The epistles in the New Testament are full of exhortation to obey God’s commandments and to live a holy life. Search these three words “make every effort” and you will find at least 9 verses. Luke 13:24; Rom 14:19; Eph 4:3; Heb 4:11;Heb 12:14; 2 Pet 1:5; 2 Pet 1:10; 2 Pet 1:15; 2 Pet 3:14.
Heb 4: 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Heb 12: 14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
2 Pet 1:10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.
We were born again when God gave us a new heart and a new spirit and His Spirit to MOVE (convict) us to OBEY His laws. Ezek 36:26-27. And His Spirit is only given to those who OBEY Him.
( Acts 5:32. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who OBEY Him. John 17:6. “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have OBEYED your word…)
It is by grace that we are saved by faith alone in Christ Jesus, and not by works. But we are God ‘s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:8-10. Though we will continue to sin after believing in Jesus, the desire to obey is evidence of this new heart and new spirit given by God. The struggle with sin is real as we all experience just like St Paul but we take heart that Christ Jesus has overcome the world and He will deliver us. Rom 7:14-25. On the contrary, a heart not intending to surrender and does not have the desire to obey from the onset is evidence of the ABSENCE of this new heart and new spirit !
So it is not difficult to understand why the hyper grace doctrine keep insisting that obedience is a WORK…because if it is a WORK, they can conveniently dismiss it as we are not saved by works. If it does not have this rhetoric of trivializing obedience, the net will not be cast wide enough to reach the unsaved who does not really want to surrender the throne of their lives to live a holy life but living covetously with wealth and every good thing without any prick of their conscience – so much so that the doctrine further deny the prompting work of the Holy Spirit in convicting the Christian of sin.
When the hyper grace believers exclaim, “it is done, it is done, it is done”, what they really want is that they can have the salvation in Christ without surrendering any part of their lives in active obedience. They rightly claim that their version of grace is effort- less.