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The Daily Word of Righteousness
You Don't Have To Sin!, #8
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! (Galatians 1:8—NIV)
Introduction
All kinds of doctrine have invaded Christian thinking that have as their foundation the concept that the new covenant does not include deliverance from sinful behavior (continued from previous essay).
Jesus finished our salvation on the cross and so all we have to do is believe this and we will go to Heaven when we die.
God sees us through Christ and so how we behave is not of great importance.
We are saved by a sovereign action of God so how we behave is not critically important.
We are not saved by enduring to the end, although this is what the Lord said. We are saved by an unconditional amnesty.
We are saved by grace and not by works so no man can boast.
When we attempt to live righteously we are legalistic, a Pharisee.
There is no commandment in the New Testament except that we love one another.
All of the above is false and misleading. It is a spiritual blindness that rests on Christian people. They cannot see what is written clearly in the New Testament.
There are many fine Christian people. But they live righteous lives, not because of their doctrine but in spite of it.
For reasons known only to the Lord He is lifting the veil so we can see what is written. We are beginning to understand that it is the change itself that is salvation—change from sinful behavior to the moral image of Christ, and untroubled rest in the Father's will. It is not that if we live righteously we will go to Heaven. Heaven is not the goal. The goal is to please God and to have fellowship with Him.
Salvation is deliverance from sin and growth in the moral image of Christ.
Salvation is not a ticket to Heaven. The ticket concept is without a basis in the Scriptures.
God always looks for fruit wherever Christ has been sown. The fruit God desires is righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God. In other words, the moral image of Jesus Christ. When God finds this He sends blessing. God is reclaiming mankind from the disaster of the Garden of Eden.
God will never bless sinful behavior. We may believe we can continue in sin and then God by grace will bring us to a mansion in Heaven, but this is not a scriptural teaching. It is a Christian tradition. It is against all the New Testament teaches. It is a delusion, a spiritual blindness.
The new covenant does not accept sinful behavior.
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (I John 3:9,10—NIV)
The above passage is the Word of God. We cannot pretend it is not in the Bible.
To be continued.