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Working our way into heaven does not work, but somehow we feel compelled to continue to put obstacles in front of people prior to allowing them into relationship with God. Paul ran into this very thing in this chapter and he questions the wisdom of attempting to allow it to continue. Verses 10 and 11 says, 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” It is only through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved. We need to be careful to not confuse growing in Christ Jesus and striving toward perfection with making Jesus the perfecter of our lives.
Daily Devotion 
Oh man. This is a hot button topic for me. I could get on a soap box and go for HOURS about this. Grave diservice does not even begin to describe what we are doing to an unbelieving world when we come to them and say they have to clean up their act before they can come to God. We are completely neutering the Gospel! I would almost say that it makes us worse than what we would consider the worst of sinners. We were given a message of freedom, we received a life of freedom, yet we want to put people in more shackles?! They are already shackled! I have a feeling Jesus has a few “woes” to us regarding this, and boy, do I NOT want to be on the receiving end of that. As Peter says in the Message version, “Why are you trying to out-god God?” If we believe in an all powerful God, then we have no business forcing changes in people. I can’t say it better than Peter, “And God, who can’t be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person’s thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us. He treated the outsiders exactly as he treated us, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed him.” That is the power of the Gospel! And we kill it all the time! In my line of work a tight community will form while in the midst of a show. Inevitably, this exact conversation will come up. I’ll hear, “Well, I’m too screwed up for God to be interested” or “I need to clean up my act a bit” or I even get, “Sarah, do you think that what I’m doing is right or wrong?” My answer to that? What I think isn’t at issue. Even if I consider their behavior wrong, that isn’t the issue. The issue is that something is pricking their heart, there’s a shame, there’s something eating at them and they want a relief from it that my answer won’t give. My response to them in every case is that I care for the condition of their heart. I care what their relationship with Jesus is. I’ll talk to them all night about Jesus. I will do what I can to introduce them to him, because he is the only healing salve. He is the only one who takes away shame. He’s the only one who changes hearts. He’s the only one who can heal those deep seeded wounds of our past. He’s the only one who can give us power over the thorns in our sides. I always tell people that I believe in an all-powerful God, and if I have chosen to believe that, then I must live my life accordingly. And I believe that all-powerful God can change a heart and bring healing without me brow beating.
We carry a message of freedom. We carry a message that all of humanity longs for. Woe to us if we snatch that freedom away.