The System of Merit | Let's Be Honest | Menlo Church Live Stream

Jul 23, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When Tollbooths Outlive Their Purpose

A chapel door opened for a teenage preacher-in-training became a picture of grace without transaction. Religious systems often demand perpetual payments, but Jesus’ final “paid in full” dismantled every spiritual tollbooth. The priest who mentored without agenda modeled how truth thrives without coercion. Some still pay invisible tolls through guilt-driven rituals, forgetting Christ’s sacrifice was once for all. True faith rests in what’s already been settled, not what we keep settling. [27:58]

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.”
(Hebrews 10:11-12, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you unknowingly kept “tollbooths” in your spiritual life—habits or anxieties that assume God’s grace isn’t fully paid? How might releasing them deepen your trust in Christ’s finished work?

Day 2: The Thief Who Stole Assurance

A dying criminal’s raw plea—“Remember me”—became his gateway to paradise. No sacraments, penance, or good deeds preceded his salvation, only vulnerable trust. Jesus’ immediate promise (“Today you will be with me”) clashes with systems requiring incremental holiness. Assurance isn’t earned through religious checkpoints but received through surrender. Like the thief, our confidence rests in Christ’s words, not our résumé. [47:52]

“And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”
(Luke 23:42-43, ESV)

Reflection: What fears or doubts about your standing with God might dissolve if you embraced the thief’s story as your own? How does Jesus’ immediate response challenge performance-based spirituality?

Day 3: Invisible Tolls on a Seamless Road

Modern toll transponders deduct fees without drivers noticing—a metaphor for hidden spiritual debts. Many thank Jesus for grace yet still feel heaven’s cost depends on their moral balance sheet. But Hebrews declares Christ’s sacrifice “perfected for all time” those being sanctified. Unseen tolls thrive when we confuse growth with earning. The road was always free; our job is to drive freely. [44:08]

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
(Romans 3:23-24, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you sense an “invisible toll” mentality—subtle beliefs that God’s favor fluctuates with your performance? How might embracing grace as a settled gift change your daily rhythms?

Day 4: Sitting Down in a Standing World

Ancient priests stood daily, their posture signaling unfinished work. Jesus sat down—a radical declaration that redemption was complete. Religious systems keep people standing through rituals and anxiety, but the gospel invites us to rest in Christ’s final sacrifice. Sitting isn’t passivity; it’s trust that another’s work suffices. The Father’s approval requires no ladder, only a seat. [29:44]

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”
(Romans 5:1-2, ESV)

Reflection: What areas of your life feel like “standing work” trying to maintain God’s approval? How might accepting Christ’s “seated” victory transform your striving into peace?

Day 5: The Question That Unlocks Chapels

“How do you personally connect with Jesus?” This question bypasses religious middlemen and toll collectors. Like the thief and the teenage preacher, direct access defines gospel faith. Traditions matter, but only as signposts pointing to the Mediator. Father Michael’s chapel wasn’t a tollbooth but a space where grace could be heard without transaction. True connection needs no interpreter. [53:12]

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
(John 14:6, ESV)

Reflection: Who or what have you unintentionally placed between yourself and Jesus? How might approaching Him directly—like the thief—deepen your assurance of His immediate welcome?

Sermon Summary

Father Michael’s charity gives the whole conversation its posture. A Catholic priest opened a chapel to a teenage Protestant kid, listened patiently, answered honestly, and did not need to win. That kind of generosity makes room for a hard conversation without turning it into an attack.

The tollway and freeway image names the central difference. A toll road may have been paid for long ago, but the booths stay up, and people keep reaching for money anyway. Faith can start to feel like that when a person knows Jesus paid the debt but still lives as if God is running a tab.

Hebrews puts Jesus in contrast with every priest who keeps standing and offering sacrifices that can never finally take away sins. Christ offers one sacrifice for all time, and then he sits down. The sitting down matters because the work is done, not mostly done, not waiting for an installment plan, but finished.

Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christianity share real family history, but the difference is not small. The five solas name the fault line: Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and glory to God alone. Protestant faith says the Bible stands over church tradition, grace carries the whole story from start to finish, faith receives what Christ has done, Christ alone mediates between God and humanity, and God alone gets the glory because nobody built the road, paid for the road, or found the road on their own.

