So here we are, God's kids by faith, rescued by this great ship alone, nothing we had to do with it other than being lost and needing rescue! And nothing we can do to stay rescued, either. Once rescued, we are rescued! Once your kid, always your kid.
Doesn't performance matter at all, then? Do we have a responsibility?
Let's first fully understand who we are. This is the most important thing of all and affects every other aspect of our lives. If you believe that you must continue to earn God's favor, it becomes a burden that one day you will not be able to carry, and your failures will finally lead you to conclude that you must not even be saved. If, on the other hand, you accept that He loves you just because He loves you, and that your failures don't count against you now, it frees you to rest.
Here's one of the purest forms of the gospels, from the OLD Testament! Ezekiel 36:25-27: I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (ESV)
Notice here who is doing all the work. Is it you? Or God? And also note that we get a NEW heart to replace our old and defiled one. Finally, how is it that we begin to obey His commands? It is because HE MOVES IN! It's HIM living in us that now causes us to obey His rules. It's not about us. It's never about us. It's Him working in us to accomplish His own purposes. And I know, your first question is, "How do I do that?" Which is the point. You don't do. There is no do. We merely let Him live. We stop fighting it and letting Him drive where He wants to, cooperating with Him.
We have been changed, and are continually being changed. And what He's begun in you will grow up, no matter what. You can slow it down or speed it up, but it's going to happen. Now, we have a responsibility. Let's talk about our kids again. Do we really want them worried that one day they won't be our kids? That we won't love them? Of course not. So once they fully understand that we love them, what should they do? How should they act? Does that give them the right to abuse our relationship knowing that no matter what, we love them and they can come home? Or does it free them to become all that they can be and live with joy and peace knowing that we're there directing their path? They can only really be fully themselves, when they know that we love them all the way and in every way.
Of course some will choose to abuse the relationship. But those living by works can do the same by practicing evil and wearing the mask of righteousness. So it's a false argument to suggest that freedom gives permission for sin.
God does have a job for you, something prepared from way before. And He calls us into the fight with Him against all the spiritual dark forces arrayed against us and the rest of our world. Think of it as Father & Sons (and Daughters!), you're already in the family business, for good. Stop trying to earn your way in.
This may sum it up better than I can: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VCII_u9CzdE
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