Paul is letting us know here in the book of Romans that God didn’t make Heaven for good people, God made Heaven for sinners who are justified freely by his grace. There are a lot of misconceived notions out there concerning the doctrines of faith, are there not? We have a self-sanctification in the positive sense of separating ourselves from those things we know that are not good for us or not good for others, not in order to merit any more righteousness before God through that performance, but in light of all that God has already made us to be in the Savior. On the opposite end of that self-sanctification spectrum, we have those who suppose that their behavior is the source of their right standing with God. That's self-sanctification negatively. They suppose that becoming more righteous in practice will make them more righteous in God’s sight. Faulty thinking! Paul called it foolish. It will not gain you Heaven. You will only be standing in your own righteousness at the Great White Throne Judgment only to face the second death. Whether they will admit it or not these people link practical righteousness with their salvation to some degree.
The Word of our salvation washes away any notion of self-cleansing for righteousness as an approach to God. Paul’s good news message rinses any notion of people’s production as the basis of a right standing before God right down the drain and leaves the believer standing only in the purified state of the Savior’s righteousness. It could be said this way: the washing that the Word of God rightly divided provides, cleanses the tidy-bowl of people’s religious stinkin’ thinkin’. Away it goes right down the drain. Only when the truth of reconciliation achieved through Jesus is believed, does a new creation become a reality as far as that individual is concerned. The new creation hinges upon the acceptance that Jesus accomplished reconciliation. The new creation is who you stand to be in the Savior. A new creation is your new identity in the Savior. It’s not how you perform in a different way, or strive to perform in differently, or make commitments to perform differently. It all has to do with your being placed into the Savior. That’s the new creation. When a person believes in the reality of reconciliation, that person becomes an instantaneous member of the new creation called the Body of the Savior; joined to him.
The Word of our salvation washes away any notion of self-cleansing for righteousness as an approach to God. Paul’s good news message rinses any notion of people’s production as the basis of a right standing before God right down the drain and leaves the believer standing only in the purified state of the Savior’s righteousness. It could be said this way: the washing that the Word of God rightly divided provides, cleanses the tidy-bowl of people’s religious stinkin’ thinkin’. Away it goes right down the drain. Only when the truth of reconciliation achieved through Jesus is believed, does a new creation become a reality as far as that individual is concerned. The new creation hinges upon the acceptance that Jesus accomplished reconciliation. The new creation is who you stand to be in the Savior. A new creation is your new identity in the Savior. It’s not how you perform in a different way, or strive to perform in differently, or make commitments to perform differently. It all has to do with your being placed into the Savior. That’s the new creation. When a person believes in the reality of reconciliation, that person becomes an instantaneous member of the new creation called the Body of the Savior; joined to him.