You may have heard sermons or Bible messages correctly explaining that salvation is a gift that is free and there is nothing that can be done on our part to earn it, but it is simply received by believing. Unfortunately, what will often follow is a type of legal addendum found in the fine print describing all of the things Christians must do in order to maintain acceptance, fellowship, blessings, and so on, and so forth. Although it varies depending on the denominational label, empty religion is often injected into Christianity by teaching that portions of the commands and statutes within the Mosaic law are still meant to be followed and kept within the New Covenant of Christ. They will declare that some of it came to an end and was discontinued, while other parts are meant to still apply. Exactly which of the 613 commands from the Old Covenant still apply and which were dropped? Therein lies the problem. The law was never meant to be changed or altered. In order to be able to say one was keeping it, one had to follow everything perfectly, without failure. This is why the good news should never be mixed with the bad.
603. Believers ID’d as Righteous, Apart from Behavior
How you are identified as a believer in Jesus Christ is entirely separate from your works and actions. Israelites under the law declared that the attempt to keep the law of works would be righteousness for them, but there was never an individual who could accomplish the demand of doing it to the point of perfection, as was required. In order to receive the perfection and righteousness that was needed, Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf and God placed us in Him. He became like us so we could become like him. Instead of pursuing works in order to establish ourselves (which leads to boasting), we abide in the faith of His finished work, where we have nothing to boast. Faith-based righteousness has brought us new life by God’s grace, which empowers us to live in the way of the Spirit, apart from the works of the law.
591. Separating True Sanctification from Behavioral Choices
Religion without life, will seek to pursue a right-standing with God through attempts of self-improvement, and a variety of other works-based methods. Even within Christianity, belief systems will try to make this all about our ability to make ourselves progressively more sanctified and acceptable before a perfect and holy God. The problem with this? We can’t attain a more righteous position than what God has already brought to us through His Son. The standard God demanded was perfection, but not by giving it our best effort to keep certain commandments or other moral codes that will always fall short. Jesus is alive, accepted, perfect, holy, sanctified, righteous, and sinless… And as believers in Christ, “as He is, so also are we in this world.”
575. How to Attain Perfection (the one-step plan)
God has a requirement for all of us: Be perfect as He is perfect. How do we go about this seemingly monumental task? It hardly sounds like a good news gospel if we're going to apply our own works and efforts, because we'll never meet that standard. However, there is another way for us to enter into a state of perfection - believe in the work of Jesus Christ. The Jewish people could not arrive at being perfect through trying to keep rules, commandments or offering repeated animal sacrifices; nor could they escape a sin consciousness that brought them more guilt. With one sacrifice of Himself, Jesus brought an eternal perfection… And it looks really good on you!
552. Why Jesus Taught Two Covenants (Part 9): Be Perfect, As Your Heavenly Father
Jesus showed His disciples what the bottom line required when it came to trying to acquire righteousness through their works: It would demand that they be perfect. With this standard being taught, we can begin to see why many stopped following Jesus. They weren't rejecting a Christian message, but they came to realize their inability to meet the standard of perfection the law required in those commandments. Jesus did not always minister the good news gospel to His Jewish audience, but there was a purpose as to why He did this.
552. Why Jesus Taught Two Covenants (Part 9): Be Perfect, As Your Heavenly Father
Jesus showed His disciples what the bottom line required when it came to trying to acquire righteousness through their works: It would demand that they be perfect. With this standard being taught, we can begin to see why many stopped following Jesus. They weren't rejecting a Christian message, but they came to realize their inability to meet the standard of perfection the law required in those commandments. Jesus did not always minister the good news gospel to His Jewish audience, but there was a purpose as to why He did this.
507. As Jesus Is, So Also Are We
We can relate to Jesus being righteous, holy and perfect, but it can be quite another story when it comes to laying hold of our identity as believers. Since he abides in us, and we abide in him, we have inherited these same qualities and Jesus has become our righteousness, justification, sanctification and perfection. "By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world" (1 John 4:17).