The real disagreement is not whether grace is free. The real disagreement is who stands between a person and God, and whether a person can know today where he or she stands. Roman Catholic teaching places grace inside a sacramental system administered through the church, while Paul says there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

The thief on the cross presses the point with beautiful simplicity. He had no baptism, communion, confession, penance, last rites, church membership, Bible reading, or religious track record. He turned his head to Jesus and said, “Remember me,” and Jesus said, “Today.” That is justification by grace through faith in Christ alone.

The transponder image turns the warning back on Protestants too. Visible tollbooths are not the only danger. A person can hear grace every week and still live with invisible charges, feeling behind with God after a bad week or safer after a good one. The gospel says the debt was paid in full on a hill outside Jerusalem, and all the tollbooths can come down.

Key Takeaways

1. Christ sits because work is finished Hebrews pictures every priest standing, still offering, still repeating what cannot finally remove sin. Christ offers one sacrifice for all time, and then he sits down, because his work does not need a supplement. Assurance rests not in spiritual momentum, religious effort, or emotional confidence, but in the finished work of the great high priest. [28:16]
2. Grace is not an installment plan The tollway image exposes the quiet fear that Jesus paid something, but not everything. A person can thank Christ for the cross while secretly hoping personal goodness will make the debt less necessary. The gospel refuses that bargain because a gift that must be repaid has stopped being a gift. [45:10]
3. One mediator means real access Paul’s claim that there is “one mediator” leaves no room for a crowded doorway between God and humanity. Priests, saints, systems, and religious performance cannot carry the weight that belongs to Christ alone. Direct access to God is not arrogance, but trust in the one who opened the way by his own blood. [39:38]
4. Invisible tolls still enslave souls A Protestant church can preach grace alone while hearts still keep spiritual accounts. Guilt after failure and pride after obedience both reveal a hidden belief that standing with God rises and falls with performance. The most dangerous toll may be the one a person no longer notices paying. [42:42]
5. The thief received pure mercy The thief on the cross had no time to build a religious résumé. His whole hope was a desperate turn toward Jesus and a simple plea to be remembered. Christ’s answer, “Today,” shows that salvation rests on the Savior’s promise, not on the sinner’s completed process.

## [47:09]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[21:29] - Father Michael’s Open Chapel
[24:56] - Tollway Faith Versus Freeway Grace
[28:16] - Hebrews and the Finished Sacrifice
[30:08] - Why Roman Catholicism Is Included
[31:07] - Church History and Theological Family
[33:19] - Protestant Blind Spots About Tradition
[35:08] - The Five Solas Explained
[38:23] - Mediation and Assurance
[40:34] - Grace, Sacraments, and Losing Ground
[42:42] - The Invisible Transponder Toll
[46:53] - The Thief on the Cross
[48:42] - Justification, Sanctification, Glorification
[51:29] - The Romans Road Is Not a Toll Road
[53:37] - Paid in Full, Tollbooths Down

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Hebrews 10:11-14
“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” [28:16]

1 Timothy 2:5
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” [39:56]

Romans 3:23-24
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” [45:01]

Luke 23:42-43
“And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”

Observation questions

In Hebrews 10:11-14, what contrast is made between the priest who keeps standing and Christ who offers one sacrifice and then sits down? [28:16]
What are the two main roads used to picture two different ways of thinking about salvation, and what makes them different? [24:56]
According to 1 Timothy 2:5, how many mediators are there between God and people, and who is that mediator? [39:56]
In the account of the thief on the cross, what did the thief actually say to Jesus, and how did Jesus answer him? [47:09]

Interpretation questions

Hebrews says Christ “sat down” after offering himself. What does that image suggest about whether anything still needs to be added to his work for sin? [30:08]
Romans 3:23-24 says people are “justified by his grace as a gift.” If justification is a gift, what does that imply about trying to repay God or earn better standing with him? [45:10]
If there is “one mediator between God and men,” how should that shape the way a person thinks about access to God, prayer, and assurance? [38:23]
The thief on the cross had no time to build a religious record, yet Jesus gave him assurance that same day. What does that reveal about the basis of salvation? [47:29]

