The man dedicated to living by the rudimentary basics, according to the writer of Hebrews (5:11-6:8), is akin to a person trying to mature to adulthood by drinking only milk.

They have the option of knowing God and fellowshipping with Him in the profound depth of God and Father only to opt for trying to interface with Him based upon performance alone. While the option remains for them to find fulfillment through vibrant relationship with God, they determine to inquire about God through performance evaluations and hope whatever satisfaction this brings will sate their spiritual thirst and heart hunger.

Incredibly, there are the folks who come face to face with the grandeur of God's grace, taste the sweet connection of hearts aligned in righteousness, live for a time in the reality of being a new creation in Christ, glimpse what is in store for them by trusting Him in this life, and then willfully return to a life based upon their own perspective and effort.

Those who make this fateful decision most certainly turn from grace—the revelation of God's heart—and attempt to find meaning in the elementary aspects of the faith via legalistic effort on their own part. They determine to live from their perspective of life rather than live from God's perspective of life. They define "life" instead of accepting God's definition of life. Rather than live from the heart, they opt to live by rote.

Those who make this decision are extremely difficult—if not impossible—to pull back to a life based upon God's perspective, the vision of grace. They are hardened in that they have experienced grace and decided they would rather have something less than God planned, dreamed, and endowed for His children.

The sad part for folks who opt for living on milk instead of the glorious pursuit of God's heart of grace and dependence upon the Spirit, is that they will someday witness their efforts and the fruit of their lives reduced to ashes because a return to the elementary aspects of the faith is always linked to fleshly effort and personal preference (ref. 1 Cor. 3:11-15).

In fact, this will be a harrowing experience because these folks will have so missed the heart of God that they will mistake the thorns and thistles of their own best effort as being indicative of their true relationship to God. As the thorns and thistles of their life are burned up as works of the flesh they will smell of smoke, so to speak, as all but their dependence on God for salvation is reduced to ashes.

There is more! More in our relationship with God... and more in this eGrace series.