Salvation in Christ is about hearts' transformation, not behaviour modification.

On our wedding day, I covered my shoulders with a bolero worn over my wedding dress during the 'church part' of the ceremony because the church had their rules about what not to wear: no train on dress, etc. I didn't want to wear a bolero. I got away with having a train on my dress, though. But as soon as we got to the reception venue, I ditched the bolero:)

We are often concerned about the moral issues of the day; what is right and what is wrong. But one thing is for sure - legislation can (sometimes) force one to obey certain rules as it did when I wore the bolero in church, but it can never make one have a change of heart. It cannot transform anyone. Once the restrictive legislation is lifted or become too much for the bearers, they will slip back into their default mode of sinning.

Believers in Christ, Grace (our Lord Jesus Christ Himself) came to transform hearts. He didn't come to demand behaviour modification or tell us again what is good and what is evil. Moses already did this with the law and law-keeping cannot make anybody righteous before God, "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands..." Romans 3:20. Trying to obey the law to get right with God only causes sin to increase "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14. But this bible verse is taught in reverse in many places of worship. People are taught to do their best to obey the law and stop sinning so that God can bless them in Jesus' name. This is not Christianity. This is an abominable mixture of law and Grace aka neither cold nor hot.

Jesus did not come to give the law a second time (it was given by Moses first.) He did not come to demand "obey the Ten Commandments and stop sinning or die" of His people. He came to make us righteous (like Himself) by His obedience (Romans 5:19.) 1 John 4:17 says of believers: "as He is, so are we in this world." We are like Christ because we believe. He came to save us from our sins as it is written in Matt. 1:21- "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

The law gives the knowledge of good and evil - and those who eat of this tree die. Paul's typology in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG) shows us that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a picture of the law that many are feeding on today:

"Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me...."

Satan the Accuser's tactic hasn't changed. Through his agents on many pulpits, he is still accusing people that Christ died to make godly (righteous) of ungodliness and preaching that eating of the law (a type of the tree) is how to be godly (be like God,) just as he deceived Eve.

There is virtue in aspiring to be godly but human effort cannot do it. Adam and Eve thought they could be godly by their own human effort by eating from that tree (a picture of the law) and look where it got them. The good things you do using this knowledge can kill just as fast as the bad. This is why a kind boss can reward a hardworking employee with a car and then the employee, who happens to be a careful driver, still dies in a crash involving the same car, which he took to church for dedication and thanksgiving before the accident!

Jesus came give life; to transform hearts. He came to make us see God as our loving Father and not a demanding Taskmaster that is ever-ready to let the devil deal with believers that slip-up. Think of the relationship you have with your earthly parents or your children. Think what you would do if your child was sick. You would want to take the sickness upon yourself so he can be free! How much more our Father in heaven! Our Heavenly Father loves us mind-bogglingly more than this. He sent His own Son bodily to die in our place. He came to give us His righteousness as a gift because His justice demands that anyone without this absolute righteousness must perish and in His eyes, the righteousnesses (good works) of the best of us are like "a menstrual rag" according to Isaiah 64:6. In Christ, His Spirit transforms us "to the image of His glory, from glory to glory."

When the heart is transformed, people won't need anyone to give them rules and regulations before they act right. People won't need to be told to dress, talk and act in a manner that glorifies God before they do so. It will be their passion! They will not want to sin. They will love to talk about our wonderful Saviour Jesus. They will give more, pray more, do more, even give beyond the lawful regulations of the tithe, yet not us but Christ in us so we do not even notice that we are changing outwardly...but others will.

The transformation by the Holy Spirit leads to right living but many in the church have it backwards and tell believers that they need to redouble their human effort at obeying the letter that kills in order to stop sinning and be transformed to godliness! This has the opposite effect, "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14. Try to obey the law and sin will strengthen its grip! 

But The Person of Grace, Jesus Christ "sacrificed Himself for us that He might purchase our freedom from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, passionate to do what is beautiful in His eyes." Titus 2:14.

See the NLT- "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

In Christ, we are transformed so much that we become passionate and eager to do God's will, not by human might or power but by the Spirit of the Lord.

Sin is a prison and death, up to the second death in hell, is the price. Christ paid this price for us and in Him, all who believe are eternally righteous apart from works of the law, EVEN WHEN WE SIN, which everybody does from time to time. This is where religious people who can never cast the first stone lose it; these are the ones who claim to be without sin by their own law-keeping prowess; but don't be discouraged by their self-righteous sermons and false claims of sinlessness/righteousness. Grace cannot encourage sin or cause you to sin. Grace (Christ Himself) saves from sin. Since they can save themselves from their own sins and be righteous by keeping the law, such do not need Grace and so are cut off from Christ, Grace personified! See Gal. 5:4-

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace."

Believers, the Holy Spirit transforms us to love God and live right and how it happens is beyond human logic. It is like a farmer who plants a seed and does not know how it grows.... (Mark 4:27.) It is not up to man to transform hearts. Christ does it all so we get to go and sin no more.

Beware of preachers of a false doctrine. They disregard the power of the Holy Spirit to transform you to the "image of the glory of the Lord, from glory to glory" and tell you to transform yourself using the arm of flesh (human effort at obeying the Ten Commandments, overcoming sins and addictions, doing good things and paying tithe) that is bound to fail! These false doctrine preachers accuse you of your sins and shortcomings and and tell you that it is up to you to but never point you to Christ who came to save us from our sins, as it is written in Matt 1:21-

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Instead, they make you feel as if it is up to you to save yourself and that you are headed for hell if you don't overcome your sins by yourself and do certain things that they prescribe. But Christ saves from sins.

Believers, good works are evidences of our salvation, not conditions. God works His salvation in us and these good works come about “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13.

You know that Christ is leading you on the path of righteousness because you already desire to do His will and hate the sins and addictions that hold you captive. He is working in you and you will bear fruit because you believe in Him.

Don’t fret over when or how these evidences of your salvation (even from sins) will manifest. See yourself as a little child whose father has a long, full beard. Imagine the child worrying that he is not the child of his father because he has no beard! In time, as he grows and matures, he will grow a long, full beard, just like his father. And it will grow without him straining or doing anything to make it grow. He was complete, beard and all inside him, on the day he was born; just as we were made complete in Christ when we became born-again. But some people try to make you feel that you ought to grow a long, full beard and start driving on the day of your birth, or else you are not the son of your father:)

So how does our transformation take place? According to 2 Corinthians 3:18, it is by beholding Jesus!

18 "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

But how do you behold Christ's glory as in a mirror? When you look in the mirror of your life, see not your flaws and shortcomings but the righteousness that our Lord Jesus has given to you as a gift by taking your place on the cross (2 Cor.5:21). See yourself as God sees you in Christ - RIGHTEOUS apart from your works (the good or bad things you do). Confess 1 John 4:17 "as He is so are we in this world." We are not on a journey to be like Christ, we are already like Him. Godly. Confess that you are the righteousness of God in Christ, even in the midst of your sins and addictions. The Holy Spirit transforms us, not our efforts. If you could save yourself, Jesus would not have needed to come and die in your place!

Remember that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and read the law to the Israelites, they were afraid and ran away because the law condemned them all, as it does today. This is why many young people shun church or go only when their parents force them to - the law is being read to the people. But notorious sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors flocked to Jesus to hear Him because He never condemned them or gave them rules and regulations to abide by before they could fellowship with Him and receive from Him. He healed, delivered, provided for and saved all who came to Him FREELY and without first asking whether they had sinned, paid their tithe of fasted for 70 days. This is how Zacchaeus the abominable tax collector was transformed to a giver. This is how the woman caught in adultery escaped her well-deserved punishment for her sins. This is Grace - God's undeserved, unmerited favour. He will save you too, FREELY. By grace, believe right. Don't let Pharisee-type pastors deceive you into thinking that you will be punished for your sins when they drag you before Jesus. Christ saves from sins (Matt. 1:21) and from God's wrath (Romans 5:9.)

God disciplines His children but never with any of the things that Christ gave Himself to save us from (sickness, joblessness, lack,etc physical death and the second death in hell.) His correction is never unto death. According to Hebrews 12:5-11, His correction is that we might "live," "for our profit" and that we may "share in His holiness." We have no holiness of our own. We share in His holiness.

In Christ, there is no condemnation for believers, and like the woman caught in adultery, it is His gift of no condemnation that makes us go and sin no more.

Like the people who were about to stone the woman to death, many people deceive themselves into thinking that they are "still okay" and have the right to act as judge over others because they pay tithe and do not commit certain sins like murder or fornication (law-keeping again) but the truth is even if you live in a bubble where you are given everything you need and your thoughts are regulated to be "good," without "The Lord our Righteousness" as your righteousness, you are still in the same boat of unrighteousness as child molesters, armed robbers, liars and thieves! 

Plus the reason we are not committing particular sins is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. The same flesh in a pastor is the same flesh in a prostitute. All flesh have the same potential to commit heinous crimes given the right temptations and circumstances which man has no control over. That drunk man in the gutter or that drug/porn addict could be you or I but for God's grace. God sees the potential but man walks by sight and boasts in his own strength to stand until like Peter, he gets tempted beyond what he can bear and fails.

No one on earth can EVER cast the first stone. James 2:10 says you are guilty of all the law if you slip up in one but many believers still use it as their standard of righteousness when "all have sinned."

Grace is not a license to sin, much like you don't see diplomats going berserk and breaking laws in their host country because they have diplomatic immunity. They can't be prosecuted even if they commit murder in the host country but we don't see them breaking the law. How much more we who are ambassadors of Christ! How can we who are dead to sin live any longer in it?

We can dish out all the laws we like in order to put people in check but it can never transform the heart or remove man's sin nature. Only Grace can. Like my bolero incident, people will go back to their sin when they get a little relief from or can no longer bear the demands of the law. It's like washing the outside a vessel (man) with a dead rat (sin nature inherited from Adam) in it. The dead rat produces maggots (acts of sin) and attracts flies (earthly ills.) You can wash the outside of the pot all you like (do this, don't wear that, sow seed, pay tithe, etc) but with the dead rat intact, more maggots will crawl out sooner or later.

Some people are very adept at washing the outside... until pressure that they cannot handle comes their way. What is inside the vessel determines what comes out and only the Holy Spirit can transform the inside. But when the dead rat (sin nature) is removed, the vessel filled with the God's abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ and continually filled to overflowing with living water, there might still be some maggots left over on the outside but they will all be washed off with time and there will be none to replace them! Christ came to rid us of this dead rat aka sin nature. See Colossians 2:11-

"When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature."

With His gift of righteousness comes no condemnation for the believer, and His "Neither do I condemn you" makes us "go and sin no more."

Pastors and leaders, preach this message of God's love - Grace: His undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour that we have in Christ Jesus. His abundant Grace. Expound on His gift of righteousness from the pulpit and "all these things will be added unto" the people - including the grace to go and sin no more!

Believe Right and you will Live Right.

P.S. Looking back, I see that the bolero made sense gan, but I'm glad I had the train!