No hybrids

Do not make the mistake of thinking you can have a hybrid sort of Christianity. You know how these days you can have a petrol or diesel car or you can have an electric one but then you can also have a hybrid, petrol and electric. The false teachers were arguing for a hybrid form of Christianity. You may be able to have a hybrid car but a hybrid Christianity will not work. If it is based on law at all then it will be all law and Christ and grace will be pushed out.

God's Monopoly

If I want petrol for my car I can go to lots of different places – BP, Shell, one of the supermarkets, etc. If I was living in the early days of the motor car and in the USA, it would be quite different. Pretty much all the petrol was sold by John D Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. They had a monopoly. If you wanted petrol you had to go to them. Now it is a little bit like that with eternal life. There is only one supplier. There is only one person you can go to – to God himself.

Look to God then. Don't be proud and think you have some right to eternal life. Humble yourself before him. Seek his face and ask him to have mercy.

Grace - no place for boasting

Would a man boast because he had been rescued from drowning? It would sound odd. 'Hey, look at me, I was nearly drowned and I got rescued. Aren't I clever?' What? You can't say 'Hey, I'm going to heaven'. Yes you may be, but not because you deserve it. You're no different to the next person, certainly no better. 

You can't boast about the grace of God. Hey, God chose me. It's something like saying 'Hey, look at me I've got blue eyes' or 'Look, I was born with four limbs'. Only because of the kindness of God to you. It wasn't anything you did. God chose me. Yes, but why? Grace means undeserved favour and so it can't be because you deserve it.

Grace - undeserved love

Grace is a bit like love but grace is undeserved. I love my wife and my wife loves me. We love each other because we saw something in each other we loved. Now if she had loved me even though there was nothing about me to love - that would be grace (in fact grace comes into it because there are things about me not to love and she shows me grace). Grace is undeserved love.