Life is Your Church! by John Kreitzer

Commit Yourself to Living a Joy Filled Life Based in Truth

Welcome to Life is Your Church!

Not many people realize that loving God is as simple as living a moral life based on His Word.

In Matthew 19:16, Jesus was asked what must be done to inherit eternal life. His answer: “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

John 6:28, "Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" Jesus answered them,
"This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

The way you live your life is your worship.

As Christians we are all part of the body of Christ regardless of what faith based traditions we keep.

Articles / Blog Posts

Will You Enjoy Heaven?

Most people wonder if they will enjoy Heaven. Even mainstream publishers such as The BLAZE have written about it. In fact those who enjoyed the BLAZE ARTICLE on Heaven as good as it is I think they could have expounded upon their message. For example, I think they could have explained more clearly that nobody after death is denied the loves and joys they have developed in this life. The Bible in reference to Heaven speaks of different jobs of higher and lower esteem; it speaks of Heaven's government structure and of houses and cities and even says that it is” beyond what we could ask for or even think of.” In other words, you definitely will want to live there and experience its joys and our life here is used in developing our loves in preparation of an eternal life, that will be much like the ones we are living now but lived in the most amazing environment we can possibly imagine. As the article states, the question we all need to ask ourselves, is where will our loves take us after death and what type of life do we need to live to enter heavenly societies as described by God. The Bible is fairly clear on this and says if we love God with all of our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves, we will be saved and all other commandments are covered by doing this.

So, does loving God or believing in God just mean acknowledging Christ as God? Doesn't this alone save us? Doesn't Romans 9:10 confirm this in its simple declaration that, "If you declare your belief with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Let’s see what Christ himself taught about the saving power of love toward him and belief in him as Lord and Savior. 2 Cor 7:14 says, “when my people humble themselves, the ones who are called by my name, and pray, seek me, and turn away from their evil practices, I myself will listen from Heaven, I will pardon their sins…,” John 14:23 says Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them.” Luke 12:14 states, "The servant who knows his Lord’s will, but makes not himself ready, nor does his will, shall be beaten with many stripes..." John 8:21,24,51 says, "I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you shall die in your sins; If anyone shall keep my word, he shall never see death." Again, this passage shows that believing in Christ and the word is attributed to keeping the Word not just thinking it’s true or divinely inspired. So, as we can see above, he says people who believe Christ is God their Savior i.e. “the ones who are called by my name” must turn away from their evil practices before he will pardon their sins. In addition, it says to love God you must “do what I say” not just believe it is the right thing to do. Belief without the action of doing what is taught is to deny Christ and is called being unrighteous. This is why James 2:20 says “Do you want proof, you foolish person, that faith without actions is worthless?” 1 Cor 6:9 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor adulterers, nor prostitutes,... shall be saved. “ James here isn't saying that the "unrighteous" that won't be saved are only those committing certain sins such as prostitution because we know through the Word that "all sins lead to death." No James is telling us that if we are smart enough to understand that the sins, he listed disqualify you from salvation that we need to look at ourselves and realize that the sins we are willingly doing, and not fighting against or repenting of, will lead to the same result. In John 3:19 Jesus said, “The light is come into the world, but men have loved the darkness more than the light; for their works were evil. Likewise in John 12:46 Jesus proclaimed, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in Me may not abide in the darkness.” In modern English abide means, to act in accordance with, and darkness as shown in John 3:19 is equated to evil works so in modern language Jesus said, “I have come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in Me may not act in accordance with evil works i.e. sin. We therefore cannot declare we believe in Christ if we do not shun sin /evil works allowing our lives to be reformed by the Lord into doing good works. To declare that just a mental belief is all that is required without a change in our behavior and thought processes is not in accordance with scripture. Jesus confirms this in John 3:3 "Verily, verily, I say to you. Except a man be begotten anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." More clearly Christ is saying, "Unless you allow the Lord to change your heart and have a new way of living that shuns sin and loves good works you shall not be saved." Faith / belief must be accompanied with good works which is the fruit of true faith, or it is not a saving faith. True faith is a gift from the Lord; yet know that faith conjoined with charity, that is, faith lived out in the affections and actions of a sanctified life, alone proceeds from the Lord. Faith separated from charity, however, originates not from Him, but from the self of man, and is termed "persuasive faith," which holds no power of salvation, for it is merely historical or intellectual, devoid of spiritual life. A person may discern within himself whether his faith flows from the Lord or from his own self. If truths are embraced merely for the sake of appearing learned, to acquire honors, wealth, or worldly esteem, and not for the sake of reforming the will and amending the life in accordance with divine order, then such faith is persuasive, arising from self and not from the Lord; and the unregenerate conduct of that person's life bears witness against it, confirming its merely natural origin. Mat 10:33 “But whoever denies me before others, I will disown before my Father in Heaven.” To deny is to dismiss. How do you dismiss Christ before others? You do what he says you shouldn’t. You openly dismiss his values and teachings in the example you set in your daily life. Titus 1:16 describes Christians that act contrary to what they profess to believe as follows, "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good." God says doing good is a requirement of salvation because it is the "fruit" of a life of Christianity. Bearing "good fruit" is the only evidence Christ says you can use to identify a true Christian from a false one. Mat 7:19 states, "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." "Fruit", is symbolism for moral and godly thoughts and actions based on Christ's teachings. With Christians who are being sanctified the truths of faith that are with him are compared to leaves because the leaves receive light just as we receive light or truth from the Lord by his word which we then use to produce fruit i.e. changes in our life to reflect what we have learned which are the goods of charity. Salvation is therefore not granted to those who just profess Christian beliefs but is only granted to those who desire and attempt to THINK and DO what they say they believe even if imperfectly. Christ spoke especially harshly against religious hypocrites i.e., those who intentionally project a life they know they aren't trying to live in thought or action. This of course is not the same as those who are trying to live their beliefs, who confess their struggles, weaknesses, unholy thoughts, and addictions etc. and sometimes fail during temptation. The good news is that the Bible says some of you WERE living / thinking as stated above but because of the power of the Lord you turned from these ways of life and are now brothers in Christ. In Luke 8:21; Matt 12:48-49 and Mark 3:33-35 it's documented that, “Jesus stretched forth his hands toward his disciples and said, my mother and my brothers, are those who hear the Word of God and do it.” James 1:12 says "Blessed are those who endure when they are tested. When they pass the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." Or stated another way, "Blessed are those who do not think or act in unrighteousness when facing temptation to do so. When someone attempts to live their life by thinking and acting with righteousness when presented with the opportunity to think or act in a contrary manner it is they who will receive salvation in Heaven as promised to those who love the Lord. Matt. 25:46 states, "And they (who live in unrighteousness) shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Again, loving him is the active attempt of living a life according to his commandments and teachings and not just believing that the Lord was God and that he taught these principles. If belief was all you needed the sexually immoral that believed in Christ would be saved. Paul taught people not to be deceived into believing this in Cor 6:9. What might deceive someone into believing even active sex workers can be saved? Teaching faith alone saves! But those who receive God's blessings are not those who hear the Word and believe it but those who hear the Word and try to keep it. This is exactly what Jesus says in Luke 11:27, "But Jesus said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it."

