From the Book of Jeremiah we read of God's insistence that His people reflect their status in the way they live their lives (Jer 7:1-15). In Romans 4:1-12 we get a powerful renunciation of justification by works - works of ANY kind.
So often we read the seemingly different sets of instructions and decide which one is "correct," or "more helpful." We seldom find it possible to hold the two in creative tension.
It is the death and resurrection of Jesus which signals our salvation. We are saved based on nothing other than his leaving behind the heavens, taking on our form, and forever changing our understanding of what it means to be created (and re-created) in the image of God.
But surely there are to be outward signs of this salvation. Surely we would live differently.
Jeremiah was sent by God to a people who has ceased to live as God would have them live. He went to them to say, "You are God's people - act like it." It is message worth re-hearing in every age and in every situation.
Never forsake the assurance that your salvation has come as a result of Christ's actions. But look for ways to show this change in how you live and act. Jeremiah's words may prove helpful:
For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another,
if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed
innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to
your own hurt,
then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors for ever and ever.
Jer 7:5-7
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