In Part 1 of this series, I described my new birth experience and the realization that my new relationship with God through Christ had little or nothing to do with what I had been taught or seen modeled in the Catholic Church. This does not mean that there is no truth in the Catholic Church or that no godly people are part of that church. Quite the contrary! I learned about God, sin, and judgment there. I learned about God’s demand upon us to live according to his laws. I also met people whom I now realize likely were true born again believers. There are true believers in every church, but unfortunately there are those who are merely following the tenets of man-made religion in every church, too. Jesus called them “tares” or weeds growing among the true wheat. Even in churches which preach the true gospel, counterfeit believers are present. Most likely, they do not even know that they are false brethren. Deception runs deep, and self-deception is the worst of all.
The official teaching of the Catholic Church is that we gain entrance into the church through the sacrament of baptism and maintain a relationship with God by keeping his commandments, church laws, and through the grace brought to us through the Mass and the seven sacraments. Living in a “state of grace” is fluid, and we are always in danger of losing it by committing what are called “mortal” sins. When this happens, the only way back into God’s good graces is through what is called “perfect contrition” (which is pretty much impossible to attain) or by confessing our sins to a priest and receiving absolution from him. One can never be completely sure of his or her final destiny, because that depends upon our being in a state of grace at the time of death. We were encouraged to “make” nine First Fridays (go to Mass and receive communion on nine consecutive first Fridays of the month) so that we could be assured that we would have the opportunity to make a good confession prior to death. This is called an indulgence, which is basically a promise or guarantee from God (through the authority of the church) based upon some good work we perform. But indulgences are only the tip of the legalistic iceberg. All of salvation is performance-based in the Catholic Church.
Jesus did not secure our salvation, he only made it possible for those who keep the rules.
All sorts of laws are in place that must be kept to stay right with God, some based on the Ten Commandments and others on church tradition. This was also the case in Judaism at the time when Christ ministered. When I was very young, we were forbidden to eat meat on Fridays. Later, this rule was abandoned. (I have often wondered if those who were burning in hell because of violating this commandment were set free when the church changed its mind. Smile.) We were required to attend Mass on Sundays and other “Holy Days of Obligation,” or be condemned. Later Saturday evening was included to help people meet their Sunday requirement. Because of the Catholic Church’s performance orientation to salvation, Catholics are on a perpetual treadmill of going to confession, trying hard to remain in a state of grace by not committing mortal sins, committing mortal sins, and going to confession again. One just hopes that he will not die before he can get to confession! I remember realizing as a kid that God already knew whether or not I would die in a state of grace or not and wondering if my destiny was heaven or hell.
There was no way for me to have any assurance, and that is no way to live.
When we grow up in such as system, we think it is normal and right. By default, human beings tend toward legalism because we understand that we are fallen beings who need to get back into a right standing with God. We just do not know how to get there. We think it is by earning our way back, but that is impossible. The only way is for us to be forgiven, not just temporarily, but once and for all. Is this even possible? The Bible says it is.
For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. Hebrews 7:26–27 (NASB95) —
When I experienced the new birth and the Holy Spirit came to live in me, I began to relate to God in a more Biblical manner. The Bible promises that the Spirit will guide us into God’s truth. (John 16:13) The main way he does this is by giving us understanding of the Bible. Prior to my coming to Christ, a young man shared the gospel with my psychology class. I must have talked to him afterward because later he came by to see me in my dorm room. I cannot remember his name but I do remember what he told me. He took me to the First Letter of John and read to me the following verse.
I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13 (NLT)
He shared with me that God wants us to know that we have eternal life through Christ. This was so different from what I had been taught and experienced in the Catholic Church. How can one know something that is unknowable? The gospel is so marvelous that it seems unbelievable to someone steeped in legalism.
Now I understand there is a fundamental difference between the performance-based religion of Catholicism (and some other denominations) and the faith-based relationship provided through the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul clearly understood this difference and addressed it in his letter to the Galatians.
But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. Galatians 2:17-21 (NLT)
When Jesus died on the cross, the Bible teaches that those who put their faith in him died, too. (Romans 6) This is a mystery, but nevertheless true. We died to sin’s power in our lives and the power of the Law to condemn us. (Romans 7) The Law is what defines and points out our sins. God gave us the Law to show how hopelessly lost we are. Its purpose was to lead us to Christ so that by faith we might receive his right standing with God. (Galatians 3:21-29) No one can stand in his or her own righteousness. We must have our Lord’s right standing with God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) I hope you will take the time to read and think deeply about these verses of scripture. We can never earn salvation: it is a free gift, one that God never takes back. (Romans 6:23 and 11:29)
If we grow up under legalism, it is difficult to really believe how wonderful the gospel message is! Only the Holy Spirit can deliver us from the enslaving lies of legalism by leading us into all truth which will set us free.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31–32 (NASB95) —
The precursors to Catholicism were what were called the Judaizers. These supposed followers of Christ, having been heavily steeped in Judaism, could not get their heads and hearts around the radical nature of the gospel. They tried to fit the “new wine” of the Gospel into the “old wine skin” of Judaism.
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 “And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’ ” Luke 5:37–39 (NASB95) —
It could not work then and will not work today to try to fit the unearned grace of the New Covenant into a legalistic container of man-made religion.
The Old Covenant was based on our keeping the Law, something we are unable to do. The New Covenant was something altogether different. It is based on Christ’s keeping the Law on our behalf. He earned for us what was otherwise unobtainable.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 8 For finding fault with them, He says, “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH; 9 NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD. 10 “FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. 11 “AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, ‘KNOW THE LORD,’ FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM. 12 “FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.” 13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Hebrews 8:7–13 (NASB95) —
The Judaizers could not believe that they had nothing else to earn from God and insisted that it was not enough to simply believe in the Good News and trust in Christ; instead, Gentile believers had to adopt and follow the tenets of Judaism to be truly accepted by God. Circumcision became a rallying point. Uncircumcised believers were required to submit to this Old Covenant rite in order to be part of God’s covenant people. There arose a sharp division among the believers which had to be resolved by a council at Jerusalem. Thankfully those leaders came down on the side of the grace message. Peter spoke convincingly.
So the apostles and elders met together to resolve this issue. 7 At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. 8 God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. 10 So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.” Acts 15:6-11 (NLT)
Paul understood that Christ had come precisely because God’s people had repeatedly failed to keep God’s covenant over the years.
The New Covenant was put into place because man is so hopelessly flawed by sin that he cannot possibly satisfy the demands of God’s righteousness.
Nor are we able to do so now. For that reason, God sent his Son to keep the covenant for us. Jesus actually became the Covenant. (Isaiah 42:6)
Our New Covenant relationship to the Father is based on Christ’s perfect performance rather than our ongoing failure.
Salvation is the product of God’s keeping the demands of his righteousness on our behalf through his Son. Through faith in Christ, a new birth takes place in the human spirit whereby we are radically changed from the inside out. We become God’s children by an incarnation of Christ in each believer. The Holy Spirit takes up residence and joins himself to our spirit so that we are truly “one” with Christ, as our Lord promised would happen.
But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (NLT)
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! John 17:22-24 (NLT)
Paul reasoned that we cannot have it both ways: we must either relate to God on the basis of grace through faith or we must try to relate to him based on our performance of the Law (his righteous requirements).
Paul told the Galatians that if they submitted to the Law in the one point of circumcision, they in effect would be placing themselves back into a performance-based relationship with God, something doomed to failure and antagonistic to the Gospel he preached.
Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. Galatians 5:2–6 (NASB95) —
There is something in the heart of man, in our inborn sin nature, that insists to trying to be “good enough” to earn our way into God’s blessing and favor.
It is extremely humbling to admit that we are hopelessly sinful and in desperate need of someone to save us. Those who cannot find it in themselves to admit their desperate need for a Savior will reject the gospel of grace and continue to try to reach God through legalism.
Paul said that such people have “zeal without knowledge.”
I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. Romans 10:2–4 (NLT) —
Once we are saved or brought into a right relationship with God through grace, we cannot maintain that relationship through our good performance.
Our inherent religious performance orientation is fueled by the pride and independence of the sin nature. God has to show us over and over again that we must solely rely upon what Christ did for us. There is no other way.
Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, 13 waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Hebrews 10:11–14 (NASB95) —
Martin Luther came to just such an insight as he pored over Paul’s letter to the Romans. God gave him a flash of revelation, and he saw clearly that “the just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17) The gospel offers us the lifeline of relying upon Christ and what he accomplished through his death and resurrection rather than upon our own failed efforts. Religion is man’s attempt to bridge the gap between us and God on our own terms by our own efforts. Organized religion, whatever its persuasion, is a system of trying to accomplish this.
Organized religion asks its adherents to put their faith in the organization and its methods in order to get into and remain in right relationship with God. The gospel asks us to put our trust solely in a Person and what he already accomplished for us.
I found it necessary to leave Catholicism in order to preserve my newly found freedom in grace. Paul likewise walked away from his beloved Judaism, the legalistic performance-based religion he grew up believing. He chose Christ instead, realizing that Christ had fulfilled what Judaism was designed to introduce.
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. Philippians 3:7–9 (NLT) —
He chose reality over the shadow. He was extremely adamant that there can be absolutely no co-existence between the true gospel of grace and the false gospel of performance. This is what Paul said.
I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. 8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. Galatians 1:6-9 (NLT)
Once we understand and experience the true grace of God, it is impossible to remain a part of any group that teaches something contrary.