Application questions

Where is there a tendency to treat life with God like a toll road instead of a finished gift—through guilt, striving, fear, or always trying to make up for a bad week? [27:58]
When there has been a spiritually “bad week,” what usually changes first—prayer, confidence, honesty with God, or willingness to draw near to him? What might that reveal about whether invisible tolls are still being paid? [43:11]
Jesus is the one mediator, which means real access to God is open. What would it look like this week to approach God more directly and honestly instead of hiding behind shame, routine, or spiritual distance? [53:16]
The thief simply turned to Jesus and asked to be remembered. When life feels stripped down and there is nothing impressive to offer, is there comfort in coming to Jesus that simply? Why or why not? [47:47]
Some people hear about grace every week and still live as if God is running a tab. What are the clearest signs that this may be happening in a heart or home? [51:17]
Christ’s sacrifice was offered once for all time. How might daily life change if it was really believed that the bill was already settled—especially in moments of failure, temptation, or self-accusation? [54:05]
Father Michael’s kindness modeled a way of having hard conversations without needing to win. Where might more patience, honesty, and charity be needed in conversations with Catholics, Protestants, or anyone else thinking through faith? [24:13]

Sermon Clips

55s

#PaidInFull

“``I still think about father Michael, the man who unlocked a chapel for a kid who'd grow up to preach this, and he never needed to win. And the honest ache that I carry for father Michael and people like him is that I don't know how he'd answer the question that I asked you today, But I'd wanna tell him that the debt was paid, not like mostly paid. Jesus didn't just give us, like, an option to think about an installment plan. Like, he actually paid all of it. The bond of my brokenness and my sin and the bondage that it represented, it was retired two thousand years ago on a hill outside Jerusalem. That a dying man said one word, and that word meant paid in full. And then he sat down because the work is done. All the tollbooths can come down.”

42s

#StopPayingTolls

“Some of you, you have been driving on this road for thirty years, and you've never once pulled over to ask if the bill was already settled. You've been living with guilt. You've been living with shame. You've been living with the weight that Jesus died to lift off of you. And so for you tonight, today, sometime this week, maybe just spend some time with God and ask Him, God, is it is it time for me to stop reaching for my spiritual wallet trying to pay for what's already been paid for? Your your external life might look very similar, but you're doing all of it to try to earn something that God's already given.”

34s

#GraceIsAGift

“Jesus actually took care of your and my debt. There is nothing that you and I can do to deserve this gift. It's something that we didn't and can't earn nor can we pay it back. It means that without earning it or paying it back, there is nothing connected to your and my performance that would make us worthy of God's future state with us, and nothing we can do to ever, start paying it back. That's what a gift actually is.”

33s

#GospelNotAPlan

“In the case of our faith, I wonder if you've ever thought, like, Wasn't this already like, if I'm having to do this, if this is a part of the equation, then what did Jesus pay off? Plenty of us who call ourselves Christians, even Protestant Christians, we spend our time thanking Jesus for his sacrifice but secretly hoping we'll never need it. And we're, like, living our life that way. But remember, that's not how the good news of Jesus, the gospel, actually works.”

30s

#JesusSatDown

“And finally, after all of that is done, Jesus sits down. Every other priest is still standing up in the mental image that we get from this passage. They're standing up trying to make sure that offerings and sacrifices get made in hopes of achieving something that they can't achieve. But Jesus is the great high priest. He offers one sacrifice, and then he sits down.”

41s

#SalvationDebate

“At the Council of Trent, which is the Roman Catholics' response to the Reformation that happened hundreds of years ago, it said two things at the time that continued to be a part of Roman Catholic theology. One is that salvation is not by faith alone. And two is that it is not once for all time. In other words, from a faith perspective within Roman Catholicism, the tollbooths never coming. You receive grace, and then you can lose it. You can receive it again, and then you can lose it again.”

34s

#WeDidntEarnIt

“You didn't build the road. You didn't pay for the road. You didn't even find the road on your own. Glory to God alone is the ultimate fundamental reality by which we live. The difference between Protestant, non Catholic Christians, and Catholics is not about whether or not salvation is a gift of grace or which one of us earns our way to God. If you leave this place and you think, well, Phil thinks that Catholics are trying to buy their way into heaven, you have misheard or I've failed you.”

35s

#InvisibleTolls

“And conversely, I know people who are Protestant Christians who hear the idea of grace alone every single week and who are still driving around their spiritual life with a transponder on their windshield paying tolls in the way they live. They are dead certain that God is running a tab. And the combination of all these other teachings rolled up into this spiritual culture, it has them trying to make sure that they are ready when the tollbooth is coming because they're confident it is.”

