Misunderstanding the Apostle Paul
Misunderstanding the Apostle Paul
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. (Titus 2:11,12)
It is difficult for us Gentiles to understand the Apostle Paul.
Most of us were not raised from infancy, hearing the words of the Law of Moses drilled into us day and night until they were an integral part of our consciousness.
Therefore it is an astounding miracle that this Jew of the Jews could write:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
The above certainly is among the most sublime of all Christian statements. It sums up the state of being to which Christ is bringing us. Yet you may not hear it preached in your church next Sunday, or any Sunday after that.
Will you tell me, how could a man be raised as a thoroughly orthodox Jew and be brought to the place where he could make such a statement?
Today we hear about "accepting Christ" (a phrase not found in the Bible).
We may hear about how we can become rich by believing in the Lord Jesus (definitely against Paul's teaching).
We may hear about how Jesus can heal us and bless us in many other ways (this is true, but can be self-centered).
But will we hear how we are supposed to turn away from our own thinking, speaking, and doing and learn to live by the Life of Jesus?
Probably not, in most instances.
How could a man two thousand years ago understand the purpose of God when we of today seem to be so vague about it?
The writings of Paul are misunderstood to the present hour. We are taught that by being saved by grace we mean it is not critically important how we behave. With all Paul wrote about the consequences of continuing in sin, how did we come to the conclusion that God is more interested that we believe in Jesus than that we obey Jesus?
The practice of religion seems always to blind its adherents!
To believe that God has made a way for us to be disobedient to Christ and still go to Heaven by grace reveals that we do not know God.
By the way, eternal residence in Heaven is not our scriptural goal. Our scriptural goal is to be filled with Christ and to be sternly obedient to God. When we come short of this goal we are coming short of being saved, unless by "saved" we mean only escaping residence in the Lake of Fire.
Even that hope is questionable if we are not obeying God.
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. (Revelation 3:5)
We American churchgoers might never believe that our name could possibly be blotted out of the Book of Life. But please let me emphasize that every word in the Bible is absolutely and eternally true. Just because we Americans are soft and comfortable does not mean God has changed His mind!
It must be painful for Paul to look at the Christian churches from his place in the spirit world and see how his doctrine of "grace" has been misunderstood.
Did God know people would misunderstand Paul? Of course He did!
Then why did God permit Paul to write in ambiguous terms in the early chapter of Romans? Because God knew that people being so self-centered would welcome a doctrine that permitted them to live as they pleased and yet go to Heaven by "grace."
Notice, in the following passage, how God deals with those who would try to outsmart Him; to get what they want without being faithful to God:
With the pure Thou showest Thyself pure, And with the perverse showest Thyself a wrestler. (Psalms 18:26—Young's Literal Translation)
People can try to outsmart God, but they always are outsmarted. When we play games with God He always wins!
We ought to know we cannot live a sinful life and claim that God sees us through Christ. Well, we may attempt to get around God's holy Nature; but one day we will stand before Christ and receive in our personality the corruption we have chosen to practice.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:8)
There is no manner in which "grace" can interfere with the Kingdom law of sowing and reaping. What we sow we shall reap, and our righteous God will never interfere with that law. "Grace" can help us to sow to the Spirit and thus reap eternal life; but grace and imputed righteousness are not magic tricks that enable a wicked person, whether or not he or she "accepts Christ," to be accepted of the Lord.
Whoever teaches contrary to this will bring destruction upon himself and those who hear him!
As I said, our conscience should tell us this. But millions of Americans are choosing to live in deception.
Now, let us go to the early chapters of the Book of Romans and see if we can discover what it is that Paul taught, if it is not a grace that enables us to obey our sinful nature and yet be counted as righteous in God's sight.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:16,17)
The above is the heart of the matter, isn't it? Exactly what is the faith by which the righteous live?
Today we interpret the saying "the righteous shall live by faith" to mean the righteous keep on believing the theologic facts about the Lord Jesus Christ.
But that is not what it means to live by faith.
The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews tells us what it means to live by faith. The faith of those patriarchs had little to do with a belief in the facts concerning God and Christ. Rather, the faith by which they lived was that of obeying God under difficult situations.
