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No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him (1 John 3:6, ESV).
Examine, review, and then examine this diagram again, as it illustrates the differences between all the other world’s religions and Christianity.
Religion teaches us to work hard for perfection and to earn God’s favor, but Christianity says, “Stop!” You can’t be good enough; your holiness comes from grace, or the work of Jesus on the cross.
The diagram on the left shows a solid line of holiness between Religion (you) and God. It’s a line of blood, sweat, and tears, as we must work hard to earn God’s favor and probably won’t know our success (or not) until we die and face judgment.
Work harder — are we successful? — but to be sure: Work harder!
The diagram on the right reveals a dotted line indicating that our entrance into God’s presence comes by grace. Jesus does the work, and we can be assured of our eternity because it doesn’t rest upon our work. Let’s relax and receive God’s abundant grace.
This doesn’t mean that we live ungodly lives because we are forgiven.
Abiding in Jesus allows our love for Him to motivate change. We don’t want to sin or do anything that offends our relationship with Him; we love Jesus and want to be like Him. There isn’t a more powerful motive for holiness than love.
Let’s compare: Fear is the motive to be holy with all other religions, but with Jesus, our motive is love.
In Christianity, holiness is not a means to God but a result of being with God. We abide in the presence of God, seeing what He has done for us and love Him, wanting to become like Him.
Let’s understand that we sin because we want to sin, which is why it’s difficult to give up our sins. But grace changes our desires to love God more than sin. We don’t sin because we don’t want to sin.
Love motivates holiness.
We don’t do anything to offend our spouse. A spouse might forgive unfaithfulness, but love means that we don’t want to hurt our spouse by being unfaithful. Love keeps us faithful.
We have assurance of our salvation because of the work of Jesus. Understanding His great sacrifice for our sins, we begin to love Him more than our sin, and are covered by grace for past, present, and future sins.
As our understanding of grace exhibited by God’s great love for us grows and grows, our desire to become like Him, to become holy, grows and grows as well.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
Grace, love, and holiness!