Stop Negotiating, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. We get the grace, God gets the glory. We don't earn it, God doesn't owe us. We get the grace, God gets the glory, period.

The only kind of people who go to heaven are those that know they don't belong there, who know that there is nothing they can do to fix that or change it, but trust that God, who said he was so gracious that he'd do it for us, actually did what he said he'd do. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian, J.D. Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. Okay, honesty time. Have you ever tried negotiating with God? Tell me if this sounds familiar. Oh, God, if you just give me this one thing, then I'll do this or that for you.

I think we've all done that at some point, right? Today, Pastor J.D. points out the absurdity of that kind of bargaining, because let's face it, God doesn't actually need anything from us in the first place. If you've missed any of the messages of this teaching so far, or if you'd like to get your copy of Devotions for the Distracted Family, visit us at jdgreer.com or by calling 866-335-5220. But right now, let's get started. Here's Pastor J.D.

with the second part of our message titled Stop Negotiating. Most people, if you ask them, why do you think God will let you into heaven, they feel like it has something to do with their behavior. If you're good enough, you're sincere enough, as a Christian, if you believe enough, you go to church enough, you give enough. People from other religions, by the way, use the same criteria.

They just switch out some of the specifics. Instead of going to church, it's going to mosque or synagogue or temple or something like that. It's like we are always trying to make a deal with God. We give God obedience, and God rewards us with heaven. But here's what the Apostle Paul says.

What does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham was about 90 years old, and God told him that he was going to have a son.

Abraham had never had any children. He evidently was infertile, and so God says you're going to have a son. And against all logic, against all evidence, against all hope, Abraham said, well, I believe it. And God saw his faith in God's promise, and God credited it to him as righteousness. Verse 5, to the one who does not work, you see, as an illustration with Abraham, but trust God instead, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

I had a seminary professor who said that this is the most important verse in the Bible. What it means, what faith credited as righteousness means, is that God counts our faith in Christ as righteousness even though it is not. That righteousness is a gift that God gives to us that we do not possess in ourselves on the basis of something else. According to Romans 4-5, the one who is declared righteous and who goes to heaven has three primary characteristics. Characteristic number one is that you know that you're ungodly. There's an inherent admission in what Paul says here that I am ungodly. I cannot do anything to change that.

It's just admitting what is true. The second characteristic is you do not work, which means you don't think there's anything you can do to change that status. There's nothing you can do to earn heaven.

There's nothing you can do to make up for what you did. And then the third characteristic is that you trust God, who said that he would take care of it. You trust that he did exactly what he said he would do. And Paul uses Abraham as the best example of this. God's measure of goodness is the Ten Commandments. Listen, recently I was reading something by Martin Luther who said, if you want to stimulate your relationship with God, then for a month just every morning go through the Ten Commandments in your mind and pray through them. And I thought, well, Martin Luther recommended it.

I'll try it. It has been absolutely devastating for me in the mornings as a part of what we call our quiet time. I've been going through the Ten Commandments because I just realized that there is not a single one of these that I just instinctively and naturally keep. For example, you shall have no other gods before me. I asked myself, do I really love and cherish God more than everything else in my life? Is he the most valuable to me?

Am I more concerned about his opinion than anybody else's? Thou shalt not covet. Am I always fully satisfied with the situation that God has me in right now? And never craving somebody else's income or success or family situation. And y'all, I'm telling you, when I get done with this list, I realize that I am 0 for 10.

When you're 0 for 10 on the final exam, you're not going to pass the class. You really feel like you're a good person. Jesus said, if so, you're just looking at the wrong standard.

Which brings up another thing. Some of you don't trouble yourself with the Ten Commandments. You just come up with your own standard of what it makes for a good person. Then you think, well, as long as I live up to that standard, God's going to let me in. Two problems with that.

First of all, you made it up. Seriously, come on. Where else does that work in life?

Why would you think that in heaven, God's like, hey man, just whatever works for you. Yeah, you passed your own standard? Awesome.

Come on in. Of course not. Here's the other problem with that. You don't live up to your own standards.

If you were honest, you'd give yourself an F half the time at your own standard. The way I've described that to you is if you had a little invisible tape recorder or just some kind of recorder since nobody knows what a tape is anymore. If you had an invisible recorder around your neck that only activated when you said the word ought. She ought to do that. He ought to do that. And they ought to do that.

