filled than with the woman at the well and more behavior and rules driven. Many have confused this difference as being the “truth” side of Jesus as if sometimes He gives grace and sometimes He gives truth and we as believers or teachers have to also “balance” the two. This is a misconception. The two – Grace and Truth are both fully present in Jesus at all times. They don’t exist on opposite ends of a pole. They are one in the same. When you find truth you find grace and when you find grace, you find truth, because they both exist fully together in the person of Jesus Christ. (John 1:14)
The Well and The Mount
So, why the stark contrast between the well and the mount? The answer is simple – Jesus is ministering to two different audiences. He is ministering to people with two different beliefs. The woman at the well recognized she had a need. She was poor in spirit. She had a need for mercy and grace. Nothing else could help her. There was nothing she herself could possibly do or boast of to defend herself. She had no defense. She had a need.
But on the mount, Jesus had a different audience with a different belief about themselves. The audience that Jesus was speaking to at the sermon on the mount didn’t recognize that they had a need. They were strict law abiders and believed they were doing a good job in earning their holiness (as I expressed earlier, this is exactly how I felt about myself before recognizing my need for the gift of righteousness). So Jesus had to first make them realize that they weren’t doing as good of a job as they were thinking. It was easy for them to think they were making themselves righteous if they believed they could accomplish the law. This meant He had to elevate the law back to its rightful place which is perfect. No room for impure thoughts or selfish motives. These were entirely new considerations to these prideful Law keepers. At closer look you can see the Grace and Truth perfectly coexisting to draw them unto Himself.
The contrast is beautiful in these two circumstances. To those who recognize their need of imparted righteousness, Jesus gives grace and He gives it in abundance. But to those striving to earn their own way to becoming holier through their good works, He gives stricter laws. He always knows exactly what each audience, each receiver, needs that will draw them to Him. He is always beckoning people to Himself in the most effective way. This is Grace. This is Truth. The woman at the well is drawn through His kindness, the law lovers on the mount are offered more law so that they will give up and recognize their need for a Savior.
The Invitation
Through which option would you prefer to be drawn? Through more law or more grace? Both are still effective today. Both lead to Christ, the difference is recognizing our need. Have you recognized your need for the free gift of righteousness that you will never earn, or are you more comfortable trying to earn your own holiness through your good works? Though I used to be a prideful law keeper seeking more law, I now prefer to be like the woman at the well, seeking more grace. I now come empty handed – I have no works to boast of and I have no self effort of defense. I am poor and I have a need. What about you? Will you join me at the well?
Like the woman at the well, to all of us who are poor in spirit, my Jesus gives…and He gives in abundance!
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”
On your journey consider this…
Is your Christian Life built by resting on your own laurels to become holier or recognizing that through the gift of righteousness, you have been made holy already? As Christ followers, we don’t do to become, we are so we do.
“May your journey bring freedom and your mind be ever renewed to His truth.” – Angel
Journey to Grace Land 