Some may say, the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews is referring to people who were not "under grace." However, the author of the Book of Hebrews, who no doubt was "under grace," is informing Christian people how we are to live. Is that not so? So we are not under a different dispensation after all!
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:38,39)
To live by faith is to obey Christ in every aspect of our discipleship, in good times and in bad. We are tested to the limit as we follow the Lamb. But we keep our eyes on Christ and do not look back.
We die, and then we live. We die, and then we live. But we keep pressing forward in Christ. It is not a case of believing a "statement of faith" but of interacting continually with the Lord Jesus. It is giving all that we are and have to Christ that we may come to know Him.
There may not be many American believers who live this way, but this is what is meant by living by faith. It is how the truly righteous live.
The rest of the "believers" may be decent people. But if they are trusting in their doctrinal beliefs to qualify them for residence in Heaven, they are mistaken. Belief and obedience are synonyms.
And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. (Hebrews 3:18,19—NIV)
If our belief in Christ does not lead us to obey Christ and His Apostles, it is not true belief at all. True belief always leads to obedience to God. To believe otherwise is to be deceived.
If today's preachers of grace and imputed righteousness would study and accept the words of Paul that follow, they soon would begin to preach righteousness and holiness of behavior.
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
What does "leadeth thee to repentance" mean? It means that we turn from the ways of sin and lead a righteous life.
In the remainder of the Book of Romans, does Paul change what he is saying here?
Absolutely not. Throughout all of his epistles, Paul, speaking to the churches, warns us that if we do not turn from our old adamic ways and put on the new man of godly behavior, we shall not inherit the Kingdom of God; we shall reap destruction.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)
I wonder how the preachers of "Jesus did it all" interpret the verse above!
To repent is to change our behavior. To be able to repent is a gift of God to us. However, it is possible for a person to grieve God until God will not give the gift of repentance to him. He or she then cannot approach God.
If a person believes he or she has disobeyed God to the point of being unable to repent, all the individual can do is to keep going to church and wait to see if God will relent. This is a very frightening experience!
But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. (Romans 2:5)
Can you see from the above that the Christian salvation is not a matter of theologic belief but of a living experience with a living God?
The following verse appears several times in different forms in the New Testament. It should be shouted from the housetops in our day!
Who will render to every man according to his deeds. (Romans 2:6)
How do the proclaimers of grace and imputed righteousness get around this clear statement. Don't they believe what the Bible says? Are they not false shepherds, leading the sheep astray?
God shall render to every person according to his or her deeds. Amen!
To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life. (Romans 2:7)
How do we attain to immortality in our body and eternal life in our spiritual nature? By belief in the facts about Jesus? No! By patiently seeking for glory and honor, immortality and eternal life. Not by just believing "Jesus did it all."
But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath. (Romans 2:8)
There are churchgoers who want to argue that they are going to Heaven by grace, and at the same time they are living an unrighteous life. God will not smile on them and say, "I see you only through Christ." Rather, God will send on them indignation and wrath.
Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. (Romans 2:9)
"Every soul of man that doeth evil." In his epistles, the Apostle does not teach that we can do evil and God will see us through Christ. Rather, Paul states that if we do evil we shall not inherit the Kingdom of God!
But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. (Romans 2:10)
"That worketh good." I realize that some will maintain that "worketh good" means to believe in Jesus. This is not of the tenor of the above verses. It is just another way of trying to prove that all we are to do is to believe our "Statement of Faith."
I will not argue with those who are contentious. They will find out when they die, if not before, that they have played games with God and have lost.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. (Romans 3:21)
"Without the Law." The verse above is the key to what Paul is saying in subsequent verses. He is speaking to Jews, primarily, and telling them that they can leave the Law of Moses and still be righteous.
It is right at this point that we, being Gentiles, misunderstand the Apostle Paul. We get the impression that Paul is saying we can be righteous without obeying the eternal moral laws of God. That is not at all what Paul is saying. The key to understanding Paul is the expression, "without the Law." We can be righteous apart from obeying the Law of Moses; not that we can be righteous in God's sight while continuing to behave according to our sinful nature.