And that's all it recorded. And then at the judgment seat, God only judged you by whatever you said somebody else ought to do. There ain't a single one of you in here that would pass that judgment. You see, we, like Abraham, are utterly unable to please God because the problem is not ignorance. The problem is not that we need a little religion pill. The problem is we are dead and we are sinful and there's nothing we can do to actually change that. The second reason we can't make a deal with God, number two, is that we don't really have anything to offer God anyway.

Here's how Paul explained that in verse four. The one who works wages are not credited as a gift. They're given as an obligation.

Right? If a plumber comes over to my house and works on something and hands me a bill for 80 bucks, I don't say, man, here's your gift. I say, here's, he's like, this is what I, he did the work.

I owe him. And we think of heaven in those terms that God is going to owe us heaven because we paid all this good works. Here are two problems with that. First, we don't have anything that God needs.

I alluded to this at the beginning, but think how foolish our negotiating sounds. God, you want some obedience? I'll go to church. And God's like, ooh, good, you go to church.

I love church. How can I say no to that? You know, I can't refuse. Of course not. We don't have anything by which we can put God in our debt.

Second, being good in one area doesn't erase the fact that we broke God's laws in another area. I mean, imagine if you were on trial because you've been caught for assault and battery and breaking and entering. And the judge is about to bring down the gavel and you're like, whoa, wait a minute. I know I'm guilty of assault and battery and breaking and entering, but, but judge, I only use paper straws that are made from recycled paper. And I always get paper, not plastic. It's better for the environment. I never drink bottles of water and I have my own compost pile and I drive a Prius. And, you know, I just, I'm so environmentally, he's going to say, well, that's awesome, but that doesn't change the fact that you broke and entered and hurt somebody.

It's irrelevant. So we can't put God in our debt by just covering up disobedience to his standards by some other arbitrary standard that we make for ourselves. Number three, here's the reason Paul says you can't work your way there. This is God alone.

Get the glory. God alone has determined he's going to get the glory for all this. Here's how he explains it. Verse two, if in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

Let me retranslate that. If Abraham had been able to impregnate Sarah by his own power, then he would have boasted to everybody, man, I was 90 and I pulled that off. He said, but here's what, let me translate this, but God will never let that be. God will not let all the credit for the work that he does on earth and specifically the work of building his kingdom and bringing people to heaven. He's not going to let that be credited to any human being. And if we earn heaven based on what we did, then we would spend a lot of our time in heaven talking about what we did to get ourselves there.

We walk up to each other in heaven and say, well, what did you do? Oh, you were faithful to your wife for how long? Oh, you prayed how much? You read how many chapters of the Bible?

You read how many books? Oh, God must be lucky to have you here. No, the book of Revelation is very clear.

I love this. The book of Revelation says that there is one... We wear name tags in heaven. Did you know that? All right, yeah, book of Revelation says you wear a name tag, but it's actually on your forehead. It's tattooed there. And the name that you wear on your forehead is not going to be your own. It's going to be the name of Jesus Christ, which means that when somebody walks up to me and says, why are you here?

I'm not going to talk about JD's name and how awesome he is. I'm going to point to my forehead. I'm going to say that's why I'm here because I never sinned, not one time when I lived. And I actually had so much faith that I walked on water.

And the devil tempted me for 40 days in the wilderness and I would not succumb to his temptation, not even one time. And I was on the cross and instead of giving hate back to the people that were crucifying me, I said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. It is not my name and the record of my deeds or my reputation that is going to earn me my place in heaven. It is Jesus' name that is going to be attached to me and the righteousness associated with his name, the fact that he died to death, I've been condemned to die and live the life I was supposed to live. That's my name that gets put here. And when people say, why are you in heaven?

I'm just going to point to my head and say, that's why I'm here. That's how God has set it up. We get the grace. God gets the glory. We don't earn it. God doesn't owe us. We get the grace.

God gets the glory, period. The only kind of people who go to heaven are those that know they don't belong there, who know that there is nothing they can do to fix that or change it, but trust that God, who said he was so gracious that he'd do it for us, actually did what he said he'd do. You cannot earn heaven.

