As we turn to the eighth chapter of the Book of Romans we see how faith works through obedience to answer the question: "Who will rescue me from my sinful condition?"

To begin with, we can rest assured that as long as we are abiding in Christ, doing His will, we are without condemnation in the sight of God. No matter how immature we may consider ourselves to be, God is pleased to consider us His righteous children. To be righteous is to be pleasing to God.

Righteousness is not inherent in any religious action. Righteousness is inherent only in obedience to God. Eating pork is unrighteous under the Law of Moses. But if a man is starving and the only food we have is ham, then feeding the person ham is a righteous act.

We see therefore there is no righteousness inherent in not eating pork or eating pork. Righteousness comes only as we are pleasing God.

Here is the great weakness of religion. Religion seeks to enumerate a list of things we can do and cannot do, and terms us righteous if we follow the list. But the true salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ looks always to the Lord for continual direction as to what to do and what not to do. Our righteousness comes from faith in Him, not from any set of actions.

Yet, we are not as bubbles floating around in moral space. The Scriptures, particularly the New Testament, command us what to do and what not to do.

How then do we combine the concept of righteousness derived from obeying the Spirit of God and righteousness derived from obeying Christ and His Apostles?

The answer is simple. We look always to the Spirit to help us correctly and effectively obey the commandments of Christ and His Apostles, while the Scriptures insure that we do not become the prey of demons while we are learning to be led by the Spirit.

Learning to be led by the Spirit of God is a difficult curriculum filled with numerous traps and dangers. The role of the Scriptures, and of the elders of the churches, is that of keeping us from these traps and dangers until we know the voice of the Spirit and are not easily led astray.

We please God when we obey His Son. Therefore if we are doing what is pleasing to the Son we can ignore the Law of Moses because God's command now is that we hear His Son.

When the Apostle Peter went to the house of Cornelius he was behaving righteously because God sent him, even though visiting a Gentile was against the Jewish law at that time.

We now are free from condemnation, but then there remains the problem of slavery to sin and the resulting spiritual death. And if, as Paul says in the sixth chapter of Romans, we must turn from slavery to sin and become the slaves of righteousness, then it follows that the Spirit of God will provide us with the knowledge of good and evil. How can we turn from evil and embrace good if we do not have the knowledge of good and evil?

To be continued.