This simple fact, that Paul, when he is emphasizing that we can be righteous by faith and not by works, speaking of the works of the Law of Moses, seems to have been overlooked in current teaching. Paul is telling Jewish people that now that Christ has come and made an atonement for our sins, we can leave the Law of Moses, put our faith in Christ, and still be righteous.
We have misunderstood Paul because we are not Jews!
There is no writer of the New Testament who surpasses Paul in stressing that if Jews or Gentiles, continue to practice the deeds of our sinful nature, we will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Ephesians 5:5)
If we are to be intellectually honest, we must admit that Paul, writing to the believers in Ephesus, is telling them that to inherit the Kingdom of God we must turn away from the deeds of our sinful nature.
It is clear, then, that Paul was teaching that we can turn from the Law of Moses and serve Christ, and still be righteous. This is an enormous change for a devout Jew.
But Paul is understood today to have taught that we can turn from righteous behavior, believe the theologic facts about the Lord Jesus, and God will "see us through Christ." Such a misunderstanding with such ruinous consequences!
I know of no scriptural basis for claiming that God "sees us through Christ."
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:13)
But to continue in the third chapter of Romans:
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28)
The point that Paul raises is that we can be justified without the deeds of the Law of Moses. To be justified by faith is, as I have stated, to live by following Christ instead of looking to the Law of Moses, or to any other religion, or to our experience and abilities, to get us through life. This is quite different from "theologic faith," which is nothing more than mental assent; it is not victorious faith in Christ.
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:2-5)
Again, Paul is pointing out to the Jews that it is possible to be righteous apart from the works of the Law, or any other religious works for that matter.
Abraham did not have the Law of Moses. God spoke. Abraham believed. That settled the matter. A belief in what God has said was an act of righteousness apart from any religious observance.
As I stated, Paul is pointing out, by referring to Abraham, that it is possible to be righteous apart from the Law of Moses.
But Abraham was not counted righteous at a later time on the basis of having believed the promise of God at a previous time. God now commanded Abraham to live a godly life.
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Genesis 17:1)
"Be thou perfect." God did not say, "Abraham you are righteous because on a previous occasion you believed my promise."
Later, God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering.
If Abraham had refused, he would not have still been counted righteous!
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:20-23)
You know, we regard "accepting" Christ as a ticket to righteousness. It does not really matter after that how we behave, it is a sovereign, continual righteousness applied to us.
James does not seem to agree with this. Is the Book of James as much a part of the New Testament canon as Chapter Four of the Book of Romans? What is your answer? James states that Abraham was justified by works when he offered Isaac, implying that faith was made perfect by Abraham's obedience.
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. (Romans 4:13)
The promise to Abraham was not given through the Law of Moses. This is what Paul was stressing.
But look at the situation when the promise was given:
And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:16-18)
"Because thou hast obeyed my voice"!
No, the promise that in Abraham's Seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed was not given to Abraham because he believed what God said to him originally, but because he had obeyed God's voice during an extremely difficult test of his faith.
Compare this with the teaching today that because righteousness was imputed to Abraham in that he believed God, all we have to do is to say we "accept Christ" (which is not even a scriptural expression) and we forever are righteous, even though we may disobey Christ at every turn.
It appears from what James wrote in his epistle, and what Paul wrote in Chapter Six of the Book of Romans, that some teachers in their day were declaring that all we need to do is believe and we will go to Paradise.
This has a flavor of Gnosticism, doesn't it, that knowledge apart from righteous behavior saves us. Gnosticism, a religion that stresses that our residence in Paradise depends on our having the correct knowledge, not moral transformation, was active at the time of Paul and James. It is my opinion that some of what they wrote may have been a reaction against Gnosticism.
So here is Paul's response to those who would conclude from his exhortations to the Jews that we no longer must live a righteous life.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1)
This is a weird conclusion, isn't it. It must have been true that some of the Gentiles who heard Paul preach deduced that the more they sinned the more grace abounded. So it is true that people attempt to play games with God; but they always lose.