You cannot make a deal with God in any shape, form, or fashion. What this passage tells you is that righteousness, and by righteousness, I mean full acceptance by God, is a gift that God gives to us while we are still sinful. That it is possible, Paul says, to acknowledge that you are more guilty and more worthy of condemnation than people could ever imagine. The problem is not that people don't know the real you. The problem is if they saw the real you, they would know that you'll never get to heaven. You are simultaneously more worthy of condemnation than people have ever imagined, and yet you are more sure that you are loved and accepted by God than anybody ever dreamed possible because that status was given to you not on the basis of what you've done or what you deserve.

It was given to you on the basis of Jesus Christ, not you. Martin Luther called this the most important and probably the most misunderstood doctrine in the Bible. It is the doctrine, he says, on which the church rises or falls. It is the doctrine which separates true Christianity in its essence from every other religion on earth because every other religion on earth, all of them you can put into one category.

You spell them with two letters, and those letters are D-O. D-O is what I do that is going to earn me a place in heaven. Religions are going to substitute out various things for the do part. It's whether you go to mosque or the eightfold path or whether you're nice to people, whatever. But it's all characterized by it's what I do that earns me a place in heaven. The gospel is the only one spelled D-O-N-E. It is what Christ has done, Jesus in my place.

It is his record that gets attached to me, and it's because of his righteousness that I have assurance before God. And so Paul says, in light of that, here's what you should do. How ironic that we have a message done that I'm going to give you three things to do, but here it is. Letter A, Paul says, you've got to stop negotiating. You've got to stop negotiating. What God did is he saw that we were in a situation and his heart broke, and he said, you can't fix it. What you broke was priceless.

You can never put it back together. But I am so gracious that I will come and do it for you. You just hang on there and you sit back and you let me rescue you. Why don't you stop negotiating? You see, God does not want anything from you. He doesn't want you to write a check or throw your lunch money in the plate today. You don't have anything you can give him anyway. He has something for you. It is an inescapable gift. Let me give you the sign that you have finally understood this.

Here it is. When you have finally understood this, you will feel sure of your salvation. The sign that you don't get it is that you're still negotiating, right? And you're still unsure. Well, I hope I've done enough to get in. I hope now I've done enough.

I've had a good year. When Jesus has become my salvation, then I am as sure of heaven as he is. Y'all, I don't hope I'm good enough for God to let me in. Because I know that Jesus was good enough, and I'm going to get in under his name. When I walk up to heaven, if God does ask me that question, why should I let you into heaven? No disrespect to God.

Please understand what I mean by this. I'm not even going to break stride because Jesus did it all, and I believe you did what you said you did, and he said it was done. He said it was my righteousness. I don't have to even answer that question, why should I let you in?

You let me in because of what Jesus did on my behalf. We'll return for the conclusion of today's teaching in just a moment, but I wanted to remind you about our featured resource this month. It's a brand new 15-day devotional for all of us who live distracted lives, and it covers the topics of relationships, faith, rest, and even parenting. Daily devotions offer a chance to dig deeper into Scripture and can help you get in the habit of regular Bible reading.

It also comes with conversation cards that are perfect for any group setting, breaking down barriers, and building intimacy along the way. We'd like to encourage you to reserve your copy right now by calling 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgrier.com. Thanks for being with us today. Now let's finish up today's teaching. Here's Pastor JD.

Stop negotiating, which leads to letter B. You'll cease boasting when you do that. Christians who understand the gospel are the least self-righteous people you'll ever meet, and I know that you've met a lot of ridiculously self-righteous Christians, which just shows you they never really understood the gospel.

They think they do, but they haven't, because once you understand the gospel, you stop boasting. Imagine if you were Abraham. Somebody's like, oh, new baby.

Whoa, Abraham. I still got it in you. I didn't know you had it. You're like, I didn't have it.

God did it. When you understand the gospel and how lost you were and that Jesus Christ gave it all to you as a gift, and my only hope, my only plea, my only boast is His righteousness, then all of a sudden humility replaces pride and a sense of gratefulness replaces a sense of entitlement. Then gratefulness leads to gracefulness, and listen, that's the soul of Christianity.

