Gospel Grace and the Pursuit of Holiness

This morning's post on Justin Taylor's site presents a thoughtful discussion of grace and regeneration. It's worth the time to read and even to purse deeper the original full articles referenced. His post only contains a summary.

In our Thursday group, we have just completed the first half of Bunyan's - Discourse on the Pharisee and the Publican where Bunyan has spend many pages discussing what righteousness means and how we get it. It's a bit tedious but an informative read also.

Here's the final quote from Justin's summary quoting DaneOrtland:

The rhythm of the New Testament is “walk in love as a response to how deeply you are loved in Christ.” “Be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph 5:1). In a nutshell: if the imperatives of Scripture are extracted in preaching without being self-consciously placed within their (heart-transforming) indicative framework, then such bald imperatives will invariably devolve into a counterproductive reinforcement of the Pharisee lurking in every human heart—even the regenerate human heart.

For the regenerate, holiness has taken on a strangely attractive hue, for God is now our loving Father, not our wrathful judge. We now delight in the law in a way we never did (never could) before. But the law itself remains impotent to generate this holiness. The law can guide us, but not propel us. It is a steering wheel, not an engine.