You Don't Get Measured For Your Crown

My friend Jerri used the phrase “performance-based Christianity” once and it has stuck in my mind.  We live in a world of catch phrases and words that are used in business and by those “in the know.”  They often make me laugh when I hear them because they are complicated ways of saying very simple truths (“performance-based” is one, and I love the “global strategic prepositioning” one.)  We often use them to make ourselves sound knowledgeable and part of the in-crowd.  I like the way Jerri used “performance-based” as a kind of modern day “put down” on the oft-interpreted idea that Christians are not good enough unless they do certain things.  Her humor points out the real issue nicely: We are insistent that we create a more complicated way to do something simple.

Jesus died for your sins and was resurrected from the dead.  If you believe that, life just got simple for you.  Why make it more complicated?  The idea that you have to do something to make yourself worthy is completely opposite the message that Jesus came to bring.  You see you can’t do anything to earn your salvation.  You might make yourself feel better if you do a bunch of really great stuff.  You might make other people feel better, too.  I don’t see a problem with that, and it certainly fits in with the whole message of the Bible that you are commanded to love your neighbor as yourself.  That is a big part of our job here on earth as I see it, and we could spend all day talking about how we should carry that out in different ways.  But the main issue is doing those things is not something that you get brownie points, S&H Green Stamps, Mileage Plus Miles, etc. for!  You don’t get measured for your crown.  I like the way Jesus put it in the parable about the guys who got hired last to work in the fields and were paid the same as the ones who worked from early morning.  It always drove me nuts to think they would be treated the same and paid what I would have gotten.  They didn’t pay their dues!   They didn’t sweat as much.  I’d be talking to my union rep if it happened to me…but that’s the human in me talking…and thank goodness God doesn’t think like me.  The workers all contracted for the same end result. 

The end result is salvation, and you get it when you sign the contract.

Now, one afterthought:  How serious are you about your faith if your “performance” is non-existent?  Paul addresses that when he says “faith without works is dead.”  YOU demonstrate your faith with your performance within the limits of being a sinful human being.  You aren’t going to be perfect…we can’t be by the very definition of our fallen nature.  But you need to think every day about where you should be…