182: Faith vs. Self-Effort

“Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?” (Galatians 4:21)

I can just hear Paul’s plea: “Please don’t go back to that bondage! You’ve been set free! Stay free!!” A few verses later he says,

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1)

In Galatians Paul makes symbolism “kosher” when he uses the analogy of Abraham’s wife, Sarah, and her slave girl, Hagar, to represent law and grace, freedom and slavery.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, [Hagar, Sarah’s slave] the other by a freewoman. [Sarah]” (Galatians 4:22)¹

God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that the whole world would be blessed by his Seed, Jesus. Yet nothing was happening, so when Abraham was age eighty-six, Sarah told him to bear a child with her slave, Hagar, and Abraham complied! Shortly thereafter, Abraham and Hagar brought forth Ishmael.

“But he who was of the bondwoman [Ishmael] was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman [Isaac] through promise…”” (Galatians 4:23)

Ishmael is described by Paul as the son “born according to the flesh.” This means that Ishmael was born out of Abraham’s self-effort. Even at his age, Abraham was still able to father children naturally and was still “fruitful,” although it was by his own self-effort. The lesson for us: don’t ever fall for the lie that “success” means we are walking in God’s plan! What some people call “fruit” could be the result of striving. If our success is born out of self-effort, we will have to maintain it by self-effort.

However, Isaac was described as the son of “promise.” He was the fruit born out of faith. The lesson for us: every true success is birthed by grace through faith in God’s promises to us. And the great news is that any fruit gained by grace is maintained by grace! The unearned favor of God will flow when we live by faith.

I have seen the deception of “success” born out of the flesh over and over in the church. The best example I have witnessed is the focus on numbers. How many are attending the services? How many are being saved? How many “re-dedicated” their lives? How many are being baptized? How many are in small groups? How many are being trained as leaders? How do we grow the church? How can we use business models to attract people? This all speaks of self-effort and a focus on the flesh rather than Jesus. Yes, there are places in the New Testament where we are given numbers of salvations, such as on the Day of Pentecost when three thousand people were saved.² But there are no instructions on HOW they strategized in long planning meetings to launch the church or grow the church. The Holy Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost, Peter preached about Jesus, and the church was born. Then they simply gathered to eat, fellowship, pray, hear the word being taught, and they grew in numbers daily! What attracted the people? 1) The preaching of the Gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ and 2) the resulting manifestation of the Holy Spirit in changed and healed lives.

Under grace, work is not a burden, but a joy. Under grace, we work, but as Paul said,

“By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)

The sad thing about living in the sufficiency of our own effort is that we only get what we earn. The “fruit” is only the fruit of our own labor – there’s no grace, no favor, except the favor we deserve. My experience with working “more abundantly than they all” under performance-based religion was that the harder I worked, the madder I got at others who didn’t understand the sacrifices I was making. Everything in life became about the work. No joy, no laughter. Just a list of tasks. And when I got to the end of my strength, and I was living on fumes, I wondered what the original purpose was. Vision was sapped away. I was told that the reason I was so successful was my “stinkin tenacity,” but all that produced in me was disillusionment!

Sometimes our biggest problem is our own strength. We are too smart or too strong in the flesh, and it’s keeping us from our breakthrough or the manifestation of God’s promise. Think about Abraham. He took matters in his own hands and had to live with his “mistake” (Ishmeal) for fourteen years. Sometimes God waits to fulfill His promise to us until we have exhausted all our natural abilities and resources so there can be no mistake in recognizing “Who” is responsible. In His mercy, He closes all doors but the one of faith.

(from pages 275-277 of Unveiling Jesus)

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.  Used by permission.
²Acts 2:41″