Here is the big question. I think most teachers and pastors would agree that we ought to become new creations in Christ and not just forgiven old creations. But they would draw the line when it came to the true issue: "If we do not cooperate with Christ in the work of moral transformation are we still saved?"

"If we are saved by sovereign grace," they would maintain, "then we are saved whether or not we proceed to sanctification and consecration." This is an absolute in their theology. Yet these same teachers and pastors might preach numerous sermons on righteous living; in fact, they might bar sinning Christians from taking Communion. So fantastically complex is this Evangelical paradox, this compartmentalized thinking!

I realize Paul spoke things hard to understand as he withstood the Judaizers and that believers can and do wrest his writings to their own destruction. Perhaps God permitted such potential ambiguity (He knows and controls all things) to test our hearts. If we desire to believe that God accepts our moral filthiness and rebellion because we name the name of Jesus, and that righteous people who never heard the Gospel will be in the Lake of Fire forever while we recline on the ivory beds of Paradise, then we can cut and paste support from the New Testament writings.

God wants to find out what kind of person we are, what we truly want. He speaks in parables so only His chosen can understand. Isn't it so?

By "saved" the evangelists mean we go to Heaven when we die.

But what if going to Heaven when we die is not the scriptural goal of salvation? What if it is the moral transformation that itself is the salvation and is not referenced to a location, such as Heaven? What if salvation is salvation from sin rather than salvation from the earth? What direction does the argument take in this case?

Obviously we must once again read the New Testament and see if it makes righteous behavior an essential aspect of entrance into the Kingdom of God. When reading we must abandon the current models of interpretation that discard all passages dealing with righteous behavior as being addressed to the Jews. This is what is done, you know, and it renders the New Testament incoherent.

Perhaps it is true rather that all the "heavenly" passages we have relegated to Gentiles actually are addressed to the Jews and those concerning the essentiality of righteous behavior have to do with the Gentiles. What then? If we are to trust someone to tell us what part is addressed to Jews and what part is addressed to Gentiles we have a private interpretation of the Scriptures. This will lead only to divisions in the one Body of Christ.

If we are saved by Divine grace alone, and God sees us only through the righteousness and holiness of Jesus Christ, then there is no fundamental basis for genuine repentance. In fact, efforts to live righteously can be viewed as an affront to the perfect righteousness of Christ, the righteousness, it is claimed, through which God sees our behavior.

To be continued.