Perhaps as an old mentor once said to me, the truth probably lies somewhere in the muddy middle.
But it seems to me, for a true Christian, it shouldn't be a personal battle. Even if I believe in OSAS salvation by faith alone, I still feel obligated to pursue righteousness and holiness. And the obligation is without grumbling because it's also what I desire. I'm obligated to pursue what I desire to pursue.
But do we necessarily desire and pursue it in reality? Do we really choose good and reject evil? Do we really love God? Or do we just say, ‘I believe, or once believed, and so now those things really don’t matter; they never did, in fact, because God
only cares about my faith, not what I do.’ Or sees me as righteous regardless of the truth of the matter.
God is on man’s side, more than we can begin to know. But He has expectations of us-and for us-and for what we do with the gift He’s given. He seeks to draw us increasingly into true, personal, righteousness, and that comes as we draw nearer to Him in response. He initiates, we respond, or not, we can turn back away, or become lukewarm like the church in Laodicea in Rev 3 that He was ready to spit out. Anyway, the more we respond- the more we love Him as He first loved us-the nearer we are to our goal, and, yes, the more we then desire it, desire goodness and righteousness, on our own, willingly as we grow in likeness of Him. We rest in Him, but we also work with Him. And His burden is light.
The phrasing gets confusing for me. A lot of times it sounds to me something like, 'it's not a cheese burger, it's a burger with cheese'. In this case something like 'it's from God, not us, but it's from us'.
I don’t think that accurately conveys what I’ve said at all. The truth is that it’s a gift from God, but we can refuse the gift. As we accept, we’re in agreement. To the
extent that we accept we’re in agreement, and that’s a process, a living and growing walk and relationship. The difference is only in that we
participate with God, at His discretion, through whatever time we have on this earth, for our highest good. It’s only a struggle at all because we’re truly on His side to the extent that we love. Basil bears repeating here:
If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.
God wants that love-born obedience and goodness for us; that’s all He wants. We’re here to grow towards it, but we can also grow away from it. He doesn’t force us to want and accept Him; He draws us to do so, He knocks at our door, and we allow Him in, or not. We pick up our cross daily, or not. Sometimes we fail, and He’s there to pick
us back up. It’s a cooperative effort but at the end of the day He simply does not force us to remain in Him. Our holiness, our sanctification, our justice, is greater to the degree that we
also will it. To put it another way, again, love is a choice, or it’s not really love at all. And love is real righteousness, not a declared righteousness, and love is the virtue we’ll be judged on.
And if there’s any kind of struggle or personal battle going on, it’s only within
ourselves, and it’s a
good battle. Here’s a teaching I’m familiar with that accurately reflects man’s situation IMO:
409 This dramatic situation of "the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one"makes man's life a battle:
The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity.