Most Christians accept that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus and not works.

EPH 2 “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”

But they think we need to relate to God based on works after that by trying to keep the law, trying to follow Jesus but failing and then confessing sins, etc….They say that we are forgiven sins but only positionally and not experientially. They say we are under grace but need to be guided by the law/works.

First of all we need to understand that man can never relate to God based on works.

Its because man’s righteousness is like a scale of 0-100.

– the worst criminals are 0/100.

– the best behaved people are 100/100.

But God’s Righteousness is INFINITY (highest value that cannot be measured is 10000000000……….).

In God’s eyes, the worst criminal and best-behaved man is NOTHING compared to INFINITY.

Man’s good works are filthy rags! (ISA 64:6)

All people’s righteousness falls short of God’s glory. That is why men are called sinners who die and do not live forever (Romans 3:10-20)

Nobody is perfect like Jesus or God. No man has INFINITE righteousness.

God gave the law (a covenant of works) to make them realize that they are sinners who can never be righteous like God in their works.

The Law said “Obey all the commands” to be righteous like God (Deut 6:24-25)

Nobody could obey the law and nobody could be perfect like Jesus.

Jesus alone fulfilled the law in His life (MATT 5:17) by displaying that perfect righteousness of God, He never sinned even though He was crucified by His enemies.

Jesus abolished the law on the cross (EPH 2:13-16, COL 2:13-14) to make us Righteous by faith in Him.

ROMANS 10 “4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

Man’s righteousness is 0-100…..But God’s righteousness is INFINITY.

Paul was the most blameless person under the law but considered his WORKS as GARBAGE compared to having the INFINITE righteousness of God by FAITH in JESUS (PHILIPPIANS 3:4-10).

The believer is perfectly sinless and righteous because God does not look at our works.

God sees Jesus living in us and sees His INFINITE Righteousness in the believer.

Therefore the believer cannot relate to God based on works!

The believer is not under law (Romans 6:14, Galatians 3:23-26) but Sinless and Righteous by grace!

Therefore God does not command any works or laws to believers!

Therefore the believer does not sin and cannot sin.

The believer cannot relate to God based on works.

It is because God only accepts the Cross of Jesus and not our works!

On the cross, God made the believer SINLESS and PERFECT, FORGIVEN ALL SINS (HEB 10:1-18)

But Christians say that we still relate to God based on works and yet they will never keep the entire law.

They have watered-down the law to make it a smaller subset of commands and when they fail they confess sins!

They are trying to relate to God based on a scale of 0-100 when they ignore that God requires INFINITE righteousness that only Jesus did.

You cannot claim to relate to God based on works if you are not obeying the ENTIRE law !!

They are ignoring the fact that Jesus made us sinless on the cross and ended the law and that God does not command any works to us!

They will try to follow Jesus and do some works but never become perfect in their behavior. If you want to follow Jesus, then make sure you are born of a virgin, circumcised on the 8th day, following the law, selling everything to the poor, die on a cross and do EVERYTHING that Jesus did – to be sinless in behavior!!

They are mixing Law and Grace. It’s like putting new wine into old wineskin then it will burst and cannot stand (Mark 9:22)

They are ignoring the fact Jesus did EVERYTHING for us to make us sanctified and righteous by faith without works!! (Romans 4:4-25, Acts 26:18, 1 Corinthians 6:11)

1 CORINTHIANS 1 “29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Christians are afraid that Grace gives license to do evil deeds. They try to add law to control their lives because they do not understand the Cross.

But let us look at the evidence: Are the worst criminals believers? OF COURSE NOT.

The truth is that there are well-behaved people in the Churches just like there are good people among Jews/Muslims/Hindus/Atheists. There are badly-behaved people in every religion!

We live in a civilized world where both Christians and unbelievers do good deeds and are not running around doing crimes. So then living a decent life is not based on religion – that is just human decency – that all people in the world share – irrespective of religions.

Therefore grace can never be a “license for doing bad deeds”.

But even if you try to good works you are only operating in the scale of 0-100 and you can never be like Jesus in your works!

Therefore we cannot relate to God based on works but only on Grace.

ROMANS 11 “6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”

We cannot relate to God based on works(law) but only by faith.

GALATIANS 3 “12 The law is not based on faith;”

The believer is not convicted of sins by the law. The believer is sinless by grace.

The believer CANNOT relate to God based on our works of the scale of 0-100 that will never be perfect like Jesus.

If we relate to God based on works then we have to be perfect like Jesus in our works! That is the law and it will condemn us!

Therefore the ONLY way for man to relate to God is based on GRACE only by FAITH because He gave us His INFINITE righteousness of Christ in us to all who believe!

There are no commands to believers because God already made us righteous and perfect by the finished work of Jesus.

Therefore believers relate to God as unconditionally loving Father and not the judge of works!