For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
While I was in the United States Marine Corps, stationed in Honolulu, some 70 years ago, I was led to accept Christ by some fellow Marines.
I was given the famous Ephesians 2:7,8 as an introductory verse. I believed what I was told. We are unable to keep God’s commandments. So God, in order to bring us to Heaven, has issued grace. Grace means that God overlooks our sins, seeing us through Christ.
I suppose this means that when we lie, God sees the truthfulness of Christ.
I believed this for a few years. Then, I think, God gave me a gift of understanding the Bible. As this gift developed in my mind and spirit, I realized that there were inconsistencies in what I was being taught.
A significant part of the New Testament is devoted to urging us to put away the old nature with its deceitful lusts, and to put on the new mature which is created in godliness of character and behavior.
Why is there such an emphasis on righteous living if God sees us through Christ?
Then the answer came to me. Christian teaching and preaching has an incorrect goal.
