By Kelsie Petersen
In my last post, I explored the idea of reading Galatians as a guide for recovering legalists, and how, after we have realized that we, as believers, are freed from the yoke of the law, that we are to live life by the spirit, and not in the flesh. As I was thinking about what to write about this time, I found myself thinking about the old saying, “Do your best, and let Jesus do the rest.”
Talk about a triggering phrase for a recovering legalist! As a card-holding member of “Recovering Legalists Anonymous,” I admit that I struggle to find a (probably mythical) balance between spiritually working as hard as I can without actually dying (because, as a legalist, I learned that I should do my best and let Jesus “do the rest”), and sitting back and doing nothing (because Jesus already “did it all”).
I don’t know that I ever remember overtly being taught that I had to do my best in order for Jesus to actually cover the rest of my sins and make me “fit for heaven,” but that understanding is very certainly what it boiled down to in my mind—and in the minds of many other Adventists and former Adventists to whom I have spoken.
It is tricky to believe I have to “do my best” in order for Jesus to do the rest, because there are so many unknowns. For example, what actually IS my best? What if I THINK I am doing my best, but Jesus, in His omnipotence, knows that I could actually try harder and do better, and thus, when I meet Him, He refuses to cover “the rest”? How could I be sure NOW? How could I be sure EVER?
This thinking seems to come to two ends: either one lives in a state of constant anxiety, trying one’s level best (as far one knows) but is deeply afraid that it won’t be enough, or, one throws his hands in the air and gives up trying. The latter group often end up as nominal, cultural Adventists, or walks away from any faith as agnostics or atheists.
“Do my best and let Jesus do the rest” also has a great potential to create a sense of entitlement and—even bitterness and resentment towards God—when things don’t work out the way we want them to. When I operate from that premise, I am doing my best towards a certain goal, and it is easy for me to expect that “the rest” that Jesus will do will fit in with my goals and objectives.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed that God often doesn’t do things the way I think He should or was hoping and fervently praying that He would. The temptation in a legalistic system is to view God as a cosmic vending machine—money in, prize out. When I put my effort in, the “reward” I expected should come out. If my attitude becomes that God somehow owes me my expected result, it will be very hard not to feel bitter and let down when it doesn’t happen. It’s hard to trust in any sort of sovereign God when one’s beliefs dictate that He owes you for “your best.”
Upon discovering the New Covenant and understanding that complete atonement was achieved at the cross, I thought back on this concept with horror. As I began to grasp more of the magnitude of what He accomplished and what it meant for me, it seemed beyond laughable that I could DO anything that Jesus would need to add to, to make me worthy of salvation. In fact, I it insults the cross to think that there was any way, no matter how tiny, that we could contribute to our “worthiness” before a holy God, or that we could somehow meet Him in the middle somewhere.
Perspective
To put some perspective on where I’m coming from, I will tell you that I’m the firstborn child of a firstborn father born into a Seventh-day Adventist family—a legalistic group. I think it’s fair to say that I didn’t have much hope of growing into a “laid back” adult. I am, by nature, a “doer,” and I struggle to see myself as a “human BEing,” rather than a “human DOing.” Being part of a group that found its identity in in keeping its rules and checking the boxes on the “to do” list came naturally to me, and to be honest, it still does. In fact, part of my recovery from legalism has been a persistent need to wrestle with the question, “What do I DO now?”
Sometimes I even find myself swinging to the other extreme. “If it is truly finished and I can rest from my work, if God is truly sovereign and in control (as I believe He is), what is the point of doing—well, anything? Is there anything to be done besides putting my feet up on the couch?”
As I put words to this thought, I recognize that it sounds ridiculous, but such are the thoughts that invade my post-legalism brain. I struggle to find the elusive “middle ground.”
As I’ve been pondering this idea of “do your best and let Jesus do the rest,” I’ve wondered if any form of this statement has any possible place in the thinking of a New Covenant believer. Is Jesus a “top up plan” for anything in the life of a believer? We know that He certainly is not that in our salvation, but what about in the daily playing out of our lives? When we face relationship issues, financial worries, life transitions and decisions, heartaches, or even just the mundane tasks of our day to day lives, can we apply this neat little phrase to our earthly life as believers?
I even considered rephrasing it to say, “Do your best and trust Jesus with the rest,” but it still didn’t sit quite right with me. In fact, I believe it is part of our human nature to try to separate our part from God’s part, and that separation is what bothers me the most about trying to apply this statement in the life of a New Covenant believer. As born-again believers, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and there is no separation where we can put “God’s part” in a pile on the left, and “our part” in a pile on the right. He is in us, and we are in Him.
If, out of the outflow of our changed, born again spirits, we live life by the Spirit, characterized by the fruit of the Spirit being evident in our lives, I wonder if we could then say, “Trust Jesus for everything—and do your best”?
Certainly the New Testament is full of exhortations to the early believers to be faithful and consistent in their good works. Paul tells them to “stand strong in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:10), to “live up to what we have already obtained” (Philippians 3:15), that God has given us “a spirit of power, of love and of self discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7), and the writer of Hebrews gives multiple images of perseverance and effort. These imperative statements can be such a challenge for those of us cardholding members of “Recovering Legalists Anonymous,” but the sum total of Scripture is clear that, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we will not live a life of passivity, of “letting Jesus do the rest,” but we will be proactive, living out a life of faith that is not our own.
Life in the New Covenant is not as neat and tidy as a life under a legalistic system. There are no boxes to check, and the freedom can feel scary to those of us who found comfort in the law’s predictability. The idea of doing my best and then sitting back while God does “His part” (which, of course, He now “owes” to me) is much simpler and easier to control than is the Spirit.
In fact, as we continue to peel back the layers of our lives that were shaped by Adventism, we can remember that He is good, and He can be trusted. What He gives us when we submit our lives to him and surrender to His Spirit, when we trust Him with everything and then do our best—these things cannot compare with anything we might think we could earn by doing our best and letting Jesus do the rest.
As the Apostle Paul said,
For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! AMEN! (Ephesians 3:14-21). †
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