The soul of Christianity is I am so grateful to what God has done for me that it just spills out in how I treat everybody else. You want to know what Christian generosity is? Christian generosity is not people who give to God because they think they're earning their way to get into heaven. Christian generosity, people who give radically generous as Christians, are simply people who say, in light of what Jesus has given up for me, this is what I want to do for my neighbor.

As He has been to me, I want to be to them. You want to know what Christian marriage is? Christian marriage is not two people who start to treat each other better because they think that God's going to let them into heaven because of that. Christian marriage is when two people say, I'm going to be to you.

I'm going to treat you the way Jesus has treated me. Then you start arguing, but you're not arguing about the normal stuff. You're arguing about who gets to out surrender and out serve and out give the other one.

Those arguments are awesome because it's just you beginning to argue. It's you beginning to love as you have been loved. You see, when Paul says in verse 5 that a Christian declared righteous does not work, it doesn't mean that Christians don't do good works. On the contrary, what he means is that the reason that we do good works has changed. We no longer do good works in order to be accepted by God. We do good works because we have been accepted by God. That puts a joy in our works that replaces a fear that we used to do good works for because we thought if not, God's going to reject me. Now we do it because we're so sure he has received us that we can't help, but let that spill out and we want to be generous to everybody the way that he was to us. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, I worked harder than everybody, but it was not because I was trying to get God to accept me.

It's because I was responding to this incredible grace of God that he had given to me, which leads me to see final thing here. Paul says, you just got to trust him. You got to trust him. You got to trust that he did what he said he did. Watch this, to the one who does not work, but trust God. Just trust him who justifies the ungodly. Some of your translations for the word trust right here say believe in, and I don't like that translation because believe in in English to us means like, I believe in, I believe that George Washington existed. Some translations say believing on, and that's better.

My favorite is just the word trust because it shows you that there is an action that's going with this mental decision that you've made. The illustration I've used over the years with you is, it's like sitting down in the chair that you're sitting down in right now. When you came in, there was a decision process. You probably don't remember the decision process, but subconsciously you decided that chair that you're sitting on right now at any of our campuses, you decided it would hold the weight of your body. And at some point you said, I'm going to transfer the weight of my body off of my legs and my shins and my feet, and I'm going to shift it onto this chair. If you did not think the chair would hold you up, you would not have done that, right? Because that would have been embarrassing and people would have been laughing and pointing and taking YouTube videos and you wouldn't have gone through that. But at some point you said, I believe it, and you started to sit.

Again, this is all we're putting in super slow motion. We're sitting down and at some point you committed, right? Because all of a sudden the weight went off of your legs and you started to fall. Just for a second you started to fall and then you sat down, right?

And the weight was no longer there, it was there. That is what the Bible would call trust. What it means to become a Christian is when you say, I believe the chair. I believe that Jesus did what he said he did. I believe he was crucified for my sin. I believe that God raised him from the dead as proof that he'd accepted Jesus as a payment for my sin. And all of a sudden you say, I trust it and it's mine, and you sit down in it. And the moment that you transfer the weight of your salvation off of yourself and onto him, at that moment, Jesus' record is transferred to you.

That's what that means. Okay, now you're like, well, you've used that illustration a bunch. Come on, man, give us some new stuff.

Okay. So I'm watching the Star Wars trilogy times two with my kids because I feel like it's a rite of passage for every teenager and I feel like they're old enough. And so, of course, we're starting with four. Then we do number five, Empire Strikes Back. Then you go back to number two, skip one, just don't even. And then number three, and then you go back and end with number six, Return of the Jedi. Well, okay, so number six, Return of the Jedi. The basic plot, I'm not going to ruin it.

I mean, duh, like you don't know what happens. But Return of the Jedi, they're trying to blow up the Death Star for the second time. But the problem is, is the Empire has gotten all smart and they know that they need a big force field around it, so the planes can't fly in. And so you got to get the force field down. And so they say that Han Solo and Chewbacca and that whole crew is going to go tear the force field down with the Ewoks on Endor, and all the other ships are going to come in. And the moment they tear the force field down, then they'll blow up the Death Star. But if the force field doesn't come down, then they're just going to hit the force field and all blow up. And so you get this like climatic moment where they're all racing toward this force field.

