Living Like Christ

Living by the Law or by the Spirit?

I’m writing this blog post because I think it’s something that is practically really beneficial and also a major part of following Christ that’s often left untaught. I’ll start with the point I think most all of us are familiar with.

Galatians 2:16 Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

So by no means of our own efforts are we saved. It is impossible. Our ONLY hope to ever be united with God lies in the sacrifice made on the cross. There’s nothing we can do to earn God’s approval or repay the GIFT of grace. Rarely do I see an issue with this. We almost always accept salvation (*see footnote) as being through faith in Christ, yet I repeatedly hear illogical statements about how we ought to live after coming to faith.

Here’s what I see:

We see we aren’t perfect, recognize out Christ need for Christ, and turn to him for forgiveness. Then once we have faith we try harder to live up to the same standards that we so miserably failed to reach in the first place.

The apostle Paul saw the same thing in the early Churches:

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

If salvation is a gift and has absolutely nothing to with what we do then why do we try to live better lives now that we’re Christians? Why turn from sin as best we can and try to pray more and follow all of these commands when we know that none of things earn salvation? That’s pointless isn’t it?

The answer is of course.

But then another issue arises. What do we do with statements like this:

Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, [Christ] became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

According this verse salvation belongs to those who obey Christ which brings up a really confusing idea. We’ve already established that salvation comes solely by faith in Christ and by no means obedience. Yet here we see that those who are saved obey. And we also have to take this statement as completely true. Salvation belongs to the obedient.

But how can this be true? Obedience is impossible. No one lives up. Isn’t this why we needed Christ in the first place? I think one of the best verses to explain this is John 3:36. To quote a friend, “Everyone loves to quote John 3:16, but no one wants to hear John 3:36.”

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

I think the key to seeing this verse is to look at the two sets being compared: eternal life and belief against God’s wrath and disobedience. This verse shows that just as eternal life is the opposite of God’s wrath, so is belief the opposite of disobedience. The opposite of belief is not unbelief, but disobedience. Jesus echoes this principle with his parables (Luke 18:18-23, Matthew 25:31-45 to give two quick examples).

So now it’s really easy to become confused here and even worse fall in the pit of legalism by trying so hard and willing ourselves to be obedient. That’s not going to help though. Instead I’m going to compare a concept we should grasp with another verse to explain an alternate solution for obedience. 

Let’s start with a piece of gospel truth:

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

As we originally said, we are saved by faith. And as we read in this letter, faith is given by God, not as a result of anything we do. We can read of the apostles asking Jesus for faith (Luke 17:5) and of a man asking Jesus to help his unbelief (Mark 9:24).

So if faith is equivalent to obedience and faith is given to us by God, then it follows that God must be able to grant us the obedience demanded in John 3:36 and Hebrews 5:9. That now seems much more reasonable for ‘what is impossible with men is possible with God. (Luke 18:27).” We can’t obey on our own, but if it’s in fact God’s doing maybe obedience is attainable. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians to see Him give us such obedience.  

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

This one takes some explanation. First we all, Christians, have faces that are "unveiled". Meaning, at some point our faces were veiled and we were unable to see the Glory of God. Now, He has lifted that veil, a blindness that kept us from Him, and we are being "transformed into the same image", the image of Christ. We are made more and more like Christ as we see him more clearly and know him better. Now it says, "from one degree of glory to another". As we’ve all seen, becoming like Christ is not instantaneous, and from this verse we see it’s a process that takes place in steps as we move from one degree to another yet greater. I want to stress that becoming Christ-like is a process and takes literally a lifetime, but progress will be continually made. Lastly, this entire process comes from God, "who is the Spirit". By the Spirit’s work we are transformed to be more like Christ, not by our determination and willpower alone.

I want to clarify as best I can what exactly the Spirit does though. 

Matthew 7:17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

As we learn from the teachings of Christ, the issue is not the fruit, not our actions, but the issue is a bad tree, or heart (Mark 7:15, Matthew 23:27). This claim is reasonable if thought out. Why do we sin? Because it’s what we desire. If instead we wanted to do good, we would do so. So in order to change what we do, our evil hearts must be repaired so that we actually want to do good.

Ezekiel 36:26 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. 

Not surprisingly, God has promised to do so for his people. He promised to give us a new living, beating heart and replace the heart of stone that bore bad fruit. And his means is the spirit. So the spirit works to develop the obedience that is often equated with faith by continuously working in our hearts to where we more and more desire Him and less and less desire the world. Now it should logically follow that we can consider obedience equivalent with having salvation, since obedience is not truly our doing, but the work of the Spirit promised to those with faith. 

Knowing that the spirit has such power for us: the power to follow Christ, the power to pray in God’s will and most importantly power to love God, I want to share one last verse.

Luke 11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Jesus says we can ask God for that spirit. I say we beg him for it.

* Since I use the term salvation repeatedly throughout, I thought it worthwhile to clarify that when I say salvation I mean being saved into an eternal presence with God and saved from duly deserved wrath.