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ETL Module 2: Live As Jesus Lived (transformed character)

This is module 2 of the Experience The Life Series

Too often following Jesus has been limited to admiring the mystery of the God-man and resting in the finished work of the cross. While the basis of a relationship with God in Christ is both his person and his finished work, the ongoing nature of salvation, sometimes called sanctification, should not be ignored.

This is module 2 of the Experience The Life Series

Too often following Jesus has been limited to admiring the mystery of the God-man and resting in the finished work of the cross. While the basis of a relationship with God in Christ is both his person and his finished work, the ongoing nature of salvation, sometimes called sanctification, should not be ignored.

A pathology of the American church has been to disconnect belief from behavior. People think that if you say the right words and believe the right things, you’ll receive your get-out-of-hell-free card, and that’s it. In the meantime they manage their sin until heaven. Jesus calls us not to sin management but to transformation, where we experience on breakthrough after another and do away with sin in our lives. We are called to follow Jesus and be transformed into his image. We are called to take seriously the character description of Jesus in the Gospels and Philippians 2:5-8 You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross!

We are expected to take on that same character and thus influence the people around us in the same way Jesus influenced others. In short, the gospel connects belief and behavior.

Related Topics: Spiritual Life, Curriculum

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