“This might well be the hardest sermon I’ve ever had to write…In preaching the whole truth of scripture, verse by verse, your elders and I can't dodge the difficult stuff…There is such joy and healing found even in hard passages, and while these verses are not easy, I have been excited to stand here to speak to you, not my own words, but the words of sacred scripture. It has been my prayer in preparing this message, that you will hear the clear and strong will of God for marriage, tempered by his gentle and compassionate words of hope for those who have known divorce…Truly, this is a tender topic, and though God’s standard is nothing short of perfection, please hear: His mercy is nothing short of exquisite. God is a God of love, and the elders and I are longing to give care and counsel to any in need. We love you and want to walk humbly and graciously with you on God’s path.  Christ is able. God is good. Amen.”

For Paul, one is either in Adam or in Christ—the old person or the new person.  But this reality must also be lived!  Although believers are in Christ, they must actively renounce sin and vigorously embrace righteousness! “Cast off” and “put on” are action words. We have a choice to make. God does not call us to simply rest in Christ - He calls us to act in light of the fact that Jesus is now our Lord. To put on the Lord Jesus Christ is a command to be what we are in Christ.  This is the morality of the NT: Be who you are!

Paul masterfully defends the grace alone gospel by asserting that obedience is the central demand of the gospel, in that it produces sincere love for our neighbour, and thus provides for the law’s complete fulfillment. Obedience is part and parcel of the gospel, not separate, not a balance of grace and law, but obedience comes as a result of hearing and believing the gospel…