Promoting Evil in the Name of Justification

The cure for the sin within is not to "think more deeply" about how amazingly justified I am. And God-commanded actions like studying, reflecting, fellowshipping, praying, confessing, repenting, communing, meditating, and cleansing, and being diligent, are not manifestations of "self-effort", or "works."   

There are ministries today (several from the Reformed/Lutheran, like the White Horse Inn radio show, others coming out of dispensationalism) who are promoting sin by teaching people that it's sinful to apply effort!  That idea is so obviously contradicted by the Bible, that the only explanation for it is that some people have gotten deeply addicted to wrong-headed slogans (like, "I will become more like Christ by no longer striving to become like Christ", or mottos such as that), that they mentally screen out everything in Scripture that clearly contradicts the slogans.

Holiness takes effort. Faith in Christ sanctifies the effort. When it comes to becoming a more godly person, you don't choose between the free grace of God in Christ for you or work. You work because you believe in the free grace of God in Christ for you. 

The teaching that all effort is legalistic, prideful, self-reliant effort, is muy loco in la cabesa.