Peter warned of Churches that would rise under false teachings, such as the corrupted teaching of faith we see today, that would promise freedom to sin i.e. that faith was all you needed. 2 Peter 2:1 states, “With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice the ones who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corruption. For a man is a slave to whatever has overcome him. If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through their knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.” The condition is worse because they no longer seek to overcome sin as they are taught that eternal life is a gift for faith alone without works by grace only. But biblical teaching rejects this lie because even the demons in Hell believe in God: James 2:19 states, “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” True faith is not granted to those who imagine that faith is from their own power, and that they are wise from their own selfhood; but rather to those who acknowledge that all faith and all wisdom are from the Lord alone. For to these the Lord gives faith and wisdom, inasmuch as they ascribe nothing of truth or good to themselves, still less presume merit through the truths and goods with which they are gifted, and far less imagine themselves justified thereby, but ascribe all things wholly to the Lord, and thus to His Divine grace and mercy alone. So, how have so many Minister's been deceived to preach that "faith alone without producing works saves" when the passages of the Bible are so clear: Matt 16:27 "The Son of man is going to come, and then He will render to everyone according to his deeds (thoughts, actions, works)"; Rev 2:26; "He that overcomes his sins, and keeps my works to the end, to him will I give power..."Rev 20:12 "I saw the books opened, and everyone was judged according to his works" and Rom 2:6; 2 Cor 5:10 "For we must all appear before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body" or Romans 2:6 "On the day of judgement God renders to everyone according to his works." The works being judged are the thoughts and actions of your life because they are in keeping with his life. More simply, good or bad is credited to anyone according to what kind of intention is behind his acts according to his understanding of them. Most churches teach that "no one can fulfill the law because if you break one commandment you break them all" and justify their stance that "not to sin" is impossible and salvation is therefore by grace alone. What they don't understand is the passage being referenced is teaching that if someone acts against one commandment on purpose, they will have no problem acting against other commandments on purpose because they deny that it is sin and therefore make nothing of religion. Clearly, someone who is an adulterer is not automatically a thief or a murderer etc. but he is not doing these other things because of civil law and to protect his reputation not because of his love for the Lord. Similarly, those who do love the Lord, if they are willing and with understanding of the commandments, keep from doing one bad thing because it is a sin, they will desire to keep all the commandments. Those that live a godly life this way, even if they believe faith alone saves, will still see salvation for the life lived. For as soon as someone intentionally keeps from committing an evil he desires to do, because he knows it is a sin, the Lord keeps him to the intention of abstaining from the others. Yes, everyone sins but those who do so willingly are not the same as those who are earnestly trying to avoid sin and in a moment are overcome by a bodily urge etc. and fail. One's sins will be covered by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and the other's sins will not. The apostle Paul stated in Romans 7:19 "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing..." which makes it clear that there is a belief and active life of avoiding sin present in the life whose sins will be covered by Christ." Paul clarified this in Heb 10:26, "If we sin willfully after we have received the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for your sins." Therefore, any minister that teaches no struggle against sin is required is deceiving you. The reality is the Lord can't enter you until you have stopped willingly sinning and it is only by the power of Jesus Christ after he enters you that you will truly overcome any sin. Paul says in Romans 6, "If we have been freed from sin by coming into Christ, why would we want to be entangled back into that yoke of bondage?" This shows that resisting of any sin does finally result in its being removed by Christ. If we then on our own accord willfully decide to resume a life of intentional sin without regard to a known comandment against it and after having been cleansed of it through Christ, his sacrifice no longer will cover us as seen in Heb 10:26 above. The process of sanctification involves the progressive removal of evils, whereby the more a person shuns evils as sins against the Lord, the more the will is inclined toward goods, since evil and good stand in direct opposition, evil inflowing from hell, good from heaven. Thus, in the degree that hell, that is, evil, is removed from the life, in the same degree heaven approaches, and the affections are turned toward good. This correspondence becomes evident when the Decalogue is viewed in its spiritual sense. For instance; the less a person worships other gods, the more fully he acknowledges and worships the one true God; the less he profanes the Lord’s name, the more he loves and reveres the holy things that proceed from Him; the less he harbors hatred or vengeance, the more he wills the good of the neighbor; the less he indulges impure lusts or adultery, the more he desires true conjugial love and fidelity in marriage; the less he steals, the more he acts from honesty and justice; the less he bears false witness, the more he thinks and speaks from truth; and the less he covets the possessions of the neighbor, the more he rejoices in the neighbor’s prosperity. Thus the Ten Com-mandments in their totality encompass all things of love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor. Hence the Apostle declares that he who loves another has fulfilled the law, for the prohibitions, not to commit adultery, not to kill, not to steal, not to bear false witness, not to covet, and whatever else is commanded, are summed up in this word; "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Love works no ill to the neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. From this it is clear that the commandments are not given as direct injunctions to perform the goods of charity, but as prohibitions against the evils that are contrary to charity, for by shunning evils as sins the goods of love are implanted by the Lord. As explained, the more we abstain from evils because they are sins, the more we want the goodness that relates to goodwill.

