I'm going to take a break from Job for a post and discuss something that I thought about today a fair amount. I have no idea how long its going to take me. It could be a paragraph, or it could take several pages. We'll see.

I suppose the most applicable scripture passage is Romans 6, but I suggest you read all of Romans from start to finish in one sitting if you haven't already done that. It's actually surprisingly easy to read. But if you haven't read it or don't want to, no worries, read on.

This thought was spurred by several conversations and me reading Romans, and also from a Sunday school lesson I taught a while back.

The conversations I've had have been with people who are religious, but have a problem believing in the all-sufficient grace of God through Jesus Christ.

I was talking to a Muslim friend I had a long time ago, and explaining what I thought were the differences between Christianity and Islam. I thought (and still do) that the key difference is the fact that Christians don't work for their salvation. They are saved by grace alone, and their works have no bearing on their salvation. He was confused, wondering how on earth this could be true. He said if this was true, why do Christians do good things. I've had this conversation with Catholics as well, some of whom also believe a form of works salvation, where we are saved by mostly grace but we also have to be good.

Unless you are a protestant Christian or a more reformed Catholic, you might be confused right now, but bear with me. This is the big deal with Christianity.

How can I be saying that we are saved totally by Grace, and our works don't help us towards eternal life? Why wouldn't we just do whatever we want and then let God take care of us?

Well, Paul discusses that very issue in Chapter 6 of Romans, thankfully. He starts off in chapter 6 by saying,

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

This chapter of Romans takes a seriously long time to understand... like a life time. But sometimes I get little glimpses of it, and I wanted to share that today.

My friend Paul Duffin was teaching Sunday school this morning on The Resurrection of Christ. He was basically over viewing the Apostle Paul's teaching on our Unity with Christ, which is central to the Apostle Paul's teaching.

The fact that Christ was raised means we are raised with him metaphorically now (and physically later). What that means is that we are raised from our death (in sin) to "newness of life." Our default state, from birth, is sinful rebellion from God (for more information, read the beginning of Genesis, and specifically about the fall of man. Adam and Eve rebelled, and so now we are naturally in a state of rebellion, until Christ returns and fully redeems the world.) But since we are united to Christ, we are pulled out of our slavery and death in Sin into a new life of worship of God.

So what does THAT all mean? Well, that sometimes isn't all that helpful when read on its own. But let's consider some of the other things that Paul says later in the chapter and in Romans. Why are Christians good? There isn't anything practical there for us to DO. It still seems like we're just saved and that's it, we can do whatever we want. That is pretty much true. The catch is, what we want changes! He says further on in chapter 6 that we should be slaves to righteousness, not sin.

What does it mean to be a slave to something? Being a slave to sin, is being governed by your own sinful desires, desires apart from God. It's like being addicted to something that isn't good. It may feel good at the time, but the end result is death:

"For you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The trick of the whole thing is that you don't just stop sinning of your own accord, because you try hard enough. Jesus changes your desires, and then you desire to stop sinning. It's not like we grudgingly give up our adultery (of any form, or pornography), or our constantly self serving attitude, our disregard of others or any other sin we might have that is controlling us. Jesus, through his Resurrection, sets us free from the sins that own us, and instead he owns us and shapes our desires to be his. Ultimately, this is extremely good for us. The bible also lets us in on a little secret. It's actually good for us to be "good". I think it takes a lot of wisdom to understand this, and I don't fully understand it. But occasionally I get glimpses of that too. Proverbs says:

"Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
would have none of my counsel
and despised my reproof,
therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way,
and have the fill of their own devices."
"The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight,
but the wicked falls by his own wickedness."
"The wicked is overthrown through his evil doing,
but the righteous finds refuge in his death."

And in Ecclesiastes:

"Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things, God will bring you into Judgement."

And in Galatians:

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially those who are of the household of faith."

Notice the theme: the wicked aren't punished necessarily by outside forces. It is their own wickedness that punishes them. Interestingly, God has constructed the world so that in most cases, wickedness is destructive, not only of those victimized by it, but by those who are committing it.

So it is also in our own interest (but not our own power) to do good, not for our eternal salvation, but for our current happiness. I am not advocating some kind of prosperity gospel here though. Because actually, although the effect of doing good is good, often we then become the victim of much wickedness and see persecution because of it. But this kind of suffering is different from a self inflicted one, and in fact can and should give us great joy. James says,

"Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness."

The kind of joy referred to here though is not the joy of a self-interested person as is often thought of when happiness is concerned...

And of course in the context of Job, of course the righteous can suffer.

There is a ton more to be said here, and I'm sure there are hundreds of other supporting scripture passages. For now I'll leave it at that, because otherwise this will turn into a rant. Please feel free to comment.

Notes to me: Other things to talk about: Importance and centrality of salvation by Grace alone.

All scripture quotations are from the ESV.