The following is an excerpt from Steve Backlund’s regular blog. Steve and Wendy Backlund head up Igniting Hope Ministries which host a Lent ‘Negativity Fast and Positivity Feast’ go to ignitinghope.com for information.
Is it more important to preach about right living or right believing? The Old Testament answer was right living, but the New Testament answer is clearly right believing – and right believing actually creates right living: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). When we are focused on right living we are focused on our own efforts to “do” righteous. When we are focused on right believing, we place our trust in the finished work of Jesus that He has “made” us righteous.
Abraham, an Old Covenant person, is held up to us as the example of how to live in the New Covenant. “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression” (Romans 4:13-15). Continue reading “Right Living or Right Believing?”