There is a love of intending and doing good and there is a love of and intending and doing evil. These two loves are opposite of each other. The second is a hellish love and the first is a heavenly one. God does not want you to have unrighteous loves because when you pass you will not find those loves in Heaven. For example, if you love pornography, which Christ says is adultery, you will love adultery when you die. There is no adultery in heavenly societies so you will naturally choose a hellish society if this is one of your greatest loves unless you put off this love after death because of greater heavenly ones. The Bible says our loves will be tested after death: 1 Cor 3:13 “But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value.“ Notice it does not say your faith will be tested but your works. Fire in the Bible is just another word for "a love" which if unrighteous leads to temptation. We know that after death the Thief on the Cross will be with Christ in Paradise and that from 1 Cor 3:13 he will be tested to see if his internal will is righteous or unrighteous i.e. if his works have any value. The reason this is needed is that only works done through faith in Christ can withstand such temptation. Christ's proclimation that he will be with Him lets us know the result. This is the gift that is available through God’s grace. When you overcome an evil because of the Word of God it is actually Christ who has helped you overcome even though you feel it was done on your own accord. If you did not do a particular sin in this world, simply because you didn’t want to look bad to other people or to appear like you were a Christian for respect etc. God is saying that when “these works” are tested after death all who refrained from sin for any other reason than "it is a sin" will fail when tested. Their WORK has no value.

