“But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” Matthew 5:20 (NLT)
The Law is good, but it will never save us. That’s because the only way we can ever live into obedience to the Law is by the power of the Holy Spirit, given to us by grace through faith. May God open our eyes not only to the truth and goodness of his commandments, but also to our own utter inability to obey them in our own strength. Then may He give us the faith to rely on Jesus’ own perfect fulfillment of the Law for both our salvation and our obedience.
“You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.”
Matthew 5:13a, 14a (NLT)
Through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, we have a new identity, a new destiny, a new calling, and a new purpose. And yet many of us don’t live into this identity. There is so much that is lost when we don’t aim at living ‘all in’ for God, to do whatever it takes to get around people who are living all in, who will encourage us to live all in, who will not discourage us from taking up our cross and following Jesus. As we do live all in, we will see the many ways God will make us salt and light in the lives of those with whom we live and work.
