People today in many instances are not leaving the world, not repenting of their behavior, when they receive Christ. They are "sitting in Egypt" claiming they are justified by faith. They are practicing a dead faith, a faith that does not have enough life to move them out of the world.

They misunderstand the Divine redemption that is in Christ. They name the name of the Lord but they still are living in the world spirit. They have "correct" doctrine in their head and mouth but there is no eternal life in them. They never have been born again of the Spirit of God.

It appears there is no greater misunderstanding in any area of human thought than is true concerning Paul's teaching of the grace of God in Christ. Although Paul, as well as James, John, Peter, Jude, and the Lord Jesus Himself in the Gospels, made it clear that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has to do with the creation of righteous conduct in people, there is an element in Paul's teaching of justification that invites a doctrine of redemption foreign to the Scriptures.

Martin Luther, who was reacting against the Catholic Church, appears, in some instances, to have pressed the concept that we are saved by faith apart from a change in our behavior. The present-day emphasis on human rights and happiness has presented the idea of grace without law until the Gospel of the Kingdom has been perverted beyond recognition.

The result is moral passivity.

The element in Paul's teaching of justification that is easy to misunderstand is found in the verses (particularly those of the early chapters of the Book of Romans) emphasizing that we, by identifying ourselves by faith with Christ, are given the righteousness of Christ as our possession. It is as though we have kept the Law of Moses perfectly in spite of the fact that our personality and behavior never have actually changed.

We now are clothed in Christ's own righteousness.

This is true, but only under certain conditions. By ignoring the conditions we have created a destructive doctrine of grace. We seem to believe God forever will see us only in Jesus so our behavior is invisible to God. He beholds only His Son when He sees us.

Many passages of the New Testament do not correspond to the concept that God sees only the righteousness of Christ in our personality independently of our behavior.

For example:

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. (I Corinthians 11:31,32)

What sense would the above passage make if God sees only the righteousness of Christ in us?

There are numerous verses in the New Testament that exhort us and warn us concerning the penalty for continuing in sin as a Christian. These warnings have been disregarded by many of the present generation of Christian preachers. If they do not turn and begin to warn God's people that sinning Christians are facing God's fire in this world and the next they will be punished as false prophets.

To be continued.