For many of my formative years, the overarching and consistent message I received at church was, “Be good.” It’s quite possible that I didn’t have ears to hear the message of grace or a heart to embrace that I was actually loved by God. But this idea that Christianity was about being good became a detrimental foundation for my spiritual life. I attempted with everything in me to be good, but my efforts only reinforced what I knew deep inside: I wasn’t good enough and never could be. Sin was forever crouching at my door, and none of my attempts to “be better” had much value against the indulgences of my flesh.
In my late 20s, still plugging along in what I now call the goodness gospel, I opened the book of Galatians. The words absolutely came alive. God opened my eyes instantly to a lack of understanding about what Christ had done for me, and he began that day the long and arduous process of unraveling my grip on the goodness gospel and replacing it with the true gospel. The goodness gospel preached salvation by faith but sanctification through self-effort. Through Galatians, I heard the true gospel, which is that I received my justification by faith in Christ, and I also receive my sanctification by the work of the Holy Spirit. All along, I had tried to take the responsibility for producing spiritual fruit in my own heart, but I learned that my responsibility is to respond in obedience and surrender to God’s work in me.
The shame, pride, and self-condemnation I’d struggled with all my life turned into freedom and joy. But something else happened. Because of my experience with the destruction of the goodness gospel, I became acutely attuned to its subtle message and realized that I was hearing it everywhere: through the counsel of other believers, from pulpits, and in Christian books. Do more, try harder. In fact, the four subtle messages I continued to hear mirrored exactly what Paul addressed in Galatians. Keep reading
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