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==It really is a dreadful misunderstanding!==
<p>"Saved by grace" means we are not forgiven and created to do good works through means of our religious striving. It is God who gives us faith to believe that he will save us from wrath and cause us to do good works. </p>
<p>The meaning of grace is different from forgiveness. Grace means that God has decided to lift us up to himself and to cause us to do righteous works apart from our religious efforts. </p>
<p>It does not mean we can cease pressing forward into Christ until we attain to what God has chosen for us, and God will forgive us anyway because of his love and mercy. </p>
<p><em>Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! (Romans 5:9) </em></p>
<p><em>Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:28,29) </em></p>
<p>You may have noticed that there are two laws that have as their purpose, leading us to righteousness. There is the Law of Moses, in which we read the statute and do it. This obedience used to result in life. </p>
<p>Now there is another law, the law of the Spirit who gives life. </p>
<p><em>Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2) </em></p>
<p><em>In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4 </em><strong>) </strong></p>
<p>The Spirit of God operates the new covenant, just as the written statues of Moses operated the old covenant. </p>
<p>The Law of Moses deals with many factors of our life as a human being. The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus focuses on the actions of our personality that are not in the image of God. </p>
<p>Thus, as many as are led by the Spirit of God are occupied with putting to death the sins of their flesh, leading to the image of God. I do not see this same emphasis in the statutes of Moses, although there assuredly is an emphasis on righteous behavior. </p>
<p>I would guess that the Law of Moses was a necessary forerunner of the covenant that God had in mind all the time. </p>
<p><em>He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (II Corinthians 3:6) </em></p>
<p>The difference between the covenant of the letter and the covenant of the Spirit is remarkable. </p>
<p>Can you imagine the Pharisees overlooking the joy of the man with the withered hand when Jesus healed him on the Sabbath! The Pharisees could not take pleasure over this act of mercy because they were bound with the Sabbath commandment. <strong></strong></p>
<p>Even more dramatic is the Pharisees' insistence that the three men who were crucified were to be removed from the cross because of the Sabbath. Yet one of those three was the Word of God from eternity. Such blindness! </p>
<p>Here we see the superiority of a covenant that works by the Spirit and not by the will of man. </p>
<p><em>But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:25) </em></p>
<p>Under the new covenant, God has forgiven us for eternity. </p>
<p><em>For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:15) </em></p>
<p>It is an eternal redemption. </p>
<p>God has forgiven us for eternity, provided we are continuing in the program of putting to death the deeds of our flesh. </p>
<p>"Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." The atoning blood of the Lamb of God is covering us while we are working through the process of redemption. We are without sin at this point. </p>
<p>What a superior covenant this is? Indeed, the old covenant is passing away. The new covenant is busily creating men and women, boys and girls, in the image of God. </p>
<p>One day in the future this transformation will include our change into Christ's likeness. But our moral transformation into the image of Christ's moral Character must come first, and is of greater importance than our change into Christ's likeness. </p>
<p>Any behavior that is not in the image of God's moral Character is sinful! </p>
<p>The goal of the Christian salvation is to be created in the image and likeness of God; and it applies equally to boys and girls, men and women. </p>

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