Rules help us function effectively in life to include helping us get along with others. Laws and rules are such a major part of our lives it may be natural to think being a Christian is mainly about obeying rules and laws.
Some may think the greatest Christian rule is to believe. You must believe Jesus Christ died for your sins if you are to spend eternity with God in heaven. While this is true, at the same time, God does not say commandment/rule #1 is to believe. Our Christian faith is not based on what we do. It is based on what God has done for us. If there is a rule mandating that we must believe, then in following that rule, we could boast that we saved ourselves.
The Bible speaks of becoming a new creation in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come!” This new creation comes when God gives us the Holy Spirit and empowers us to believe His Holy Word. We are saved through grace alone. We are a new creation because God has breathed new life in us through the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us that Christ has died and risen for us and made us the children of God our Father.
Where do we come in? We must respond to God’s love for us. Christianity is a response to grace. This is the new creation. Sometimes this is referred to as the third use of the law. God’s grace compels us to want to do His will. As a new creation, we want to obey God’s commands because He first loved us.
Thank God, in Christ Jesus, that the law has been fulfilled for us! Our new life means responding to God’s wonderful grace.
