Is Your Salvation a Disappointment? (Santosh Poonen)

If your life after being “saved”, is not discernibly different from that of the rest of the world, then you’re only fooling yourself. You’ve not really been saved! Instead, God ought to be able to say about you like He said about Job, "Have you seen my servant, ...?" I sin because I am a sinner; not the other way around. A righteousness that does not involve your having to give up your will is a deception. The righteousness of God requires submission to Him. If your submission is merely to someone or something other than God, your “righteousness” will end in disappointment. But, if your submission is truly to God, you will realize that ultimately there is only One person with whom we have to do - God Almighty - and say, "How can I do this evil and sin against God?!" That is a sure cure for all hypocrisy. There is no "wrong side of the bed" when it is Christ living in me! The true Christian should never be in a bad mood, because Christ was never in a bad mood. The secret to freedom from all legalism and spiritual pride is to realize that it's not me that God is pleased with, but His Son (Christ) living in me by faith (Galatians 2:20, Hebrews 11:6). "He removed my sin-ward proneness, stamped His image in its place." If you feel like you're barely hanging on, it's time to have faith and fall into the everlasting arms beneath (Deuteronomy 33:27).