50s

#KnowYourStanding

“And there's no exit on that road where the payments will ever stop. Now, to be fair, a Roman Catholic might say, hey, actually, those aren't tollbooths. Those are more like, the sacraments are like fuel stops. There are these things that you receive that you can actually continue moving down this road as a result of. They give you what you need to keep going. And that answer is sincere. It's honest, I think, but it doesn't answer the question, the question that we have started this conversation with over and over again about a bunch of these different faiths over the course of this series together. And the question is this, what does it take to be right with God? And even more than that, can you ever know that today, right now, you are right with God?”

47s

#ConnectDirectlyToJesus

“A great question, as you think about this in your own life and maybe have a conversation with someone who's Catholic in your life this week, is this I think this question can be really helpful, which is, How do you personally connect with Jesus? How do you personally connect with Jesus? Not through others, not through religious practices, not through saints of old, but the direct and personal connection to the one who died to provide a way back. And that's such a big contrast from this sort of set of systems and rules and things we have to adhere to to make it on our own. That's what Jesus offers.”

78s

#ThiefOnTheCrossSaved

“Now that's all true. And there's one person that Jesus assures to heaven that really challenges the dynamic of Roman Catholic theology that we've been talking about today and it's the thief on the cross. While Jesus is dying on the cross unjustly, a thief who has been rightly punished asks him to simply remember him when he comes into his kingdom. And Jesus, in that moment, assures him that on that day, they would be together in paradise. And now think about that with what we just talked about. He's not had baptism or communion. There's been no confession to a priest, no penance, never received last rites, never gave a dollar, never became a member, never read a single page of the bible. All this man did was turn his head to Jesus and say, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus doesn't say, well, like, eventually. He doesn't say, like, there's some hoops that you needed to jump through, and I'll figure out a way for you to do that in eternity, but you gotta be able to no. No. He says, today, today, you will be with me in eternity.”

54s

#AssuranceNotPerformance

“But in Roman Catholic theology, it's the idea that you must be appropriately, not just justified, but sanctified. If you don't progress far enough in life, that's what this place called purgatory is for, between death and heaven. It's a tollbooth in eternity where the purification that is left undone is completed, where the prayers and mass and indulgences of people who are still living can be offered on your behalf even in real time. Now to be fair, Roman Catholic teaching doesn't just say this is available for anybody everywhere. It says this is for someone who dies in God's grace but is not yet fully purified. The assurance that non Catholic Christians find in the New Testament, it is not dependent on us at all. It is not dependent on your personal maturity in life around faith. And I'm just telling you, that's great news.”

50s

#JustifySanctifyGlorify

“Justification is the idea that you are made right with God legally, that when God sees you, he actually sees Jesus in your place. For Protestant Christians, and I would argue the plain text reading of the scriptures, that's the mark of salvation. Sanctification is the increasing obedience to god practically in our everyday life. That your and my regular, kind of habits and relationship with god looks like our standing with god more and more. God is drawing us to himself. And then glorification is the one day, someday reality with god in eternity without a broken world, without sin holding us back. And so for us, we would understand it that way. Non Catholic Christians, they would hold to the theology that salvation is achieved at justification, just like the thief on the cross experiences.”

58s

#DontMeasureByPerformance

“That's not Roman Catholicism's fault. That's that's a temptation that all of us have, not just about how we drive, but how we live. We're in a room full of people at a church that preaches grace alone every single week, but we can still slip. In our flesh, in our humanity, in our brokenness, we can still drift. You skipped your quiet time three days in a row, and and now you feel like you're behind with God. You had a good week, and you feel like God is a little more pleased with you. You had a bad week, and you can't bring yourself to even pray. If you're not careful, you measure your standing with God based on your performance on any given day or week. There's no visible religious toll like within Roman Catholicism, but you still live with them. They're just invisible, like the transponder debit. You feel this underlying, quiet, automatic, almost humming sense that God is running a tab on your account that you hope is going to work out in the end.”

