If you smoke marijuana, you get -3 Jesus points.   If you read your Bible, you get +1 Jesus point.  If you spend time in prayer, you get another +1 Jesus point.  If you say a cuss word, you get –1 Jesus point. If you share the Gospel with someone, you get +2 Jesus points.  If you attend church you get +3 Jesus points.  To get a girlfriend, you have to have at least +6 Jesus points.  To get into heaven, you have to have +7 Jesus points.  So, you may have to choose between going to heaven and getting a girlfriend depending on how many Jesus points you have.

This is the hilarious offbeat humor my son, Andrew, and his buddies would kid each other about during their many summers as Christian camp counselors.  Of course, it was all in good fun.

Yet, each week behind the smiles and “I’m fine” automatic responses of many Christians, the idea of earning “Jesus points” is no laughing matter.  I doubt most are aware of this underlying belief because it’s a system of thinking that has infiltrated every one of us.  We inherited it from Adam, whose mind was negatively reprogrammed with it when he ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

It was a real tree which represented one of two ways to live in a relationship with God.  The second and and optimum way to live was to be found in the Tree of Life.  The first tree was all about adding up our +’s and –‘s to determine our acceptance before God. (Genesis 2:9)  This is living with a “law mentality”.  The second tree was also a real tree which represented living from the life Christ in us in delightful intimacy, which was to spill over as unconditional love with other people.  This is living with a “grace mentality”.

Unfortunately, the “law mentality” doesn’t automatically leave us when we become Christ followers.  I wish it  did. Don’t you?  This is why Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:23 exhort us to reprogram our minds with grace and truth from an understanding of the “full” Gospel taught in the preceding chapters of each letter.  This is what God does to transform us more and more!

Why is it so easy for us to say to a young child who does something good that they are a good boy or good girl?  Why is it so easy to default to believing that God loves us less when we sin?  Why is it so easy to jump to the conclusion that God is mad at us because bad things are happening? It’s because of the “law mentality”.  Living from a grace mentality thinks and lives the opposite way.

When I asked a 13 year old girl if her dad, a pastor, was any different since he’s learned the grace message in our ADT, she said with a smile. “Oh yes!  It’s like he won the lottery.  He’s so happy now!”

When our family notices we are different, that’s the “grace mentality” of Christ in us!