And if that force field doesn't come down, it's just going to hit it one by one and start exploding. And a few of them actually start doing that because Han Solo is late. And so Han Solo, one of the pilots actually says in the movie, one of the pilots says something like this, I cannot believe we have trusted our lives to that swashbuckling smuggler or whatever, Han Solo. And when he says that, I think that is the perfect definition of what Paul talks about when he means faith. Because it means that I am headed this direction and I know that he's going to do what he said he'd do.

I know that he is going to take down that force field of God's righteous judgment. And I know that when I walk into heaven, it's going to be that I'm going to walk there and I'm going to say, you did it. You did what you said you'd do. And the resurrection was the proof that you did what you said you would do. And Abraham, Abraham, Abraham trusted God.

That's the illustration. Abraham trusted God when God said, hey, you're going to go live in a land that you don't even know where it is yet. And Abraham said, where is that?

I'm not going to tell you, but you get out there and I'll show you. And Abraham trusted God. And then Abraham, God said, Abraham, you're going to have a kid.

You're 100 years old. And Abraham said, how am I going to do that? And God said, I'm not going to tell you. And Abraham trusted God and kept going forward. He kept marching toward it, believing that God would do what God said he would do. And what God told you and me that he would do is that he would take care of our sins. Because he was so gracious and so loving. And when you and I believe that and we trust it, then Christ's righteousness becomes ours.

That's what it means. It's just you believe he'd do what he said he would do. The words it was credited to him were not written for Abraham alone. They were written for us to whom God will credit righteousness. For we who believe on him, trust him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Because see, Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins. And then he was raised to life for our justification. And when you believe that God has torn down the force field, the way that God said God would do it. At that moment, you are declared righteous.

Paul said, because Romans 10, nine, he summarizes it for with them, for with you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. In other words, that he is who he says he is. And you'll believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, which means that he did what he said he'd do. Then you will be saved.

Not might be saved or one day could be saved. Or if you try real hard to be saved, but you will be saved at that moment. Because see, it's with the heart that a man believes unto righteousness. And it's with the mouth that you make confession unto salvation. And then Paul, my favorite verse, Romans 10, 13. And this whole little deal, for whosoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That last verse used to trouble me because I would say, well, what do you have to ask him? When you call up to him, what do you say? Like, hello, Jesus, take me to heaven.

Take me to heaven. Or what do you say? You're missing the point. The point is not what you say to him. It's simply that you call Jesus by the right name. You call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Here's what I mean by that. A friend of mine says that you can tell a lot about your relationship to me based on what name you call me.

Right? So if when I answer the phone at home and the voice on the other end of the line says, may I speak to Mr. Griar? I'm like, okay, you don't know me at all.

I'm clearly a telemarketer. They call me Griar. If they say, may I speak to Dr. Griar or Pastor JD? I'm like, well, okay, they know a little bit about me because they're, you know, call me by whatever.

If they say, can I speak to JD? Then I'm like, this is obviously a person that knows me on a personal social level. There are four people in the universe who when I answer the phone, they will say, Daddy, my daddy, only four that can do that. And there is one person in the universe who calls me Mega Man.

I can tell your relationship with me based on which name you call me. What Paul means when he says, whoever will call in the name of the Lord, listen, is that you just learned to call Jesus the right name. And that name is my savior. Have you learned to call Jesus by that name? If not, you can call on him today as your savior and the master of your life.

You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor and Author JD Griar. It's not too late to get our new exclusive resource. And actually, this month is a set of two resources. We have a study called Devotions for the Distracted Family, 15 Days on Relationships, Faith and Rest. And as I mentioned earlier, it also comes with a set of 20 conversation cards. We want to help you and your closest community easily dialogue about faith.

So these conversation cards have a question or a prompt to kickstart dialogue around important topics. We'll send you both resources as our way of saying thanks for your financial gift of thirty five dollars or more to support this ministry. Request your set when you call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or donate online at JDGriar.com. And if you're not yet signed up for our e-newsletter, be sure to do that today. You'll get information about new resources, as well as blog posts and devotionals from JD.

It is the best way to stay in touch and it's completely free. Sign up online at JDGriar.com. I'm Molly Vidovich, encouraging you to join us next week when we continue our series, Phantom Faith. We'll see you Monday right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.