63s

#SalvationForAll

“it flows this way in the book of Romans. And so these little passages give us snapshots that we all fall short. We miss the mark. We're living in rebellion. We need something we can't give to ourselves. That our sin has a cost. It's death, immediate spiritual death, and eventual ultimate death. But that Jesus' love compelled him to come live a life we couldn't die, a death we deserved, and then come back to the grave so that we might believe and receive. We could confess with our mouth that Jesus is lord and believe in our heart that god raised him from the dead and experience life with him now and forever because everyone who calls on the name of Jesus is saved. Now, this progression is not a toll road system. These are markers of God's faithfulness, markers of God's hope and love for you, a theological foundation of God's faithfulness that God has undertaken before you were ever born, and it's still available to you today, whether you call yourself Protestant or Christian or nothing at all.”

73s

#GraceThroughFaith

“One of the questions that we keep coming back to in this series over and over again is whether or not a specific faith group or someone that you know that adheres to that faith system is going to heaven. And I've already shared this before on a multiple on multiple occasions, but, I don't have the expertise of judging the individual eternal state of anyone. That's God's job. But what I have regularly shown you is that the good news of Jesus, the gospel, is this idea of salvation that is the most inclusive, exclusive faith of all time. That what biblical Christianity communicates is that salvation is by grace, God's undeserved favor, through faith, this idea that I trust in what I can't see. I believe that Jesus is who he says he is, did what he did, and is now capable of interceding with me and God in Christ alone. It's not earned but given, trusting in Jesus who died and rose again to reconcile us to God. That's available to everybody. Whether someone calls themselves Catholic or Protestant, this is the core message of the Bible.”

55s

#SolaScriptura

“Now, the easiest way to show the difference between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant movement is actually to contrast what are called the five solas, the five theological distinctives that marked the Protestant Reformation. Sola just means alone, and there are five together. And together, they show us the sort of clearest theological distinctions. The first one is this idea of scripture alone, sola scriptura. And under the Protestant view, the Bible is our final authority, that actually church and tradition sit underneath, subservient to the Bible itself. We let it stand above all of it. Now, Roman Catholicism would say that scripture and church tradition, they actually stand side by side and that the church is the one that tells you how both work together even when there's apparent contradiction.”

41s

#IntentionalTradition

“All of us bring assumptions or presuppositions to our study of faith. For some of you, it's the family that you grew up in that you're trying to emulate. For some of you, it's the family of origin you're trying to get as far away from as you can. Or maybe you read your faith through the pastor that you trust or the podcast that you subscribe to or the notes in the study section of your Bible. And all of this, believe it or not, even the translation is making some judgments, and that's okay. Because our faith is rooted in some tradition. We just need to be more intentional about what tradition we are rooting to. We should not be trying to make this up all on our own every generation.”

43s

#TraditionIsInevitable

“There's a strain in the Protestant, the non Catholic world, and it's pretty loud right now, that basically says this, I don't have any theological baggage. I'm not a part of a denomination. I'm not Roman Catholic. My way to think about the Bible, my way to think about God I don't follow any tradition. It's just me, my Bible, and the Holy Spirit. And I understand the sentiment behind that, but, like, humbly, that's just not true. All of us bring assumptions or presuppositions to our study of faith. For some of you, it's the family that you grew up in that you're trying to emulate. For some of you, it's the family of origin you're trying to get as far away from as you can.”

52s

#GraceThenWorks

“Now, the the second one is this idea of grace alone. Inside of Protestantism, grace is what we experience from God, undeserved favor from start to finish. It's never not that. But within Roman Catholicism, grace is absolutely what begins your faith with God. But works are how you continue and corroborate with the grace of God in order to keep it and fulfill it for all of eternity. That leads to the next idea of faith alone. Inside of Protestantism, we are made right by faith, trusting in what we can't always see, believing that Jesus is who he says he is, offers what he says he offers, and gives you and me new life. Inside of Roman Catholicism, faith is central. It's incredibly, incredibly important. But it isn't enough by itself.”

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The System of Merit | Let's Be Honest | Menlo Church Live Stream

Devotional

Day 1: When Tollbooths Outlive Their Purpose

Day 2: The Thief Who Stole Assurance

Day 3: Invisible Tolls on a Seamless Road

Day 4: Sitting Down in a Standing World

Day 5: The Question That Unlocks Chapels

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

The System of Merit | Let's Be Honest | Menlo Church Live Stream

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