Imagine that you are placed in such a paradise where every desire known to man is available where you know that there will be no consequence for anything you do, and nobody will ever find out. Put yourself there now. Put an attractive stranger in a private romantic setting with you that wants to sleep with you or see stacks of money next to you on a windowsill where nobody is looking. What would you do if you knew nobody would ever find out and that there was no punishment or consequence coming if you slept with that stranger or took that money? Those are the kinds of temptations that we will face after death. Only if we have practiced turning from those temptations here on Earth, with God’s help, through the study of his Word and application of those truths in our worldly lives will we pass those tests after death because it is Christ IN US that will help us succeed and not our own efforts. Jesus alerts us to why we may fail these spiritual tests in Matt 7:24-27 where he warns, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and DOES them, I will liken him to a WISE MAN who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who HEARS these sayings of mine, and does NOT DO THEM, will be like a FOOLISH MAN who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” So if you aren’t applying his teachings now you definitely won’t be applying them after death. However, if you believe in the Lord and put the Ten Commandments into action by abstaining from evil, goodwill is the result. On our own none of us can abstain from evils because they are sins or do good things that are good before God. Thankfully, the more we abstain from evils because they are sins, the more we do good things from the Lord instead of from ourselves. Also, the more we act in accordance with the fruits of the spirit in our lives the more God's love fills us degraing gradually overall any particular sin's power over us.

The second thing The BLAZE article could have clarified is that loving God does not mean spending every waking second thinking of God. As the Bible teaches if you live a moral life based on his Word then you are loving God. When you perform your business honestly and are faithful to your wife in mind and body these are all acts of what God considers charity because they are the result of goodness of faith in the Lord and are considered part of loving God. In an essence, the article is correct that every act and thought is God specific because all of your actions and thoughts are based on his teachings which show you have dedicated your life to his will and not your own. A Christian mind that has been honed like this truly does love God and his neighbor as proven out by the life lived and when given the same temptations and more after death your spiritual self will act in the same manner as you have here on Earth. It is these servants to the Word of God that will hear the praise of the Lord as expressed in the Parable of the Talents in Luke 19:17 "Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.” The Lord commends the servant, as “good and faithful” i.e. good, in the will, or heart and thought, and faithful in the understanding, and in the conduct. "Well done," is the approval of the Lord, communicated to the man's conscience. The man, by being faithful to the teachings “his talents” in the few things seen in this world, develops a disposition to love good. And then the spiritual part of his mind is opened, and he obtains control over the many passions and thoughts of his natural mind i.e. his “talents are multiplied” because knowledge, properly put to good use, makes more knowledge.

The natural idea of the parable may suggest that a person of lowly station in this world will be elevated to honor and dominion in the world to come; yet the spiritual sense transcends all selfish imagination, disclosing that in the process of sanctification the individual is exalted into a heavenly state of self-mastery, wherein the internal will, reformed by the Lord, exercises true dominion over the external man, namely, over thoughts and deeds, bringing them into obedience to Divine order. This is the far higher promise contained in the parable; that those who, by the truths or “talents” entrusted to them from the Word, combat and overcome the temptations of this life, are granted conjunction with the Lord’s own will; and thus they not only prevail over evil while yet in the natural world, but are assured of acceptance before Him in the day of judgment, when they come before their Eternal Master and their works are tried, whether they proceed from genuine faith implanted by the Lord, or merely from the self and its illusory merit.

