Thank God forever that we are not under law, but under grace. Christianity is not a new \u201creligion\u201d in which we must conform to a sterile moral code to be righteous. Those who put authentic faith in Jesus Christ are born again, transformed by God\u2019s presence working in us \u201cboth to will and to do of His good pleasure\u201d (Phil 2:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As some have put it, we don\u2019t have to \u201ckeep a bunch of religious rules\u201d to live righteously. Rather, we are granted supernatural Kingdom virtues inside<\/em> of us like grace<\/em><\/strong>, love<\/em><\/strong>, and the Spirit<\/em><\/strong> of God Himself (See 1 Cor 1:4; Rom 5:5; 8:15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n So in light of these wonderful realities, I was just thinking\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n If God\u2019s grace<\/em><\/strong> \u201cteaches us to say \u2018No\u2019 to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age\u201d (Titus 2:11-12)\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if love<\/em><\/strong> \u201cacts with patience, kindness, without jealousy\u201d and \u201cdoes not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth\u201d (1 Cor 13:4-6)\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if the Spirit<\/em><\/strong> is called \u201cHoly\u201d and bears fruit like \u201c\u2026patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control\u201d (Gal 5:22-23)\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if the writers of the New Testament often<\/em> encourage and command Jesus-followers to crucify sinful desires and cultivate godly qualities on purpose \u201cwith all diligence\u201d<\/em> (Gal 5:24-25; Rom 6:11-23; Col 3:1-17; Eph 4:17-5:21; 2 Pet 1:3-15; etc.)\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then it seems to me that new covenant believers who enjoy grace versus legalism, internal transformation versus external observance, and new creation versus dead religion should be<\/em> far more earnest to develop spiritual maturity and a holy lifestyle than any legalist<\/em> who gives himself to \u201cfollow a bunch of religious rules.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus did say, after all, that our righteousness should exceed<\/em> that of the scribes and Pharisees (or we will not even enter the Kingdom; Matt 5:20). And Paul did say that \u201cwe are under obligation\u201d \u2013 not to live according to the flesh, indeed, but to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit<\/em> (Rom 8:12-13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps we should consider, then, that our new covenant in Jesus Christ is not only \u201cnew,\u201d but is also \u2013 are you ready for it? \u2013 a \u201ccovenant.\u201d Perhaps further, now that we are liberated from works righteousness, now that we live under the influence of a kind, patient Father who loves us deeply and enables us freely, we have more <\/em>responsibility to cultivate practical righteousness through the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I\u2019m just thinking out loud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thank God forever that we are not under law, but under grace. Christianity is not a new \u201creligion\u201d in which we must conform to a sterile moral code to be righteous. Those who put authentic faith in Jesus Christ are born again, transformed by God\u2019s presence working in us \u201cboth to will and to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertgladstone.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}