Book 4 of Musings Salvation, and Victory Over Sin

We do not achieve victory over sin in order to enter salvation. Rather, salvation works in us and gives us victory over sin.

I preach a lot about righteousness; not imputed righteousness, but righteous behavior. As such I often am accused of preaching works.

Can you imagine how backslidden we have become in America? Here is a person preaching that we should live righteously before the Lord, and he is accused of preaching legalism and works. This shows us the depth of the current error.

The denomination of which I am a member used to preach righteous, holy living. I hope it still does.

We know the Apostle Paul spent a good deal of his time arguing with those who insisted if people were to be saved they must keep the Law of Moses; they must do the works of the Law of Moses. Paul kept telling them that they cannot be saved by doing the works of the Law of Moses. They must place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Along come we Gentiles. We say, "Oh! Now that we have accepted Christ as our Savior we can forget about living righteously." Can you imagine Paul somewhere wringing his hands over such an interpretation of his epistles!

We Christians are under no part of the Law of Moses; but we certainly are under the Law of the Holy Spirit, and the Law of the Holy Spirit directs us into righteous behavior.

Where do the new covenant of salvation through Christ, and righteous behavior, come together? How are they related?

Today the idea is that the new covenant is an alternative to righteous behavior. If we would read the writings of Paul and the other Apostles we could see that the new covenant is not an alternative to righteous behavior.

Can we save ourselves by behaving righteously? No, we cannot. We are saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well then, where does righteous behavior fit in the plan of salvation?

Righteous behavior, holy behavior, obedience to God, are the result of being saved. If we do not become a new creation of holy, righteous, obedient behavior, we are not being saved.

How about people who make their peace with God on their deathbed? God will deal with them after they pass into the spirit realm. Christians often worry about a loved one who never accepted Christ and then died. If the individual has deliberately rejected Christ and led a wicked life, you had best forget about him. He is in trouble with God.

But this is not true of most people. Sometimes they never were confronted by Christ. They just led an ordinary life. Do what you can for them while they are alive; but don't worry about them after they die. Unless an individual is confronted by the Lord and rejects Him, God will judge him according to his behavior.

If he has been wicked he will go into torment. If Christ accepts him, Christ will deal with him until he is worthy of the new world of righteousness. Christ can forgive anyone He wants to, just as He forgave people while He walked the earth. He can still do this. So we need to quit worrying about our loved ones who have died, unless they have been truly wicked and have knowingly rejected Christ..

I said a minute ago that if we are not becoming a new creation of righteous behavior we are not being saved. The only proof of salvation is the new creation. If any man be in Christ there is a new creation. If there is no new creation, he is not in Christ. It is as straightforward as this.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior. This means He saves us from sin. We teach that being saved means we go to Heaven when we die. This is not what being saved means. Being saved means we have been released from the power and presence of the Devil.

Christ came to save us from Satan. Satan has held us in the chains of sin. We need a deliverer. The One who delivers from Satan has come. His name is Jesus.

Jesus overcame the Devil, the Adversary. Now through Jesus we can overcome the Devil. This is what it means to be saved.

Numerous churchgoers of our day claim to be saved. But they show the personality of Satan in their lives instead of the Personality of Jesus Christ. How can they claim to be saved when they reveal the personality of Satan. Has Satan been saved? If he has, I don't know about it.

But this ridiculous state we are in in America is the result of preaching that accepting Christ is an alternative to righteous behavior. We do not understand the meaning of redemption or the plan of redemption, supposing salvation is a ticket to Heaven.

Christ came to make us righteous. We know, don't we?

Do we suppose Christ came to make us righteous by imputation, by ascribed righteousness?

What foolishness this is. What has been accomplished in the Kingdom of God; what good has God received; because we have been declared righteous by imputation?

Is the Bride of the Lamb perfect by imputation?

Are the sons of God mature by imputation?

Are the soldiers in the army of the Lord obedient by imputation?

We have been greatly deceived!

The purpose of imputed righteousness is not to call wicked people righteous, as we preach today. The purpose of imputed, ascribed righteousness by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is to free us from the guilt imposed by the Law of Moses so we can be free to follow the Holy Spirit into actual righteousness of behavior.

Can you grasp the difference between the way we are employing the concept of imputed righteousness today, and the way the Apostle Paul intended we should view imputed righteousness.

When Paul spoke of imputed righteousness, in the Book of Romans, he was telling Jewish people that they could turn from Moses and accept Christ. Then the righteousness they had hoped would come from observing the commandments of the Law would be ascribed to them.

We Gentiles are using the idea of imputed righteousness to mean when we accept Christ we are righteous in God's sight no matter how we behave. Thus we have defeated God's intention through Jesus Christ, which is to create people who live righteous, holy lives.

We are emphasizing imputation when we should be emphasizing transformation.

Christ did not come so wicked people could have fellowship with God but so wicked people could turn from their wickedness and live righteously. Then they can have fellowship with God.

True salvation leads is to victory over sin. We do not try to live righteously so we will be saved. Rather we keep drawing closer to Jesus. As we do, He leads us in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Isn't that so?

I have been accused of preaching "works." The inference is that I am telling people they can earn salvation by trying to do good.

This is not what I preach. I preach that if we have truly received the Lord Jesus Christ our behavior will begin to change. As we seek the Lord each day He points out to us the things in our life that displease Him. We then confess these as sin, denounce them as evil, renounce them, saying we want no more to do with them, and then we draw close to the Lord.

The question always arises: "I know we should draw close to the Lord, and when we do He will change our behavior. But what if we don't. Are we still saved?

This is a common question, and it is based on an incorrect definition of salvation.

The person asking this is defining "saved" as "go to Heaven when I die."

The correct definition of "saved" is: "released from slavery to sin."

When we do not draw near to Jesus, do not begin the program of moral transformation, we are not being saved, obviously. So the answer to the question "are we saved even though we are continuing in sin" is, " we are not being saved if we are continuing in known sin," unless we are confessing the sin and asking the Lord to remove it from us, vigorously denouncing and renouncing it.

Those who are careless about sin will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

We do not try to earn salvation by doing good works. But true salvation always results in righteous behavior. The Lord Jesus Christ did not appear primarily to forgive our sins but to destroy our sinful nature.

He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. (1 John 3:8)