But secondly, in response to this grace received through faith, we are commanded to pursue and perfect holiness in reverence of Him in gratitude for what He has done for us by completely and thoroughly ridding us of the burden and shame that accompanies the fallen state of sinfulness. If one fails to appropriate the grace of God through faith regarding their forgiveness and justification (innocence) in Christ, one will never be able to truly experience a state of sanctification in Christ and thereby achieve a state of personal consecration and holiness unto God.

We must first receive the grace of God’s love and forgiveness and continue to receive it daily in order to love Him and others the way we are commanded to. “The righteous requirement of the Law is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.” And the second is likened to the first. 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' " Jesus Christ said, “I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it,” and that is exactly what He did. Also, “The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “We love Him because He first loved us” and “faith works through love.”

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, "Your sins are forgiven you; go your way and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you." Hell is “a worse thing” than the threat of being stoned to death by a bunch of hypocritical religious fanatics, and it is the consequence for all who reject Christ and continue in their sins instead of believing in, receiving, and continuing in Him. But practically speaking, how could this woman go and sin no more? Since your conversion to Christ, have you gone and sinned no more? I don't believe that anyone has. So how does one go and sin no more after having been forgiven and justified? By walking in step with the leadings of the Holy Spirit and not yielding to the dictates of the flesh (sin nature). By learning to deny the temptations offered by self, Satan, and sin through realizing that "sin is pleasurable for a season, but the wages of sin is death." Jesus said "If you seek to gain your own life, (the life motivated by self, Satan, and sin) then you will lose your life. But if you lose your life for My sake, you will gain eternal life. For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world but loses His soul?" Paul tells us that the soul who chooses sin over Christ and the holiness that He offers to us, and therefore requires of us, will die, and that for the Christian who sins deliberately after having received the knowledge of the Truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin, but only the expectation of God's fiery Judgment that will devour the adversaries. Sinful behavior is not to be trifled with (trivialized). Paul also speaks of those who have been sanctified by the blood of Christ and then trodden that blood under foot and counted it a common thing through choosing to deny Christ in word and deed. God will not wink at such sins! "If we deny Him he will deny us!" But if we, His believing church, the redeemed of the Lord, happen to slip up and inadvertently sin under the pressures that come from living in a fallen world, He will remain faithful because He cannot deny Himself. Because of His faithfulness to us (His body), we can live and walk in the mercy and grace of God's daily forgiveness for our many failings, sins, and shortcomings. Also, being able to receive His forgiveness and cleansing, by faith, after inadvertently failing Him, ourselves, and each other, is a very real aspect of walking in the Spirit.

Now, this means receiving and walking in His forgiveness for ourselves and forgiving others. Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.” And He added, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will forgive yours. But if you don’t forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive yours.”

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” “For what the Law could not do being weak in the flesh, God did, by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh.” “He who knew no sin (Jesus Christ) became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes (present continuous tense) in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Now regarding our ongoing struggles against our inherited sin nature, the Apostle John says, "I write unto you that you sin not, but if anyone does sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We must learn to daily receive forgiveness and cleansing from the stain and shame of our sins in order to remain clean before God in a state of pristine holiness. Again, if we fail to receive cleansing of our sins by faith on a daily basis, we will never be able to pursue and perfect the cleanness of spirit, soul, and body that a holy God has provided for us through His Son and therefore requires of us through His Spirit.

If you and I were to ever meet someone who was truly free from the burden of fear, sin, and shame, I believe that we would have to wear sun glasses just to look upon them. It is of such that Jesus said “You are the light of the world; a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do men light a candle and put it under a basket, but they put it on a lamp stand so that whoever enters the room will see it. Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.” And let’s not forget the Mount of Transfiguration which is an example of the believer's final state of salvation. As a matter of fact, justification, sanctification, and glorification are all aspects of the “salvation” experience, as are translation of spirit, transformation of soul, and transfiguration of body.

Deliberate, willful, high-handed, and habitual sins that we are all guilty of committing are what will cause our lights to be hidden under a basket. If they are continued in, and not repented of, they will qualify us as eternal citizens of Hell, unless they are overcome by grace through faith. The grace of learning to walk in the Spirit, which enables us to forgive others for their sins against us, receive forgiveness for our sins against God and others, and repent (turn from) our sins and utterly forsake them is a discipline of grace that allows our lights to be put on lamp stands by faith for all the world to see and quantifies us as eternal citizens in the kingdom of Heaven. Also, this grace discipline of walking in the Spirit, if practiced diligently, will result in effective, unbridled, and unburdened service to God and others. The light of Christ’s mercy and grace must expel the darkness that sin produces in each of us, and we must be able to receive them by faith as we daily live and walk in the light of His love and cleansing forgiveness.

Now, the enemy of our eternal souls is Satan. He has been called the accuser of the brethren. It is his job to kill, steal, and destroy us, and he does it through lies because he is a liar and the father of all lies. We are instructed to put on the whole armor of God to defend ourselves against his principalities, powers, and the rulers of darkness in high places.

Good new! “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” We must learn to “cast down every imagination and high thing that exalts itself above the knowledge of God, bringing every thought captive in obedience to Christ.” This is possible through our supernatural arsenal in God. These weapons are utilized through a trust and reliance upon Christ for salvation, more often than not in spite of ourselves. They are a revelation of our righteousness (right standing) in God because of Christ’s accomplished work. They are the truth that He has made us accepted in the beloved and that our sins have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west, and that He has remembered our transgressions no more. He has not rewarded us according to our iniquities. He forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases! Those, who by grace through faith, love and fear the Lord have been placed in His Book of Life, and their sins have been blotted out of His book of remembrance. Furthermore, another aspect of our weaponry is our preparation to walk in and share this good news, this gospel of peace with others. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and we must skillfully wield it against the enemy of Truth.

“May the God of peace sanctify you wholly, spirit, soul, and body unto the coming of the Lord. Faithful is He who calls you who will also do it.” And I might add, do it within us not without us. Therefore, we are instructed “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling because it is God who is working in you both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.” “If we were saved by His death, how much more shall we be saved through His life.” God declares, “I will perfect that which concerns you.” “He that began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” “I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day!”

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, not things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39) Amen!