Most logical people want to go to heaven, but some people don’t want God to be there when they arrive…
A new relationship with God means you also have a new relationship with sin.
If your relationship with sin hasn’t changed, your relationship with God hasn’t changed either.
Questions
Where is your fruit?
Is it a reality in your life that you have begun to hate sin and love righteousness in growing degrees? Or is it just a mental assent to the truths of the bible? Has God done such a work in your life that the sin you once loved, you now hate and love the righteousness you once ignored?
Has God done such a work in your heart through the Holy Spirit, that the God you hated and ignored, you now revere, desire and seek?
Romans 1:16-17 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Galatians 3:21-26 – “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, or in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Ephesians 2:8-9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
What did God do for guilty sinners? Do you have any idea?
Has God done such a work in your life that the sin you once loved, you now hate and love the righteousness you once ignored?
Scripture
Romans 1:16-17 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 3:9-12 – “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Quotes
Alien Righteousness Martin Luther wrote, “There are two kinds of Christian righteousness, just as man’s sin is of two kinds. The first is alien righteousness, that is the righteousness of another, instilled from without. This is the righteousness of Christ by which he justifies though faith, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 1:30: “whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
1 Corinthians 1:27-31 – “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
