We come to God by faith in Christ apart from works.

But after that many believers are told to relate to God based on works.

They say that our relationship with God is like a human relationship. If we mess up, we need to say sorry to be forgiven constantly.

While this may be ok for a human relationship, it’s not sustainable for a relationship with God.

Why is that? Its because if we relate to God based on works, then what standard are we going to use? It must be the Law.

The problem is that the Law is a perfectionist. We know that a relationship with a perfectionist will quickly descend into a disaster with constant guilt and condemnation.
So then we cannot relate to God based on works.

This is why God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross and fulfill the law on our behalf so that we can relate to God through faith in His blood.

We cannot relate to God based on our works, apologies, confessions, dedications, re-dedications, commitments, re-commitments, surrendering on the altar, etc…because it still falls far short of Christ’s perfect life, death and resurrection.

We relate to God based on what Jesus did for us.He finished the work.

He is more than enough.
When we rest from our efforts and just say that I am accepted and loved because of Jesus, then it’s pleasing to God.

Then God can bear fruit in us and write his law of love in our heart – and then we live the life He has planned for us – all by grace through faith.

Ephesians 2:4-10 “But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.”