We know from the "parable of the talents" one servant buried the talent he was given and returned it to his Master upon his return. Another way of saying this was that the servant, (man who professed his Christianity) studied the Word and believed it to be true but did not apply it to the way he thought or lived his life. Upon his death he presented his knowledge of the Word to the Lord and said Lord, here is all of your Word that I have learned during my life, I offer to you what you gave me and tell you that I believe it to be true! To which the Lord will reply, "You are a wicked and slothful servant!" As the parable states, “ But he who had received one, went and dug in the earth, and hid his lord's money.” i.e., one who has knowledge of scripture, without love of scripture and good works, does not put his knowledge to practical good use to turn from evil. To dig, or search into the earth, means to study, to investigate, to try to get at the facts of knowledge, as facts. To hide the talent is to make no use of it. The earth represents our natural mind, to hide the talent in the earth, is to immerse our knowledge in the things of our outward, sensuous life; to use them for low and external motives, such as mere pleasure, or reputation, or selfish influence. Then, though we have the form of truth, in our knowledge, we have neither its spirit nor its use. We may have a kind of outward faith, but it will be "faith alone," without love, and without good fruits. And "by their fruits ye shall know them." So we should heed Jesus declaration in John 14:21 "Whoever keeps My commandments and does them, he is the one who loves Me, and I will love him and make My home with him. But surely whoever does not love Me does not keep My commandments." Truths may indeed be acquired and retained in the memory as mere knowledges, yet if a person does not affirm them in the understanding and apply them in the life, they remain dead and external, devoid of spiritual vitality. When, however, such truths are elevated from the memory into the will through deliberate reflection and choice, that is, when a person resolves to incorporate the Divine commandments into daily habits and actions, then those truths become living. They are transformed into believed truth implanted in the will, which, when expressed in deeds, constitutes genuine faith, also termed charity or the goods of good works. This implantation is effected solely by the Lord as the person ceases from evils as sins. The Lord Himself declares that it is faith which saves, for true faith cannot but produce works of charity. Such charity is what it means to live according to the Lord’s precepts in the Word, and without it faith resembles a tree adorned only with leaves, yielding no fruit. These works, or fruits, are called the fruit of the Spirit because they proceed from the Lord’s own mind inflowing into the sanctified person. Yet when a person attributes merit or righteousness to the works themselves, faith is no longer present in them, since it is not faith to suppose that one can merit heaven by one’s own power or render oneself righteous through external acts. The intrusion of merit corrupts faith and introduces the evil of self-love. This self-love does not always appear outwardly as arrogance; its essence is hatred toward the neighbor, manifesting in a desire for vengeance and delight in cruelty toward those perceived as evil. Evil seeks to punish evil, whereas good, in conformity with Divine teaching, seeks gentle restoration and the bearing of one another’s burdens, as instructed in the Word: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2). The claim of merit reveals the interior love of self, whose external sign is contempt for others in comparison with oneself, whether or not accompanied by visible pride. Therefore, when faith is so perverted that a person ascribes merit to his works, those works condemn him, for the self, with its self-love and injustice, is then operative within them. From reason enlightened by the Word it is evident that sins cannot be removed except by actual repentance, which consists in examining oneself, acknowledging evils, imploring the Lord’s aid, and desisting from them. To assert otherwise arises not from the Word nor from sound reason, but from cupidity and a perverted will inherent in the unregenerate selfhood, whereby the understanding itself is debased. Sins are continually remitted by the Lord, for He is mercy itself; nevertheless, they cleave to the person however much he may imagine them forgiven, and they are removed only through a life according to the commandments of faith. In the degree that a person lives according to these commandments, in that degree sins are removed; and in the degree they are removed from the active life, in that degree they are forgiven. For by the Lord the person is withheld from evil and maintained in good. The capacity to be withheld from evil in the spiritual world corresponds exactly to the resistance offered to evil in the natural world; similarly, the capacity to be held in good there corresponds to the affectional performance of good here. This is the true nature of the forgiveness of sins and its origin. Whoever believes that sins are forgiven in the manner of a license to continue in evil, or by any means apart from reformation, is gravely deceived.

