A Road Paved With Good Intentions – by Greg Albrecht
Those who attempt to please and appease God via their own accomplishments, good deeds and virtues find that it’s a long and bitterly disappointing never-ending road. People who struggle down the broad road (Matthew 7:13) of Christ-less religion are dragging a ball and chain, because their best efforts to convince God to love them will never be enough.
I lived on that road for almost 40 years – I often call it “40 Miles of Bad Road” after an old Duane Eddy song (released in 1959, but who’s counting?!?). I discovered that the road to hell can be paved with the best of intentions.
Those who trudge down the road of pleasing and appeasing God are in bondage, jumping every time a religious authority tells them to. They may observe all the rituals, participate in all of the required ceremonies and fulfill all the obligations demanded by the religion to which they belong (a nice way of saying they are enslaved and owned by that religious entity) – but all of their work and efforts still won’t be enough to earn God’s love.
IRONICALLY, God already loves them. He loved them long before they ever started down the broad road of religious bondage. IRONICALLY, nothing they ever did or ever will do can ever change his love or increase the “amount” of love that God has for them.
Apart from the grace of God, the human condition is a hideous, horrible reality. Even as Christ-followers, we wake up every morning with the grim reality that our bodies are broken down hunks of junk – falling apart physically – while our heart and soul is in need of spiritual healing. There is no way that you and I can produce enough righteousness to save us from our vanity, ego, lusts and desires.
The incredibly wonderful news is, of course, that Jesus heals us, by the grace of God. The incredibly beyond-belief, staggering news is that God loves us because that’s who he is, not because of who we are or because of what we do or have done. Our healing – our redemption – is not an exchange for services rendered. The exchange (such a “deal” for you and me!) has already taken place, on the cross, by our Savior and Healer.
Legalistic religion continually keeps its followers agitated and in fear with relentless tirades about human vices, dysfunctions and shortcomings. Legalistic, Christ-less religion is all about shame and guilt – after all, Christ-less religion invented the guilt trip. It does not take a rocket scientist or an electronic genius to explain that many human behaviors are definitely not Christ-like. But will a harsh and ruthless campaign of self-denial, wherein we engage in a war against our vices, sins and lust make us Christ-like?
The good news is that God loves us, but sadly, many humans are not inclined to accept and fully embrace his love because they are too much in love with all the “good” things they are doing and have done to earn and deserve God’s love.
Embracing God’s love fully and unconditionally means that we will repent of our vices AND OUR VIRTUES. Anything we produce as a result of our efforts is tainted, substandard, and corrupted, as compared with the righteousness given to us in Christ, by the grace of God.
It’s not that hard to be convinced that we need to repent of our sins. But it is a much harder proposition to believe that we must also repent of our virtues. There’s an incredible line in the grand old hymn “The Old Rugged Cross” that goes “… till my trophies at last I lay down.”
We must lay down all our trophies at his cross – we must surrender all those achievements that institutionalized religion persuades us will earn us God’s favor once we accomplish them (preferably in their buildings, under their control, observing their teachings, dogmas and rituals). Repentance involves laying down all the trophies Christ-less religion has awarded us, deceiving us with the BIG LIE – the FAKE NEWS – that religious trophies have great value.
When Paul laid down all his trophies before the cross of Christ, he considered them nothing but dung. Paul surrendered what Christ-less religion defined as virtues produced by his efforts, so that he would be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith (Philippians 3:9). Religious trophies are worthless!
Accepting Jesus Christ means that we must renounce the works of the flesh – the works of the flesh includes both the sins of the flesh and it means the presumed virtues that the FAKE NEWS of bad news religion convinces humans as having spiritual value that contributes to their salvation.
Hellfire and brimstone preachers harangue their followers about their vices… and it seems they regularly yell and scream when they have nothing else to talk about. But yelling about sin is an easy target. We all have sinned – we all continue to sin because we live in a fleshly body of lust, vanity and greed.
Vices are vices – vices and sins are not Christ-like. However, the hell fire and brimstone marching and chowder society insists that the answer to vices is hard work and effort on the part of sinners so that they can produce virtues that will please God.
But virtues produced assuming we will earn God’s love are just as much an obstacle to our relationship with God as are our vices. All our works are dirty rags. All our deeds amount to nothing. Without Jesus, we can do nothing and we are nothing.
All we do, all we produce, be it vices or virtues, is incapable of changing God’s love for us and his willingness to always forgive us and forever love us. Yes, we should reject sin and run the other way, but sin is not merely the sins of our flesh. Sin is anything that takes our focus away from Jesus.
Both “bad” sins of lust, vanity and greed and “good” sins of religious requirements, programs, ceremonies and rituals that are presumed to earn the grace and favor of God take our focus away from Jesus Christ.
Strict religious rule-keeping assumes that our diligence is producing spiritual character, generating goodness, earning righteousness and accumulating merits. Strict rule-keeping assumes that our efforts are closing the distance between us and God. But strict rule-keeping leads us away from God, not toward him! The greater the emphasis on humans earning God’s favor by avoiding sin and performing external actions the greater the distance between them and the cross of Christ.
Christ-less legalism urges us to work harder and whip ourselves into spiritual shape so that God will be more pleased with us than he would have been otherwise. Legalism assumes God to be less than what he is – a God who can be manipulated and appeased if only we can ever accomplish enough to soften his heart. But God loves us now as much as he ever has or ever will, and his love has absolutely nothing to do with what we do or fail to do.
Here’s God message of his love and grace for you and me:
I’ve seen the ugly side of you and I’m not going anywhere. I know all there is to know about you and I still love you anyway. It doesn’t matter what you have done or what you do, you can’t make me stop loving you.
I’ve seen all of your attempts to produce goodness and manufacture virtue. I’ve seen the futility you have experienced as you attempted to build enough character to earn some “brownie points” from me.
I’ve seen you trapped by the edicts and teachings of legalistic religion, as you have flailed away, in vain, trying to be good enough. I know all of that, I forgive it and I still love you anyway.
It doesn’t matter how fast you have run, how hard you have worked to be a person worthy of my love, you can’t make me love you by anything you do or accomplish and you can’t make me stop loving you either. I ALWAYS LOVED YOU AND ALWAYS WILL!
Thank you for your part in this ministry and our collective mission in proclaiming the authentic love and grace of God as contrasted with the FAKE NEWS AND BIG LIE of Christ-less religion. Thanks for your support and your prayers. Thank you for allowing us to serve you!
Until next time, I remain your brother in Christ,
Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from February 2019:
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