21.To what end are we being created in Christ?

To the bringing forth of good works, which is righteous behavior, in our lives. Notice the parallel:

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you (John 15:16). We are "created in Christ unto good works." We have been chosen and ordained that we "should go and bring forth fruit" and that our fruit should remain.

What is the fruit of the Christian discipleship? What is the new creation that results from God’s mercy and love being lavished on us in Christ? To what end have we been chosen and ordained of Christ?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: . . . . (Galatians 5:22,23).

These are the "good works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Love, joy, peace, and the remainder of the fruit of the Holy Spirit are of the moral image of Christ. We have been foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

The fruit of salvation is a transformed personality. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and every other mark of God’s nature are being wrought in us. The fruit of the Spirit is the Kingdom of God being formed in us.

Ephesians 2:8,9 speaks of a salvation by Divine grace that we receive by faith. The salvation given as a gift includes at least three aspects:

Our deliverance from Satan and the behaviors of the world.

Our placement in Christ on the highest throne of the universe.

Our transformation of personality such that we are increasingly filled with the patience, kindness, faithfulness, love, joy, and other characteristics of the indwelling spirit of God.

Ephesians 2:8,9 often is viewed as meaning that God’s purpose in saving us through His grace is that we may avoid Hell and go to Heaven when we die. But such is not the purpose of salvation.

The purpose of being saved is that we may begin to reveal the righteous nature of God in our personality. This is the coming of the Kingdom of God to us.

God has reached down and opened our eyes so we may behold and believe in the Lamb of God who was crucified for our sins. As an expression of faith and acceptance of what we were shown we have been baptized in water.

By being baptized in water we are testifying that we have died to our former way of life, we are leaving the world, and we now have been raised to abide in Christ at the right hand of God in Heaven.

If we truly have placed our faith in Christ, believing with all our heart that we have died to the world and have been raised in Christ far above every wicked spirit, we will begin to show in our personality the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. The purpose of the Father in our death and resurrection in Christ is that His will may be demonstrated in what we are, what we do, what we say, what we think.

We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ to do good works. The purpose of salvation by grace through faith is that we may behave in a righteous, holy manner.

Apart from such good works there is no Kingdom of God. If over a period of time there is no transformation of our personality, no new creation, no righteous conduct, no obedience to the will of God, we are not being saved; we are not in Christ; we are not fulfilling the purpose of God; we are not grasping by faith the salvation that has been given us as the gift of God’s grace; we are neglecting our salvation (Hebrews 2:3).

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: . . . (John 15:2).

The Christian salvation is not an issue of believing in good works, it is an issue of practicing good works, as previously defined.

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