While discussing D. A. Carson’s excellent phrase, “grace-driven effort,” one young Reformed pastor told me: “I grew up just hearing about effort, which is why I’m okay if some people have overemphasized the grace part. We can handle that for a season.”

via Heresy Is Heresy, Not the Litmus Test of Gospel Preaching | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me. (Wisdom, Proverbs 8.17)

A slack hand causes poverty,
but the hand of the diligent makes rich. (Proverbs 10.4)

The hand of the diligent will rule,
while the slothful will be put to forced labor. (Proverbs 12.24)

Whoever is slothful will not roast his game,
but the diligent man will get precious wealth. (Proverbs 12.27)

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. (Proverbs 13.4)

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. (Proverbs 21.5)

And it is all echoed in 2 Peter 1:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And again at the conclusion of his letter:

But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

And here is the Apostle Paul:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified…. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

First of all, notice how this works with “grace-driven effort.” How does one play off grace against effort?

Of course, there is a great deal in the Bible about the need to give people a Sabbath Rest. It may be that some Church cultures don’t acknowledge the joy and celebration that is supposed to mark the Christian life. It seems obvious in the Gospels that the Pharisees are a new Pharaoh trying to prevent Jesus from giving people rest on the Sabbath (i.e. healing them and partying with them).

But that’s not exactly what I’m hearing in these grace v. effort statements.