The person saying he knows the Lord and does not keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles is a liar. There is no truth in him. It is as simple as that.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. To live by faith in the Son of God means to bring every decision we make before Him, to bring our mind under His control, to bring our tongue under His control, to bring our actions under His control. It means to press, press, press into Jesus in every place, in every situation, at all times. It means to abide in Him. It means to become part of His life.

If Christ becomes our life, then when He appears we will appear with Him.

There is no Divine salvation apart from moral transformation. Salvation is not a pass out of Hell and a ticket that admits us to Heaven (as is commonly taught). Salvation is our change from the person and works of Satan to the Person and works of God in Christ. This is what salvation is—moral transformation.

We are not saved to go to Heaven. This is not scriptural. Rather we are saved to have fellowship with God and to be qualified and competent to perform the several tasks involved in the establishing and operating of the Kingdom of God. God needs transformed people who can serve as living stones in His eternal Temple, members of the Wife of the Lamb, members of the Body of Christ, royal priests who can govern the saved nations of the earth, judges of men and angels, and so forth. These roles and tasks (and there are numerous others) can be fulfilled only by people who are living by the Life of Jesus Christ, formed in His image, and dwelling in untroubled rest in Christ and the Father.

Titus speaks of the role of righteous behavior, its relationship to Divine grace:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, While we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-14—NIV)

The Evangelical will say, "Paul did not say we have to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives. He only said this is what grace teaches us to do, not that we actually have to do it to be saved." This is how desperate we are to prove our behavior is not an essential aspect of our salvation.

If we will look further in the passage we will see that Christ gave himself for us for the purpose of redeeming us from all wickedness and purifying us as people who belong to Him in a special way. Now I ask you, isn't it true that if we are not redeemed from wicked behavior and purified from uncleanness, Christ's purpose in giving Himself for us has been aborted?

To be continued.