Space-Filling Thoughts

  Image from Pixabay What if the gospel was the news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, so that we can be forgiven, but that now it’s totally up to us to obey God and keep his commandments?  Or, to put it another way, what if the gospel said that we can be justified by grace but that we are sanctified by works?  What if salvation from the guilt of sin is totally up to God but salvation from the grip of sin is totally up to us?   If that were the truth, the gospel would be half good news and half bad news.  For we all know that, left to ourselves, we are not going to grow in holiness.  All of us can say with the apostle, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Rom. 7:18).  We don’t just need God’s grace for legal righteousness that justifies; we need his grace for personal righteousness that sanctifies. Thank God, it’s not true that we are lef...