From Self-Reliance to Dependence on Christ

Deuteronomy 6:5 gives a command that takes in everything: love the Lord with all the heart, all the soul, and all the might. The Shema leaves nothing out. The heart means the core, the very center of a person. The soul includes the emotions. Might carries the sense of intellectual determination. The command calls for all of it. That is a tall order.

The desire to love God more and remain loyal to him can become a burden of endless lists. Five things to do better. Ten ways to be more loving. The next list promises progress, but the goal always seems out of reach. Self-reliance turns the command into exhausting effort, leaving the Christian bent over, hands on knees, panting at the prospect of trying again.

Joshua 24 connects that wholehearted love with service. Joshua, now old and looking back over God’s faithfulness, warns against idolatry and calls the people to choose whom they will serve. Love and service belong together. Whatever receives the heart, the soul, and the might receives a person’s service. There is that person’s god.

The combination of God’s commands and society’s constant insistence on self-reliance produces quite a recipe. Self-reliance promises the ability to love God and serve him through greater determination. That promise produces striving without peace.

Joshua then says something startling. The people have recalled God’s deliverance from Egypt, his protection, and his victories, and have pledged their loyalty. Joshua answers, “You cannot serve the Lord.” That answer rips away every thought that love and loyalty can come from their own strength.

Jeremiah locates blessing in trust in the Lord, not trust in self. Paul places qualification in God, not personal ability. Christ makes the same truth plain through the vine and the branches. A branch cannot live disconnected from the vine. Apart from Christ, nothing.

Christ’s cross answers the daily failure to love God wholly and the daily turning toward other gods. The spotless Lamb paid the debt sinners could never pay. Life in the Lord is therefore not self-reliance but radical dependency on the Redeemer. God graciously brings his people to the end of themselves, tearing away self-reliance to bring them to himself. From the Shema to service, it is all a gift.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Wholehearted love leaves nothing untouched. The Shema calls for the core, the emotions, and the intellect, not merely an outward pattern of religious activity. Its repeated demand for “all” exposes the difference between greater busyness and wholehearted love. The command cannot be reduced to a manageable checklist without losing its searching claim on the entire person. [26:11]
• 2. Service reveals the heart’s actual god. Joshua’s call to choose whom to serve gives love a concrete expression. The connection between love and service exposes idolatry beneath outward declarations of loyalty. Whatever commands the heart’s deepest attachment also begins to direct its service, making devotion more searching than a spoken commitment. [31:54]
• 3. Self-reliance cannot produce faithful service. Joshua’s “You cannot serve the Lord” tears away confidence in unaided determination. The warning does not make God’s command less serious; it makes dependence on God unavoidable. Christ’s vine and branches picture shows why greater effort cannot substitute for the life that comes from abiding in him. [39:19]
• 4. Grace brings self-reliance to its end. Christ’s cross provides forgiveness for failed love and misplaced trust, not another list for paying an impossible debt. God’s grace also strips away the confidence that imagines future faithfulness can come from personal strength. Radical dependency rests on the Redeemer who both forgives sin and brings forth what pleases him. [42:34]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [22:37] - The Burden of Endless Lists
• [24:36] - Deuteronomy and the Shema
• [26:11] - All the Heart, Soul, and Might
• [29:26] - Joshua’s Call to Choose
• [31:29] - The Connection Between Love and Service
• [32:41] - The Exhaustion of Self-Reliance
• [35:56] - Why Joshua Says They Cannot Serve
• [38:24] - The Vine and the Branches
• [40:57] - Forgiveness and Radical Dependency

Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 6:5
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” [25:30]

Joshua 24:15
“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” [30:58]

John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” [39:19]

Observation questions

1. In the explanation of Deuteronomy 6:5, what parts of a person’s life are included in heart, soul, and might? What does the repeated emphasis on “all” highlight? [26:37]
2. How does the call to serve God in Joshua 24:15 connect with the command to love God in Deuteronomy 6:5? What does a person’s service reveal about their deepest love? [31:38]
3. What acts of God did the people recall before pledging their loyalty in Joshua 24? How did Joshua’s response challenge their confidence? [36:17]
4. In the picture of the vine and branches in John 15:5, what accounts for a branch’s fruitfulness, and what happens when it is disconnected? [39:05]

Interpretation questions

1. Why can reducing wholehearted love for God to a checklist leave a Christian busy with religious activities but still burdened and without peace? [28:04]
2. How does the connection between love and service help explain why idolatry involves more than worshiping a physical statue? What might reveal a competing loyalty in an otherwise religious person’s life? [31:59]
3. Why does Joshua challenge the people’s ability to serve God after calling them to choose their allegiance? How does this expose self-reliance rather than make faithfulness unimportant? [40:18]
4. In light of John 15:5, what is the difference between depending on Christ for faithful service and simply becoming passive? How can a Christian take obedience seriously without treating personal determination as the source of spiritual life? [42:22]

Application questions

1. When have you felt weighed down by trying to become a better Christian? What were you expecting your own effort to accomplish, and where did you look for peace when you fell short? [33:42]
2. Think about how you have used your time, attention, and energy this past week. What might those choices reveal about a love or loyalty that is competing with God? Share only what you feel comfortable discussing. [32:22]
3. Is there an area where outward obedience comes more easily than loving God with your thoughts, emotions, and deepest desires? What would you like to bring honestly before him in that area? [27:20]
4. Think of one responsibility or difficult relationship you face this week. What might depending on Christ look like before and during that situation, rather than simply telling yourself to try harder? [39:27]
5. When you fail to love God or put something else ahead of him, how do you usually respond? How might Christ’s finished work change the way you confess that failure and return to him? [41:03]
6. Has a recent limitation or disappointment exposed how much you rely on yourself? How could this group support you in trusting the Redeemer, without giving you another burdensome list to complete? [42:51]