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:2)
This is what Paul would say to the preachers of our day who say it does not matter if we sin because we are "saved by grace."
The key is the expression, "dead to sin." What does this mean?
It means we have counted that our adamic nature, the old man of our personality, has been crucified with Christ. How can we leave the new man that has been born in us and go back and serve our old sinful nature?
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (Romans 6:3)
We are to count that our old adamic nature died with Christ on the cross. This is what we are dramatizing when we are baptized in water. So to continue to sin would mean we desire to return to our original adamic personality, bringing it back to life.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
"We should walk in newness of life." This says it all. We do not find righteousness any longer in the Law of Moses. But this does not mean we abandon righteous behavior as the way to please God. Rather, we keep looking to the Lord Jesus, with His help continually turning away from the deeds of our sinful nature, and receiving into ourselves His resurrection life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. (Romans 6:5)
When we are baptized in water we are portraying the fact that we have been crucified with Christ. Now we are to be portraying His resurrection.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6)
Our first personality, our old man, is so impregnated with the spirit of sin that he cannot be reformed. We must put our whole personality on the cross so that the sin that dwells in it can be destroyed.
The reason no other religion or philosophy is effective in giving us release from sin is that it is an attempt to reform our original adamic nature. But our original nature is so filled with sin it cannot be reformed. Not even the Law of Moses, a moral code actually given by the Lord Himself, is able to reform our adamic nature.
The only successful way of dealing with our adamic nature is to kill it.
The purpose of our crucifixion is that "we should not serve sin."
From this we can understand readily that Paul is not telling us in chapters two through five of the Book of Romans that in Christ we now are free to sin. Rather, in Christ we can be set free so we shall not serve sin.
Why is this so clear to me when men of giant intellects and vast storehouses of Bible knowledge, masters of exegesis, cannot understand the Apostle Paul?
Is it clear to you?
I think I know what the problem is. The scholars are employing deductive reasoning, Instead of letting each passage of the New Testament speak for itself, they look for axioms they can employ in order to deduce truth. They do not wait until they have the whole counsel of God! They desire a philosophy they can manipulate. They are seeking to develop principles of Christian living.
For example, the famous passage in the Book of Ephesians:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9)
"Aha! Now we have a prime axiom by which we will interpret all the other passages of the New Testament.
"We are not to exert ourselves concerning our salvation. If we do anything about our salvation, we have a basis for boasting. Nay, our salvation is the gift of God about which we are to do nothing at all."
This passage was presented to me at the time I became a Christian. It very well may be one of the most familiar Bible passages to Evangelical Christians.
Have you been instructed in Ephesians 2:8,9? Probably so.
But how about the next verse?
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
Notice the expression: "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works."
Why were we created? To do good works. When do we start doing good works? When Christ Jesus leads and enables us to do good works.
What role do good works play in the Christian salvation? To do them is why we were created. We were ordained to do good works.
It may be true that the reason Christian scholars have fallen into the error of placing belief in Christ above obedience to Christ and His Apostles, is not that they are trying to be wrong but perhaps unconsciously are seeking to evade the demands of Christ. They are attempting to make the Gospel of the Kingdom a happy thought, a comfortable philosophy to add to our American materialistic way of life.
Looking for a pleasant discipleship opens us to deception. It is the cross of the believer that protects us from deception. It is patient obedience to Christ that protects us in the hour of temptation.
Since you have kept [guarded] my command to endure patiently, I will also keep [guard] you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. (Revelation 3:10—NIV)
For he that is dead is freed from sin. (Romans 6:7)
Since we are declaring we have died with Christ, we are free from the authority of the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses reigns over those who are alive. Thus we are free from what the Law of Moses classifies as "sin."
Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? (Romans 7:1)
From prior statements in this chapter (Chapter Six) we conclude that Paul means if we will accept the fact that we have died with Christ we will choose not to sin any longer. Does this mean we cannot sin if we desire to do so? No, it means that when we are tempted to sin we recognize that this is not compatible with the position we announced in water baptism.
So we confess our desire for sinful behavior to the Lord Jesus. We ask His help in overcoming this expression of our old nature. We keep it in the grave, so to speak. We resolve, with the help of the Lord, never to practice this behavior again for all eternity. Thus we judge Satan with an eternal judgment.
