“You are saved by grace but you maintain your position through right-living,” is an example of a mixed-grace message.
A mixed-grace gospel combines the unmerited favor of God with the merited wage of human-effort.
“God gives you grace so that you can keep his commands,” is another.
These sorts of messages contain an element of grace but ultimately push you to trust in yourself and your own efforts.
Bite into any mixed-grace message and you will taste a bitter fruit. You will feel the pressure to perform and smell the fear that comes with failure.
You’ll make promises to God and then you’ll break them. You’ll resolve to try harder only to fail again and again. You’ll become burned out and bummed out.
Since a mixed-grace message puts the emphasis on you and what you have done, your identity will become defined by your productivity. You will start to think of yourself as God’s servant instead of his beloved son or daughter.
Worst of all, you will end up distracted from Jesus and fallen from grace.
Don’t swallow any poison that comes with a spoonful of grace. And don’t subscribe to any message that leads you to trust in yourself and your works instead of Jesus and his. To paraphrase Watchman Nee, “You can try or you can trust and the difference is heaven and hell.”
By Paul Ellis Escape To Reality