The Gospel in Twenty Questions (26 page)

Read the Bible with
an old covenant mindset, and you may be confused by those scriptures urging us
to “continue in the faith” or “continue in the grace of God.” Under the old law
covenant, continuing was the difference between life and death. If you didn’t
continue to keep the law day in and day out, you were doomed.

Just
look what happened to Achan. He helped himself to some war booty and was
executed for violating God’s command. Then there was Uzzah, who tried to steady
the Ark of the Covenant and got struck down for his efforts.
[46]

That’s
the problem with living under the law. If you keep the law six days a week but
break it on the seventh, you won’t get a round of applause for getting it
mostly right. You won’t even get partial credit, for the law is an all-or-nothing
proposition. Break one command one time and you’re a law-breaker, guilty of
breaking the whole shebang. Live under the law and your motto could be,
“Continue or be cursed.”

For all who rely on the works of the law
are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue
to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” (Galatians 3:10)

In the old covenant,
people were kept on the straight and narrow through their fear of being cursed.
Today, many live with the same fear. They worry that if they don’t continue to
pray, continue to fast, continue to give, and meet together, they will be
cursed. Or they won’t be blessed, which is about the same thing.

If
this is you, here is the good news: Jesus died to set us free from the curse of
the law. He died to liberate us from the treadmill of ceaseless effort and
rule-keeping.

Make
no mistake, the old covenant emphasis on continuing is a cursed way to live.
It’s cursed because it’s beyond us. We can’t attain it. None of us apart from
Jesus is capable of delivering a flawless performance. All of us fall short of
the required standard. This is what makes the gospel of grace such good news.
In Christ, we are credited with
his
flawless performance. The test has
been taken, and in him we have passed with flying colors. In Christ we are
judged righteous and holy and blessed for eternity.

With
the curse of the law behind us and the grace of God before us, we can now look
at those New Testament scriptures exhorting us to continue.

But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s
physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish
and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and
do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. (Colossians 1:22
–
23a)

This scripture used
to be a splinter in my mind. I didn’t know what to make of it. It seems to say
that our salvation is conditional on continuing in the faith and that if you
stop continuing you’ll be cut off. Jesus will divorce you.

This
was jarring to me.
How could that happen?
I could not conceive of ever
rejecting Jesus, but if the unthinkable did happen, I could not conceive of him
rejecting me. It just didn’t seem possible. But there it is in black and white:
“If you continue in the faith.” Clearly something bad will happen if you don’t,
otherwise Paul would not have mentioned it.

Then
one day the scales fell off. I began to see that Paul was not making threats so
much as exhorting us to remain in the secure place of Christ’s love.

To
continue in the faith simply means, “keep trusting Jesus.” Paul explains this a
few verses later:

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus
as Lord, continue to live your lives in him … (Colossians 2:6)

How did you receive
him? By faith. How should you continue to live in him? By faith, “rooted and
built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing
with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:7). It’s faith from first to last.

The
problem is we may start out with faith then drift towards unbelief. An attitude
of gratitude gets traded for one of fear and insecurity. This can happen when
we buy into mixed-up messages like these: “You have to prove your repentance
with your deeds, so get busy for Jesus.” “Every tree that doesn’t produce fruit
will be chopped down, so start producing.” “Those who are lukewarm are spewed
out, so get hot for the Lord.”

Now
instead of trusting Jesus to finish what he started, the worried believer
begins to panic. He thinks,
I don’t want to get spewed out, so I had better
do something about it.

This
is precisely what was happening to the Colossians. They were falling from the
high place of unmerited favor to the low place of human effort. They were
falling for the mother of all lies.

Many believers have
an unhealthy fear of sin. They imagine sin to be this monster lurking outside
the church, seeking to devour wayward Christians. But sin is not the true
monster. The real danger for the spirit-filled believer is walking after the
flesh. It’s relying on our natural understanding instead of trusting Jesus.
Walking after the flesh can certainly lead to sin because anything that is not
of faith is sin. But it may not be the sort of sin you were warned about in
youth group.

The
Colossian Christians weren’t what we would call sinners. They weren’t fooling
around like the Corinthians. They weren’t driving their chariots drunk or
downloading naughty pictures off the Internet. Yet according to Paul, they were
on a downward spiral. They were in danger of losing their freedom in Christ. This
is why he says:

See to it that no one takes you captive
through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the
elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians
2:8)

What is hollow and
deceptive philosophy? It’s any message that puts the emphasis on you instead of
Christ. It’s anything that says you need to do stuff to get God to bless you.
Buy into such a message and you will lose the freedom you have in Christ.
You’ll tie yourself up in knots trying to obtain what you already possess. You’ll
no longer be continuing in faith but unbelief.

Nothing
will stop you trusting in Jesus faster than the lie that says, “It all depends
on you.” It’s subtle, but this really is the mother of all lies. It comes
straight from the serpent who said, “If you do this, you will be like God.”
It’s the lie that says, “If you fast, pray, give, or do a hundred other things
and continue to do them, you’ll claw your way into the throne room. You’ll be a
self-made god.” It’s diabolical nonsense.

