But, some will say, a true Christian will not fornicate; or we are not to worry about sin because God does not see our sin but only the righteousness of Christ; or Christ will sovereignly change us now or at His appearing.

None of these are scriptural positions.

Christians are not perfect. They commit every sin imaginable. But when they understand they are sinning they are to confess their sins, repent of them, and seek the grace of God for perfect victory. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves.

There is no passage of Scripture of which we are aware that teaches that a Christian cannot be deceived or sin, or that God does not see our sin, or that Christ will change our moral nature at His appearing, or that He will sovereignly change us apart from our diligently keeping His commandments.

Rather, the Scripture exhorts us to awake to righteousness and to cease our sinning. If we do not, God will judge us. If we still do not repent we will be cut out of the Vine, out of Christ.

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. (I Corinthians 15:34)

Antinomianism, the destructive doctrine that there is no law governing Christians, has been with us from the first century. Today antinomianism is presented as "Jesus did it all." The idea is that we are to "abide in Christ" and not exert ourselves because to do so is to adopt a pharisaic attitude.

The truth is, there are numerous injunctions in the New Testament writings, commencing with the four Gospel accounts, that we are to obey. We build our house on the rock when we do what Jesus commanded us.

None of these injunctions are the new covenant. Rather, they serve to keep us acceptable to God while the new covenant, which is Christ Himself, is formed in us.

If we say we will wait until Christ does the work in us, we will fall into the gap of lawlessness. We will be destroyed by sin—sin we could have avoided if we had meditated in the Word, prayed, gathered together with fervent disciples, and exercised self-control in not yielding to the impulses of our flesh and soul.

The Day Star, Christ, does not rise in our heart unless we faithfully obey His commandments to the best of our ability, praying without ceasing that God will help us. It is true that when Christ does fill us we shall keep the eternal moral law of God by means of our new, born-again nature. But in the meantime we must perform all the duties given us by Christ and His Apostles. Otherwise we will never arrive at the new covenant—the new, inner, righteous creation.

To be continued.