When we have been raised in a "religious system", one in which we were taught the rules but not the way of salvation we are likely indoctrinated into thinking that is no Biblical.
Our way of thinking in a system of rules is followed by a sense of working real hard to earn our way to heaven.
No one can earn any part of their salvation, this is a "works-based" religion based on self-effort. It leaves the follower of the rules proud of themselves instead of dependent on Christ.
When we know that Christ went to the cross to pay for our sins and that only He can be good, then is when we can let go completely of self-effort and rely on Him to change us into what we should be.
So many churchy systems today have abandoned the real gospel, which is faith in Christ alone. Not faith in preachers, or trained and learned people or even in ourselves to any degree, our faith is in Christ alone.
When we believe in Christ and what He did on that cross on our behalf we have to believe too that we have nothing we are able to do to save ourselves. Death was the penalty for sin, but it had to be the sacrifice of a perfect Lamb to cover our sin, we could never fulfill that for ourselves.
When we realize that it is all the work of Christ that saves us then we also know it is all His work in us that keeps on working after He comes to live in us when we trust in Him.
Ephesians 2:10
"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
When we walk with Christ He is the One Who works in us, we can rest in Him. Christ is our sabbath rest from here until we meet Him in the air during the rapture.
When we mess up and disobey His word we hate it, confess it to be cleansed and begin again in obedience.
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Our flesh wars against the Spirit Who lives in us. Our flesh remains fallen and must be subdued by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we seek Christ in all things He will continue the process of transformation as we submit to Him.
The more we confess as we are convicted the more we grow in His power.
God does not reform our old self, He transforms us completely into a different person, our Spirit becomes His, the old is gone and we are brand new.
However, we are trapped in this fleshly body that is dying, we must battle the flesh as we grow in holiness.
Galatians 5:24-25 "24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit.…"
Romans 6:6
"We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin."
Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
Galatians 5:16
"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh."
What incredible joy it is to walk in the Spirit, growing every day as the joy increases even in the midst of hardship we know Christ goes through with us.
The life of the born-again believer does not get easier after we have been changed by Christ, sometimes it gets hard, even often it gets harder but we do not view the hardship the same way we did before we were saved. We view all trials and hardships with a heavenly and eternal perspective, a sort of boot camp of training to strengthen us. We cannot become strong by an easy life, which would make us soft and useless. Our strength comes from having to work through difficulties in the power of Christ learning His responses to life.
James 1:2-8
New King James Version
"2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
We learn how to handle trials by enduring them while coming out the other side with more wisdom than when we began.
