All right. I’ve been pondering this question for a lot of years now, and I sometimes think I’m no closer to an answer than I was when this first came to my mind. The question is this, “Does it matter how a Christian lives or not?” My inclination is to say, “Of course it does!”, but I guess I’ve been exposed to enough “libertine” influences through the years to pause and wonder.
Consider the following:
In chapter one, “How Good is Good Enough?” of his book The Discipline of Grace, Jerry Bridges writes this on page 15:
Such a reply reveals an all-too-common misconception of the Christian life: the thinking that, although we are saved by grace, we earn or forfeit God’s blessings in our daily lives by our performance.
He goes on to say in the book that many Christians think the gospel is for the unsaved and not for the saved. He says this is faulty thinking and that Christians should preach the Gospel to themselves every day, since the Gospel and the work of Christ on the cross is the basis for our standing and acceptance with God. I agree, but what I’m getting tripped up on is saying that “earning or forfeiting God’s blessings in our daily lives by our performance” is a misconception. And here’s why:
