Following Jesus Well Without Turning Grace into Law
Glen Elliott reflects on the difference between religious performance and a grace-filled relationship with Jesus. Using the image of a childhood spelling chart, he shows how discipleship needs guidance, encouragement, and freedom rather than a new set of spiritual grades.
- Religion can turn following Jesus into a performance-based effort to “make the grade.”
- Discipleship should guide people toward growth without becoming a new law.
- Grace and freedom help create an environment where people can follow Jesus well.
by Glen Elliott
We are a people obsessed with success. We long for A’s in the classroom and the bonus or promotion at work. We want to be a starter on the team. Yet, the reality of the very system we live in is that we can’t all get A’s (that’s called grade inflation). Not everyone can get a bonus or promotion, and not everyone gets to start.
The normal response to this reality is we encourage folks to just “do the best you can.” It sounds good. I like it. While most of us accept this as conventional wisdom, we probably haven’t considered the implications, especially in our walk with Jesus.
I have always been a terrible speller. Thank the Lord for computers and spell-check! I think it was my third-grade classroom that featured a huge spelling chart. I would work very hard with my mother to be prepared for the weekly spelling test. I did the best I could to pass it each week.
After the tests were graded, cards with the names of each student would be moved to one of the five levels: A, B, C, D, and F. My card never rose higher than a D. And every week the teacher, always the encourager, would say, “Glen, just do the best you can.” I was! It wasn’t enough! I hated that chart! They don’t give good grades for effort alone.
Making the Grade
For me, that spelling chart is a picture of religion. Religion is about wanting and needing to make the “grade” with God. Religion is our attempt to appease or please God. So religion is my effort to do the very best to deal with my problem of sin. Religion is the spiritual version of “do the best you can.” The focus of religion is on what I do or don’t do.
I’m convinced Jesus did not come to start a religion. In fact, Paul in Colossians 2:14 states that God, through the sacrificial death of Jesus, “canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”
Jesus took away the religious spelling chart that was against us and opposed us and continually reminded us that we didn’t measure up. Paul finishes Colossians 2 by showing the weakness of living by religious rules and regulations.
The law was a kind of chart that told us how we were doing spiritually. The Old Testament contains some 600 laws given by God to help us, protect us, and guide us. They were good in and of themselves.
Later the church throughout the ages created a Christian kind of law. Go to church. Have daily devotions. Give witness to Jesus at least once a day. Tithe regularly. And the list goes on. All these things are good in and of themselves.
But it is the very principle of law that transforms us into the “I’ve got to try harder” mode that leads to perpetual frustration. As we well know, the principle of spiritual law becomes a burden that robs us of joy and contentment. The specific laws are not the problem; it is the principle of law and religion itself that is the challenge.
How does this translate into our experience with Jesus? The huge challenge for the church is how to help, encourage, and guide folks to move toward, develop, and grow a relationship with Jesus that is not thwarted by our religious bent. How do we help folks “continue to live in” Jesus and experience the “fullness” of Christ (Colossians 2:6, 10)?
One of our church’s passions is helping people follow Jesus well—to the best of their abilities. It starts at baptism. As a person begins his journey following Jesus, we ask several questions before he is immersed in water. The last one is: “Do you promise to follow Jesus with your whole heart to the best of your ability all the days of your life?” Notice we ask them to follow Jesus “to the best of your ability.” They won’t do this “perfectly,” as none of us can or will. It is not about performance. It is about our desire and heart.
Take These Steps
We have provided a simple way to help guide folks about what it means to follow Jesus well. What can they focus on to follow Jesus to the best of their ability? We use an acronym called STEP.
Sharing life together. It’s tough to follow Jesus well as a spiritual lone ranger. We need others to help us consistently grow. When we live with others, we gain from their insights and experiences. We serve best with others, and it’s a lot more fun. We are more likely to probe our secrets in a group of folks we love and trust than in isolation.
We encourage every person in our church to give it their best to be engaged in a life group.
Transforming in Christ’s likeness. Our goal is to become more and more like Jesus; that is God’s goal for us (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The question is, “How can I become more and more like Jesus—to the best of my ability?”
Entrusted with time, talents, and treasures. When I promised Jesus I would follow him, he became the owner or Lord of my life. As the owner of my life, Jesus asks me to manage me (his property) well for his purposes. How can I use my time, energy, money, possessions, and talents for Jesus and his purposes to the best of my ability?
Participating in the Great Commandment and Great Commission. We will do well if we engage in what have been labeled the Great Commandment and Great Commission. This is our mission, to decide, how can I love people to Jesus?
Guidance, Not Law
But we are still confronted with the vexing issue of religion. How do we make sure that STEP, or whatever tool or idea we use to describe discipleship, doesn’t become a new law or religious form? The religious tendency toward the legalistic is always lurking in our good intentions and programs.
I believe folks need guidance in how to follow Jesus well. Folks need help in knowing where to start and how to continue to grow. But they need guidance and not law. The way we communicate the path of following Jesus well is as important as the content that defines discipleship. The message of grace and relationship is communicated more in how we say it and how we model it.
When we practice and speak grace and freedom consistently, we create an environment for folks to follow Jesus in grace and freedom. When we offer help and guidance rather than coming across as demanding and manipulative, we encourage the development of a relationship with Jesus rather than a religious experience.
There’s one final matter that has to do with what moves us to follow Jesus to the best of our ability. Our motive makes all the difference in the world—literally. I want to see Jesus make such a difference in me that together we will make a difference in this world. And that is the “success” we seek and what will ultimately be measured or graded.
Glen Elliott serves as lead pastor with Pantano Christian Church, Tucson, Arizona.
Author: Glen Elliott
Glen Elliott serves as lead pastor at Pantano Christian Church in Tucson, Arizona.