Just as faith alone will not save you everyone must understand that works alone will not save you either i.e. just not sinning will not lead you through sanctification. Works that are found acceptable to God are the result of true faith and love which by God's grace result in his works appearing in you. So, does his grace mean that you can simply ask for forgiveness for sins you are committing and continue to commit? In Mat 6:9-13 the Lord instructs us to pray for him “to forgive us our trespasses (sins) as we forgive those that trespass (sin) against us” and as instructed in Galatians we are to gently bring our brothers and sisters in Christ out of the sins we are forgiving them of. By telling us to forgive as he does, and instructing us how we are to forgive, he shows us how he forgives. It is clear the Lord requires us to come out of sin in the process of being forgiven. The Lord would never tell us we had to keep bearing the harm of someone we have instructed to cease causing us harm. Neither can we expect the Lord to accept us if we keep willingly doing sin against his instruction no to do so. This is why Christ in the Lord’s Prayer teaches forgiveness of a sin against him is handled no differently than what we require when we forgive others of a sin against us. This daily prayer he gave us was meant to keep this important concept front and center in our mind. Once your pray for forgiveness for a sin, have faith God will subdue it, and resist it long enough he will eventually remove it from you and the resulting good works you do are from him not you. You may not take claim to these good works that are performed because of faith. Ephesians 2:8-21 states that: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." The truth is that no good done by any human comes from the person themselves. All good comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even Christ before he put off his human body by glorifying it, through the resisting of temptation to the last temptation on the cross, said," Why do you call me good? Only the Father in Heaven is Good." Before Christ took the reins of Heaven his body was still of human origin and only the Eternal Father which was his soul was good. All good actions were therefore only to be credited to God the Father and not to his bodily human. After his resurrection Jesus' body was glorified and became holy and God the Father and Jesus became One God in human form. From his holy body his spirit flows to our soul which with our body make one human made in God's perfect image. His holy spirit flowing into us is only activated through faith and love and therefore the works we do flow from his spirit and not from our own human body. No man is good and no works from man alone are good. Any good we do is truly a gift of grace from our Lord granted to those who believe and have faith in God's Word. Titus 2:11-12 clarifies that God's grace leads us to live upright lives free from habitual sin, " For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say, "No to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age." So, if Christ who performed more good works than any person in history says that his works were not his own how can we claim any good works we do as our own?

When a person loves deeply both in the quality and extent of that love, he is elevated into a higher spiritual state. He repudiates the sins of his former life and abhors the evils that gave rise to those sins. As he turns from evil and enters into good by the Lord’s grace, the sins of the past no longer adhere to him. They cease to belong to his character because he no longer cherishes the delights of the evils that produced them. Love is the fulfilling of the law, for love obeys the law from affection and thus places the person under its Divine protection. The law is filled full with life for the one who lives according to it. The Lord illustrated this in the case of the woman taken in adultery, who resolved to amend her life when faced with condemnation. Because of the fullness of her love toward the Lord, He declared that her many sins were forgiven, for she loved much. By the power and quality of that love she entered a new life, which the Lord confirmed when He instructed her to go and sin no more. In her renewed state of heart she could no longer return to those evils. Sins are the external forms of interior evil affections and false persuasions. Therefore sins remain with a person so long as his character remains unchanged. When, however, the character is reformed through resistance to temptation, the person outgrows false beliefs and foolish delights, replacing them with affections of truth and uses of charity grounded in the Word of God. This correspondence between faith and love is essential to the understanding of saving faith. The Lord taught that even if a person bestowed all his goods to feed the poor yet lacked love, it would profit nothing. Good works in themselves do not save. Saving faith is therefore faith conjoined with love, and love cannot exist apart from good works. Similarly, faith separated from good works is no true faith, being merely intellectual acknowledgment or natural intuition. To profess faith without love is to profess faith without the works that proceed from it. Hence a person must apply the truths received from the Word, confirmed in the will, and expressed in the life, in order to combat and overcome the falsities and evils that reside in the natural degree. When living life in this state, when temptation comes, spiritual conflict then arises, for the internal man is reformed by means of truths. From these truths he perceives the evil and falsity that still inhere in the external or natural man. Thus disagreement first emerges between the new will above and the old will below. Since the conflict is between the two wills, it is also between their respective delights. The flesh with its lusts opposes the spirit, and the spirit opposes the flesh. The lusts of the flesh must be subdued before the spirit can govern and the person becomes new. A person experiences this conflict only as an internal struggle and as compunction of conscience. Yet in reality the Lord and the devil, that is, heaven and hell, contend within him for possession of his soul. Hell assaults the person and excites his evils, while the Lord guards him and draws forth his goods. Although the battle occurs in the spiritual world, it takes place within the person between the truths of good and the falsities of evil that dwell in him. Therefore he must fight as of himself, for he is endowed with freedom to align either with the Lord or with the devil. He sides with the Lord when he remains in truths from good, and with the devil when he remains in falsities from evil. Whichever prevails, whether the internal man or the external, gains dominion over the other. This is like two opposing powers contending for a kingdom; the victor assumes rule and subjects all things therein to his authority. Thus if the internal man conquers, he subjugates the evils of the external man and sanctifiction proceeds. But if the external man conquers, he dissipates the goods of the internal man and sanctification in this area of his life ceases. This cycle recurs continually throughout the Christian’s life in the process of sanctification.

