“With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”
Ephesians 4:17-24 NLT
The common thinking in westernized Christianity is that man corrupted by sin. It is clear in Paul’s theology that men are not victims, they are victimizers. One could be forgiven, given Paul’s Jewish background and the distinction made, that he believes that Jews are inherently better than gentiles. But his theology shows us that he believes them that be epistemologically the same. They are all sinners. The only difference is that one lives in God’s grace but the other rejects it. And those who reject it are in the default position of the human existence. It is a choice to live outside of his grace. This also means that it is a choice to live by in it. Paul, here, emphasizes that choice. Christians, often mistakenly, assume that once saved, living as a “gentile,” is the choice that they are being saved from. They are puzzled when they don’t exude changed lives. But salvation doesn’t take away our choice. It frees us into it. In Christ we can choose to remain free, or solidify our pre Christ ways and walk away from him with full agency. Sadly many will approach Christ on the day of judgement believing that salvation was the same as discipleship. On that day, many will be rejected because they never chose Christ at all. We cannot, after being saved from it, walk back into the fire hoping not to get burned. We must put on the new way of living.
JOSH McGARY. COM 