Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Trying Harder Isn't Enough for Christian Growth | New Testament | Galatians 3

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

Keith shares a story about stapling good apples to a bad tree to highlight how we often try to fake good behavior without dealing with the root issue. Using Galatians 3, Keith explains that Christians grow by applying the gospel to every area of life, not just by trying harder. Real change comes from dealing with our hearts and seeking God's grace to change. While effort is necessary, it must be enabled by God's grace. Join us as we explore the importance of forgiveness and heart change in the Christian life. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Galatians 3

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Okay, before we dive into Galatians 3, I just want to share a story that I adapted from Paul Tripp. He's a great Bible teacher. So my family used to live in a house with a crab apple tree in the backyard. If you've never had a crab apple tree, you're not missing much. They make really nasty crab apples that splatter everywhere when you inevitably mow over.

them. Anyway, imagine my wife saying that she wished that instead of a crab apple tree, we had a tree that produced honey crisp apples in our backyard. And I think to myself, wow, this is a great way to make my wife happy. So I go to the store and buy honey crisp apples and then staple them to the crab apple tree. Like she looks outside and sees me standing on a ladder using a staple gun to attach the good apples to that bad tree. Whenever I share that story with people, they inevitably laugh because it is so ridiculous. No one would possibly be so dumb as to think you can staple honey-crisp apples to a crab apple tree. And I agree that no one would do anything like that.

Or maybe we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss this story because maybe this is exactly how we try to live the Christian life. So picture two trees that represent two different versions of our life. one tree doesn't have any fruit on it it's bare the other tree is full of beautiful delicious fruit this time the fruit isn't apples but it's the kind of character that god wants to display in our life characteristics like love humility selflessness and more how do we go from being a prideful person to a humble person how do we go from selfishness to selflessness from greedy to generous i think a lot of us have learned to just try harder to staple good fruit on a bad tree, to fake it until we make it. But back in the original story, it doesn't make sense to staple honey crisp apples to a crab apple tree. And the reason it doesn't make sense is because those apples aren't really connected to the tree. They're going to fall off. They're going to rot. The tree has crab apple roots, so it will only produce crab apple fruit.

Well, it's the same for us as people. Over time, we will always produce fruit in, line with our roots. But what's the equivalent of roots in our life? And I think it's our heart. Jesus says out of the overflow of our heart, our mouth speaks. Out of the overflow of our heart, our life is lived. So if we want to see real God honoring change in our life, we have to deal with our heart before we deal with our behavior. When we begin to see our heart change, we will begin to see our behavior, our attitudes, our emotions, our words, really, our whole life change. So now let's go to Galatians chapter 3, where Paul writes this, You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. So you can tell that Paul is coming in hot. He's obviously unhappy with this church. He picks it up in verse 2. I would like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

Paul says, hey, look, guys, you became Christians by faith, but now you're trying to live the Christian life only by relying on your own efforts. Christians aren't just saved by the gospel. we also grow by the gospel. Christians grow by applying the gospel to every area of our life. Unfortunately, too many of us adopt the just try harder approach to the Christian life. And look, I get why. Try harder is how we're told to make progress in this world.

Do you want to improve your grades? Study harder. Do you want a promotion at your job? Work harder. Do you want to get in shape? Try harder. That seems to be our advice in almost every area of life. life. So we assume that trying harder is also the key to living the Christian life. But trying harder,

apart from the grace of God and faith in the gospel, is like stapling fruit to a bad tree. It might look good for a bit, but it won't last. That's because the fruit isn't connected to the tree. As long as our heart is unchanged, our life will remain unchanged. What we need to do is look at the negative fruit in our life and ask, what's going on down in the roots? What's going on? What's going on down in our heart. Why are we angry? Why are we worried or selfish or complaining or bitter? When we see the reason behind our unwanted behavior, we have a chance to repent of it at a heart level and ask God for grace to change us. We can see where we are failing to believe the gospel. Let's look at one negative fruit that we might see in our life and see how believing the gospel

can change our heart. So let's look at the story. sin of lying. Perhaps you lie because you want to look good in front of other people. You want their approval. You want their respect. Or maybe you lie because you think it will lead you to something that will make you happy. This might be why someone lies on their tax return because getting that five extra dollars will provide them with something that they really want. So we see lying at the fruit level in our life. And what we want to do is go, why are we lying? And when we identify the motive of our lie, then we can say, okay, how does the gospel apply to that? So how does the gospel apply to us lying in order to find happiness? The tax return kind of lying. How does the gospel apply to that?

Well, the gospel applies because it says that in Jesus, we will find real satisfaction. And the more our heart believes that satisfaction is found in Jesus, the less we will need to lie in order to find happiness. Or if our motive of lying was because we wanted to look good in front of other people and we didn't want them to think poorly of ourselves, how does the gospel address that issue? Well, it addresses that heart issue by saying that our approval and acceptance comes from God that we live for an audience of one and that God accepts us in Jesus. So the more I believe that, the less I need to lie to protect my reputation. So when you see negative issues in your life, go down to the root level, ask why am I acting this way?

And then see how the gospel addresses that heart issue. As your heart begins to change, the fruit will begin to change. You'll begin to live the kind of life that God wants you to live, the kind of life that you want to live. It's not that there's never a time for us to exert effort in the Christian life. After all, we must choose to examine our heart. We must choose to identify where we're not believing the gospel. And then we must choose to put our faith in the promises of God. There's a place for effort.

But it's not a human effort. It's an effort that is enabled by God's grace. I hope this helps you live the Christian life. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up.

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