The new covenant has the power to do what was impossible under the Law of Moses. We can gain victory over the sin that resides in our flesh. We can be delivered from sin!
The day in which we are living is the time for God to create us in His image. This God will do by pointing out our worldliness, lusts, and self-will, and helping us renounce and turn away from them. Our awareness of our sin depends on our walking in the light of God's will, as God is in the Light and is Light.
But if we walk in the light, as he [God] is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (I John 1:7)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)
Every time we confess and turn away from a sin we are fed in the spirit world with the body and blood of Christ. In this manner Christ is formed in us.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)
The tree of life is the body and blood of Christ.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. (Revelation 2:17)
The "hidden manna," which is the body and blood of Christ, is given only to those who turn away from sin. By receiving the body and blood of Christ they receive the resurrection Life that enables them to continue to overcome sin.
When Christ is formed in us, then the Father and the Son will come and make Their eternal residence in us.
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)
Everything depends on our loving Christ and keeping His commands.
We cannot just "believe." If we really love Jesus we will do what He has commanded.
If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John 14:15)
Right here we see the enormous fallacy of trusting that we only are to "believe." If we do not keep the commands of Christ and His Apostles, then we do not truly love Christ and are living in deception.
Let us make no mistake. We are in desperate need of a reformation of Christian thinking and teaching.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11)
Such is the attitude we are to maintain throughout our discipleship: we have died to sin with Christ on the cross; we now are alive with Christ in His resurrection.
Have you ever wondered what Divine grace really is?
Grace is the atonement made on the cross, forgiving our sins apart from our obedience to the Law of Moses.
Grace is the power of Christ that enables us to be delivered from our sins.
Grace is the Virtue of God given to us through the Lord Jesus Christ so we can live righteously apart from doing the works of the Law of Moses.
Grace is the blessing of God upon us, the favor of God given to us, that we have not earned by performing righteous works. But we must respond to God's favor and blessing by cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He conforms us to the image of God. We must find our rest in God as we do His perfect will at all times. This we can do with the help of the Lord Jesus.
All of the above is Divine grace. Grace begins with the forgiveness of our sins through the blood atonement. It then continues as we walk with our eyes upon Christ; until finally we are transformed into the image of Christ and become His brothers, always doing God's will as He does.
All of this is grace. It is grace because it does not depend upon our earning it by performing the works of the Law of Moses. But for Divine grace to perform the work that God intends, we must obey Christ as He leads us through the entire work of redemption, from forgiveness to the fullness of life in Christ.
I do not believe the most vigorous proponent of undemanding grace would object to our saying we must obey Christ as He leads us through the work of redemption. Every true Christian realizes we must keep our eyes on Jesus and follow Him at all times!
If, after having received the gift of God's grace, we do not then follow Christ diligently, we have received God's grace in vain.
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (II Corinthians 6:1)
For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (II Peter 2:21,22)
The goal of grace is not eternal residence in Heaven. It is full conformation to the moral image of Christ, as Christ is formed in us. Grace includes the Father and the Son entering that which has been formed in us, making us the eternal Temple of God, establishing us for eternity in God's rest. God is resting in us as His perfect will is performed in our personality.
Grace produces in us the iron righteousness by which the nations shall be governed; fiery holiness of being and behavior such that we can have fellowship with God; and stern obedience to the Father. We no longer are directed by our own will but by the will of the Father, continually obeying Him through Christ.
By grace God saves us, not by our obedience to the Law of Moses but by His own will, virtue, and power given to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.
God set out in the beginning to create us in the image of His internal moral character; and also, in the Day of Resurrection, in His external image, His appearance, His likeness..
We are not fully saved until all of the above has been accomplished in our personality; until we are in the image of God and all the works of Satan have been removed from us. The purpose of the Divine salvation is that we may have lasting fellowship with God, not so we can go to Heaven to live forever.
God has determined to make man in His image and in His likeness. This is the fullness of salvation and is accomplished by the grace of God administered through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:28,29)
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)