Relying More Vs. Trying Harder

The Gospel is not what we can do for God, but what Jesus in His faithfulness has done and is desiring to do for us. The only question is whether or not we will believe it and receive Him.

The payment for sin has already been accomplished, and has been paid in full to God the Father by Jesus on our behalf through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. The only missing piece is that each individual must ‘be justified’ upon truly believing it (Rom. 10:9-11). To do this we must repent from believing in self-reliance and instead turn to believing in relying solely on Jesus.

We cannot exercise faith in ourselves and Jesus simultaneously!

We either trust in Jesus to get us across the finish line of Eternity, or we trust in ourselves. There is no middle ground on this crucial point. It’s the very heart of the Gospel itself!

Human effort, while well-meaning, can never do what only the faithfulness of Christ has already accomplished; namely, satisfying the eternal wrath of an eternally holy God who must deal with and dispose of sin.

Galatians 2:20 is a Bible verse written by an early church leader named Paul, and it’s crucial to a true understanding of the Gospel. This verse should inform the way we understand salvation when we finally come to faith in Jesus through repentance, as we request His permanent forgiveness in prayer. But it should also tell us what the Christian life will look like after coming to faith in Jesus. We misunderstand the Gospel if we come to Jesus by relying on His faithfulness, but then turn around and try to please God day-to-day through all the human effort we can muster! No, that’s a ‘half-gospel,’ it’s miserable, powerless, and it’s not the will of God for us. Galatians 2:20 says:

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (NET)

God considers any and all who have placed their faith in Jesus to have been crucified with Him! He considers believers ‘already to have suffered’ for our sins, through Christ’s suffering in our place. Even though we were not there on the cross with Jesus physically, God accredits believers with having been there—as having died for our sin and having ceased from earthly and petty pursuits—instead having our eyes fixed on eternal matters.

Now comes the kicker: If you have believed in Christ, then Christ Himself lives in you! By His Holy Spirit, Christ the Faithful One now lives in you, right now, with all His power, faithfulness, grace, holiness, and goodness. Paul says that the life he lived was possible because of the faithfulness of Christ, who lived in him! Paul goes on to say that trying to live for God without daily relying on Jesus’ faithfulness to us is to set aside God’s grace altogether (v. 21)! Rather, he tells us to die to the idea of pleasing God through our own human effort, and instead allow our prideful human-centric mindset of relating to God through our old reliance on human performance to remain crucified! Instead of trying harder, Jesus is calling us to prayerfully rely on Him more— believing that Christ in us, will live out His life through us! Now that’s Good News!