Sanctification is accomplished when a person continually receives from the Lord the heavenly graces that proceed from Him alone as their Divine Author, and ascribes all things to the Lord, in the manner signified by the sacrificial rites of the Mosaic law. When every affection of the heart and every perception of the mind, which the diverse offerings represented, or the person himself in respect to those affections and perceptions, is thus unceasingly dedicated and consecrated to the Lord, it follows that upon the completion of sanctification the entire person is devoutly set apart unto Him. This is the state to which the Apostle exhorts when he writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Such a living sacrifice is a person wholly devoted to the Lord, fully renewed by the implantation of new principles of love, thought, and action from Him. The self-centered life is extinguished, and he lives by a new life that is life indeed. The same Apostle describes this as his own experience when he declares, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). By the flesh here, and by the body in the former passage, the Apostle intends not merely the material frame, but the entire natural or external man with all its hereditary inclinations. Thus he portrays the complete renovation of the person, whereby he becomes a living sacrifice unto God. The Apostle instructs that we are to be crucified with Christ because the Lord’s own sacrifice consisted in the progressive hallowing of every principle and element of His Human to the Divine Itself, until His entire Human was rendered a living sacrifice, fully consecrated, sanctified, and united with His Divinity. The Lord expressed this when He said, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19). By sanctifying Himself the Lord signifies the glorification of His Human, whereby He removed the finite infirmities inherited through the mother and made it fully Divine. The Apostles frequently refer to this process, as when Paul writes of Jesus as being “made perfect through sufferings.” The sufferings denote the temptations and combats by which He put off those inherited limitations; the perfecting denotes the rendering of the Human into the perfect image and likeness of the Divine Soul, its proper Form and Person. The Lord teaches that we are sanctified through the truth because, by receiving truths from the Word, acknowledging them in faith, and living according to them, we permit the Lord to remove the imperfections of hereditary evil and the evils of the self. Thus He forms us into His own image, until we too may affirm that Christ lives in us. Again, we do this as of ourselves with the understanding that the overcoming is being done by the Lord. However, if a man during this process believes in meriting salvation by works, and confirms himself in this belief, the merit itself i.e. self-justification, and confidence, are evils that come from it which will not bring salvation.

Good works are in fact evil works unless the delights of self-love and world-love are first removed. For when works are performed from truths prior to the removal of those loves, they are done for the sake of self-exaltation above others or for the attainment of reward and honor. But when the evils of self-love and world-love are shunned as sins and thus removed, the same works become genuine goods, that is, goods of charity, because nothing in them seeks the self, pursues worldly advantage, or intends the acquisition of praise or gain. On the contrary, the person who believes that piety of life is impossible without ascribing merit to works thereby extinguishes all true piety within himself. He surrenders to avarice and sensual pleasures, ceases to strive after the Lord’s commandments, and abandons the hope of salvation. This is taught in Luke 13:26-27, where it is written that some will say, “We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets,” yet the Lord will reply, “I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.” To eat and drink in the Lord’s presence signifies to instruct and preach the goods and truths of faith from knowledges drawn from the Word, which is denoted by the words “Thou hast taught in our streets.” But because they did these things from the focus on themselves, for the sake of their own honor and profit, and thus without affection for good and truth, while possessing knowledges of truth yet living a life of evil, therefore it is said, “I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.” This again demonstrates that mere knowledge of the Word without a life according to it leads to spiritual death and the loss of salvation. Truths are given to the end that good from the Lord may inflow through them, for without such receptacles the Lord finds no state formed in His image. Where truths are absent, or where truths are known but not lived and received into the will, there can be no rational or human good, that is, no true spiritual life, and therefore no salvation in the state after death. For this reason the Word represents good and charity by food, and faith and truth by drink and water. Just as the natural body perishes if sustained only by water without food, or by food without water, so the spiritual man dies if he pursues truth and faith apart from good and charity, or good and charity apart from truth and faith. Hence the Lord commands that we eat His flesh and drink His blood, which signifies to receive and live the truths of faith in the good of charity, for both conjoined are necessary for eternal life and salvation.

