Is there a formula, plan, or process for me becoming a BETTER Christian?

Or a BETTER follower of Jesus?  Is there something I DO to make that happen?

If so, why do I even need Jesus?

Is he just a template for me to pattern my life after?  And if so, doesn’t that lead to frustration rather than freedom?

Here’s my thought.  Paul writes to the Galatians, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I life, yet it is not I…but Christ that lives in me. And the life I now live is by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” There are many other texts, by the way.

I have heard it said, “Jesus gave his life for me, to put his life in me, to live his life through me.”

Or, “I am not called to life FOR God, but FROM God, from the abundance of his grace at work in me.”

The point is that BOTH salvation and sanctification are WHOLLY the work of God. If it is otherwise, the Christian life becomes a religious self-improvement plan, which is exactly the kind of legalistic thinking that Jesus came to set aside for the truly good news of radical grace.

The notion that we can become a better Christian or a better follower of Jesus by self-effort is not good news. It is a formula for burden, duty, expectation, requirement, rules, rituals, and religion. Jesus came to set that aside for a better way. This means that ethics and morality are not a by-product of my self-effort, but rather that of realizing that I am not burden by rules that are outward-in.  Rather there is a spiritual transformation that has happened on the inside.

This is something even the Old Testament prophets spoke about with hope, like Jeremiah who spoke of a day coming when the law would not be written on tablets, but on the human heart. Our ethics, as Christians, must come from a different place than that old religious checklist.  It must originate in the awareness our acceptance/adoption by Father God, through Jesus, in the sanctifiying work of the Holy Spirit.  When that is the truth we grasp. then becoming better is not a concern, process, formula, etc.  It is a byproduct of the transforming work of grace that the Spirit mediates from the Holy Trinity.

Thoughts?

Trinitarian Letters: Your Adoption and Inclusion in the Life of God
by: Paul Kurts
publisher: WestBowPress, published: 2011-01-13
ASIN: 1449709400
EAN: 9781449709402
sales rank: 1033869
price: $18.56 (new), $18.56(used)Trinitarian Letters describes How YOU have been Chosen by God and Adopted by God and Included in the Life of God since before Creation. All made possible by Jesus Christ. “Pastor Paul Kurts illustrates through this important work , a Universal Theology of Love that Jesus would be immensely pleased with today. Paul demonstrates how all humanity are recipients of life and immortality through Jesus. These Christian messages inspire great hope for all showing the reader the vast difference between true Christian teachings of unconditional love and that of “Religious dogma and bondage. Truely freeing”! Dr. Stanley D. Murphy, Ed.D. President, SMP Logistics, LLC “Pastor Paul Kurts offers a refreshing panorama of Trinitarian Grace including ALL in relationship WITH The Triune God. Paul shows us we are eternally called and invited into the rich relationship shared between the Father and the Son wonderfully wrapped up in the person of the Holy Spirit”. Rev. Michael Rayson, O.S.L., Pastor St Paul UMC, Brighton, Illinois “Minister, Pastor and Teacher, Paul Kurts teaches diligently and tirelessly from a Trinitarian Theology of understanding. His writings, TRINITARIAN LETTERS, is based upon the Great Triune God’s love for ALL humanity. We are His adopted children included in His life forever. The reader will see the Gospel as not only Good News, but the BEST news ever for mankind”. Joe Johnson, B.S. University of Tennessee, B.L., Southern University of Law. “TRINITARIAN LETTERS expresses in an easy to understand manner the relational nature of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the truth that is Jesus alone. This work explains “Who is the Truth”, not only what is the truth. This book, written in ‘laymans language’ is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the Gospel from an all inclusive Trinitarian perspective and one’s involvement in it”.