SailorofLife-
In Leviticus 16:1-34, we read of the ceremony called The Day of Atonement, which needed to take place every year. This ceremony was necessary as an atonement for the sins of the community and the priests, as well as being necessary in order to remove those sins from them.
We Christians call this 'the imperfect sacrifice', since it needed to be performed annually. But Jesus Christ, God's own Son, out of obedience to his Father accepted the role of the perfect sacrifice. His blood, shed only once, cleanses all who accept it as the atonement for our sins, and on his head has been placed all the sins which we have committed, that he might take them away from us:
First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered up for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:8-14,NIV)
The priest is Jesus Christ himself, and the ones being made holy are those who accept his atoning sacrifice. And it is our acceptance of his atoning sacrifice which determines whether we have assurance of salvation, due to the righteousness needed for our salvation's being a gift from God rather than its being an earned salary:
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:19-26,NIV)
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What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written:
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Romans 9:30-33,NIV)
And how do we repay God for the sacrifice of atonement which his Son accomplished in order to save us from the consequences of our own sinfulness? We don't. The logical thing would be to resolve to keep all of God's laws and commandments. But if mankind had been capable of doing that, Jesus' sacrifice would not have been necessary in the first place. St. Paul himself described quite well the problem which we all have when we try to keep any set of laws:
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:14-25a,NIV)
2,000 years after St. Paul wrote this, psychologists gave it a name; it's called 'paradoxical intention'. What it boils down to is our total inability to accomplish anything we try to do, and this includes the keeping of any set of laws. There's even an old saying which describes it: "The harder you try, the faster you fail". In order to accomplish anything, we must have it come naturally to us.
God knows this, so rather than have us obey a a set of laws which he knows we would fail to do, he gives us a entirely new nature. It is his Spirit, rather than we ourselves, who subdues our original, sinful nature (this is the nature we were all born with, but nothing righteous can be accomplished through it). His Spirit also implants within us the new nature, and it is the motivations of this new nature which lead to our performing the actions which God wants of us, rather than its being the superficial following by rote of any set of laws:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:16-26,NIV)
Just as a poisoned tree cannot yield edible fruit, in like manner the motivations which are listed as 'the acts of the sinful nature' cannot yield righteous actions. Since they are the core of the sinful nature, whatever proceeds from them wil be the product of the sinful nature. We see here what can be identified as the root cause of every sinful act, for from them as the origin every sin known to man has emanated.
But they are as much a part of us as the color of our eyes. So we need help in order to subdue them, just as a patient needs the help of a doctor in order to remove what is harmful to him and replace it with what is lifegiving. It is the Spirit who is our 'physician', and it is he who replaces our sinful nature with the new, spiritual nature.
It is this new nature which enables us to perform the actions which God wants of us in the manner that he wants of us. In order for our actions to have assurance of being 'in synch' with God's will, the motivations which culminate in those actions must also be 'in synch' with God's will. Just as we can identify the motivations listed as 'the acts of the sinful nature' as being the root cause of all sinful acts, we can identify the motivations listed as 'the fruit of the Spirit' as being the root cause of all righteous acts. Their importance to our proper conduct as Christians is emphasized by the words which immediately follow their listing: "Against such things there is no law."
And how do we get this new nature? It's a gift, just as our salvation is a gift. We cannot earn this nature, nor can we purchase it as if it were an asset. But God in his compassion willingly gives it to us as a result of our accepting his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice. So for both our salvation and our proper conduct as Christians we need to give the credit to God, rather than to ourselves. And this demonstrates God's wisdom, for by our needing to see everything as credited to him God has 'slammed the door' on the most dangerous sin of all, namely, the sin of Pride (aka arrogance).
