Gospel (good news) or religion?

All religions say:

* Do good and be good

* Then you will be accepted and approved by God and ultimately achieve heaven - bliss.

Much of the evangelical church says:

* "Trust Christ" — ¹see footnote.

* Do good and be good i.e. live a righteous life

*Then you will be fully accepted by God.

This 2nd view indicates many within the church do not believe the true gospel but only a "Christianized" version of religion i.e. the first view above. 

It is easy to do. We are naturally inclined to want to "save" ourselves. Acknowledging we ultimately can not is a hard pill to swallow that few of us admit. 

This is the essence of our rebellion in Eden and has been ever since. It was also an issue that surfaced at the very beginning of the church with the Judizer's.  An entire letter was written to the church at Galatia addressing this. It is clear we are bent on winning the approval of others; including and especially God's.

In contrast to religion...

The Gospel says:

* Receive the free offer of Christ's perfect righteousness and forgiveness because you can not and never will be good enough or do enough good to ²earn God's approval or acceptance. If we could have, there would've been no point in Christ coming and dying. 

* Only when we accept what Christ did for us - versus what we do for him - are you perfectly and fully accepted by God. There is nothing more for you to do to be accepted. FULL STOP!

*Now, in, by, and through His perfect love-acceptance, live to honor God in response to His love that fully restored us back to Him.

Note that obedience - living for God - is just as vital a part of a gospel-based lifestyle as a works-based one (religion). But not as the cause of God's acceptance, but in response to it. Obedience matters, but for a very different reason.

Both views -- I obey God to be accepted vs I am perfectly accepted therefore I obey God -- involve how we live... But they have a different order of priority and for very different reasons.

The former is acting out of the belief I must earn God's love and the latter out of the belief I already perfectly have it in and through Christ. Nothing I do or do not do will add to or take away from God's love and acceptance of me, ever! 

The former is about me -- acting for my benefit -- the latter is about ³God -- acting for His honor because every benefit is already mine and bestowed on me by and through Christ.

Christianity is not I obey and then I'm accepted but I am accepted therefore I obey.

The gospel says nothing you do or don't do can add to or take away from God's perfect acceptance of you in Christ - i.e. His love and acceptance is unconditional and complete, not based on any of our deeds good or bad. The only condition required of you is to recognize you need Him and accept his offer i.e. being and living justly is by faith. This requires humidity i.e. we can not and will not save ourselves by our good deeds or be rejected by God because of our bad ones if we trust Christ.

If we have not been transformed by God's love and do not have the desire to live for and obey Him to bring Him glory, we do not yet understand the good news, aka gospel. We are wise to make sure we are even His child. This is a primary theme of 1 John.

For a discussion on how we are inclined to try and earn God's love click here.

For a discussion on the difference between "Cultural Christians" and grace-driven followers of Christ, click here.

For a discussion on how God's love is conditional and unconditional click here.

For a discussion on whether our focus should be on morality or Jesus click here.

_______________________________

¹ I put "trust Christ" in quotes because if we truly trust what Christ has done for us, we do not feel compelled to do good deeds to win his acceptance. Love will, however, compel us to put Him on display. "Obedience" is the supernatural and organic response to God's love. I put obedience in quotes only because we do it because we want to - as a response to God loving us first before we ever lifted a finger for him - not because we have to gain God's acceptance.

²This is true not only before we come to Christ but after. We can please God once we are in Christ but this is not a matter of His acceptance of us. His acceptance is already addressed and perfectly settled by Christ's work on our behalf. What pleases God now that we are in Christ is faith. Without it, we can not please God. This faith is in the complete love and acceptance of us in Christ. His love - not our efforts to try and earn it -drives us to love Him in return and honor him in all our words and deeds, i.e. obedience.

³Since God has fully taken care of the "me" side of the equation, acting for God is the only reason left.