As I pointed out in my last post, there's a big difference between "reassuring grace" and "replacement grace."
While "reassuring grace" says that we can "live loved" and that "God isn't disappointed with us," replacement grace offers us the real change we needed. Reassuring grace is a welcomed relief, but not the cure.
Our dis-eased nature [heart/spirit] - the thing that led us astray in the first place - was completely removed when we said 'yes' to Jesus:
- It's not about a touch-up, but a transplant.
- It's not about incremental improvement, but a dramatic deletion.
- It's not about remission, but total removal.
- It's not about symptom-management, but eradication of our sin-stained nature.
Then why do Christians still sin? Because residual attitudes and patterns of sin - left over from before we met Jesus - can still operate in our bodies... like a residual infection from an amputed limb. Sin may still operate in our bodies, or "members" as Paul says, but not in our new nature [heart.]
[Paul describes "sin" as an alien force in our bodies: A force that can operate within us, but is not us.] Those left-over habits and patterns of thought live in our bodies, not in our hearts now.
Because the ruined heart that used to hold us captive has been surgically removed by Jesus, our God-given new heart is now our ally and not our enemy.