Paul tells the
Colossians, “God will present you holy, unblemished, and unblameable
—
if
you continue in the faith.” This sounds like conditional salvation, but it is
not. You are one with the Lord, and what God has joined together, no man can
separate. Paul is saying, “In God’s eyes you are already holy and perfect, but
you won’t see it unless you believe it. You won’t walk in that truth except by
faith.”

You
may ask, “How can I believe I am holy when my life is such an unholy mess?” You
can believe it because your life is hidden in Christ and
he
is holy and
unblemished. You have a need for holiness
—
you can’t get in without it
—
but
the good news is that Jesus meets your need. By his one sacrifice, you have
been made holy and perfect forever (Hebrews 10:10, 14).

I
know this is a lot to swallow, particularly if you have been raised on a diet
of mixture. If you have had old covenant notions of faithfulness drummed into
you, it’s hard not to be anxious, especially when you stumble. But Paul’s
letter to the Colossians, and particularly chapter 2, is a brilliant response
to the fears and anxieties of the insecure believer. Let me give you some examples.

One
sign that you are not continuing in the faith is that you are more conscious of
your lack than you are of the Lord’s supply. You may think,
I’m not holy
enough, righteous enough, or fruitful enough.
Look at how Paul corrects
this misperception:

For in Christ all the fullness of the
Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. (Colossians
2:9
–
10a)

How do you continue
in the faith? By recognizing that
in Christ
you lack no good thing.
In
Christ
you have received every spiritual blessing there is. “
In Christ
you have been brought to fullness.” The problem is not your lack but your
unbelief. If you pray, “God, please make me righteous and holy,” you are no
longer continuing in faith. You are giving voice to unbelief and contradicting
his word, which says you are complete in him.

Instead
of asking Jesus to do what he’s already done, why not thank him that he’s done
it? “Thank you, Jesus, that in you I am as righteous and holy as you are and
eternally pleasing to God!” 

Another
sign that you are not continuing in faith is you are focused on your failings.
It takes no faith to recognize your shortcomings and mistakes. But it takes
faith to agree with Paul, who said this:

In him you were also circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you
also were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him
from the dead. (Colossians 2:11
–
12, NKJV)

How do you continue
in the faith? By reckoning yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ. You have
been raised to new life through faith in a resurrecting God. Continue in that
faith. Continue trusting him and stop trying to rehabilitate the sinful corpse
of who you used to be.

Another
sign that you are not continuing in faith is you’re trying to have a bet each
way when it comes to law and grace. Maybe you think, “I’m saved by grace, but
the law shows me how to live.” No, it doesn’t. The law is not the Holy Spirit.
All the law will do is point out your faults and condemn you. It shows you what
you are doing wrong but does nothing to help you live right.

When
Paul says, “You are free from accusation
—
if you continue in the faith,” he’s
saying, “The condemning ministry of the law can’t touch those who are trusting
in Jesus.” If your conscience is accusing and condemning you, then you’re not
walking in faith. You’re saying, “My badness is greater than God’s goodness and
I am beyond his grace.” That’s unbelief.

“But
Paul, you don’t know what I did.” No, you don’t know what
Jesus
did.
There is no sin greater than his grace.

“But
every time I open my Bible I realize I’ve broken God’s commands. I’m failing
left and right.” Again, stop giving your voice to the condemning ministry of
the law. See the cross where God not only forgave us but also …

… wiped out the handwriting of
requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it
out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:14, NKJV)

That old arrest
warrant naming and shaming you as a miserable sinner is no longer in force. On
the cross, Jesus not only dealt with your sins but your accusers too. They have
been disarmed and defeated.

We
could continue this exercise for the rest of Colossians 2, but I hope by now
you are getting the point, which is this: Continuing in faith is not an old-fashioned
warning to avoid sin or keep the rules. Continuing in faith means
keep
trusting Jesus
. It is resting in him and his finished work.

Now
that we have some idea of what it means to continue in the faith, let’s look at
some other scriptures that say something similar.

When the congregation was dismissed, many
of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who
talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. (Acts 13:43)

If you are ever
asked to preach and are stuck for ideas, you could do worse than pinch this
six-word gem from Paul and Barnabas:
Continue in the grace of God.
It’s
the mother of all good sermons.

Are
you working so hard that you’re on the verge of burnout? You need to
continue
in the grace of God.
Are you worried that you you’re not doing enough for
Jesus?
Continue in the grace of God.
Are you distracted by generational
curses, end-times anxiety, or idle talk?
Continue in the grace of God.
Are you facing financial difficulties, sickness, or demonic oppression?
Continue
in the grace of God.
Want to make something of your life?
Continue in
the grace of God.

I’ve
been told that every sermon should have three points, so here’s point one: It’s
grace from start to finish. There’s nothing else we need and nothing else that
helps. Here’s point two: Grace comes to us through faith alone, so continuing
in the grace of God is the same as continuing in the faith. It’s the same
message Paul preached to the Colossians, the Galatians, and everybody else. And
here’s point three: Since grace is another word for Jesus, the message is,
“Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.” Whatever your problem, see Jesus as your
solution.

To
continue in grace is to keep trusting in Jesus. It’s being unmoved from the
hope held out in the gospel. It’s being continually grateful for all God has
done and continues to do in your life.