As revealed in the Heavenly Doctrine through Emanuel Swedenborg, there is a narrow way between the broad path of supposing that faith alone saves and the equally broad path of imagining that heaven can be merited by one’s own works. This narrow way, which lies between these two widely embraced errors, corresponds to the Lord’s words in Matthew 7:14: “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” No exhortation should stir the soul more urgently than this declaration, which warns all to shun the two easy and spacious roads upon which most who call themselves Christians walk, namely, the way of legalism that claims works save, and the way of faith separated from works that claims salvation without charity; for both alike lead to spiritual death. Rather, each must enter the narrow path of faith conjoined with works, which alone conducts to eternal life. Therefore, all who are admitted into heaven put off two things: first, the love of self with its attendant persuasion that heaven is deserved through one’s own efforts; and second, all attribution of merit to the self or to one’s own righteousness. In place thereof they receive a heavenly will from the Lord alone, ascribing righteousness and merit solely to Him as the free gift of His grace and mercy.

in conclusion it is necessary to exhort those who cling to the delights of their former life while professing to believe in and follow the Lord, to consider rationally the Lord’s declaration in Matthew 10:39: “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.” Likewise reflect upon the Divine admonition in Deuteronomy 30:15-16, 19: “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live... But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away... I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish.” To those who persist in the way of spiritual death the Word declares in Ecclesiastes 9:5: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward.” More plainly stated, if a person remains committed to a self-centered life he knows neither love nor truth, and remains ignorant of what he forfeits. The Lord forgives every person his sins, for He is mercy itself. Yet sins are not remitted unless the person engages in serious repentance, desists from evils, and thereafter lives a life of faith and charity, even to the end of his days in the world. Otherwise sin is not brought into the state of remission but continues to increase, and as James 1:15 teaches, “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” We therefore implore the Lord to aid in placing sins in remission, which signifies that they are no longer committed. When this is accomplished, the person receives from the Lord new spiritual life, termed new life. From this new life, when he regards the evils of his former state, turns from them in aversion, and views them with horror, then for the first time are those evils forgiven. For then the person is maintained by the Lord in truths and goods, and withheld from evils. Thus 2 Corinthians 5:17 affirms, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” signifying a new life freed from the dominion of habitual sin. From this it is evident that the forgiveness of sins is not granted in an hour or in a year, but progressively through a life of sanctification. The church acknowledges this, teaching those who approach the Holy Supper that their sins are forgiven only if they commence a new life by shunning evils as sins and abhorring them. Therefore rest not in the Christian walk upon faith alone or upon knowledge of the Word. Again, the Lord warns in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” In other terms, “I discern not My principles in your manner of life; depart from Me, all ye who live contrary to My teachings in the Word.” For in Luke 6:46 the Lord questions: “And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Those who possess genuine faith have surrendered themselves to a life according to the Word. Divine order is nothing else than the perpetual commandment of God; therefore to live according to the Divine commandments is to live in Divine order and according to it. It is by such a life that the Lord inflows from the interiors through the will into the actions. This occurs when the person is in good, that is, when he is in the affection of doing good for the sake of good, not for the sake of reputation or merit from the proprium. Knowledges do not become truth in a person until acknowledged by the understanding, which happens when he confirms them for himself. Nor do truths become his own until he lives according to them; for nothing is appropriated to a person except that which enters into his life, whereby he himself dwells in the truths because his life is in them. Nothing but good, which is the Lord operating within, acknowledges and receives truth. This is evident from the affection of truth in the sanctified person, which affection derives solely from good, since love’s affection has no other source. Yet the truth received in the initial state, prior to sanctification, is not the genuine truth of good but the truth of doctrine. At that stage the person does not yet examine whether it is truth but accepts it as belonging to the church’s teaching. So long as he does not inquire into its verity and merely acknowledges it doctrinally, it is not his own and is not appropriated. This marks the first state of sanctification. When sanctification is accomplished, good from the Lord manifests itself, particularly in the love of living according to the truth he now acknowledges as truth. Then, because he wills the truth he acknowledges and acts in accordance with it, it is appropriated to him. It is no longer merely in the understanding but also in the will, and whatever is in the will is appropriated. As the understanding and will then form one, the understanding acknowledging and the will performing, there is conjunction of good and truth, which the Word calls the heavenly marriage of the soul to the Lord. Those who thus live according to the Word are reformed by the Lord into Divine order and in the life after death enjoy the blessedness of heaven.

In light of all the above, the BLAZE ARTICLE rightly insists that every thought must be subjected to alignment with the teachings of the Word. The Apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” By the Holy Spirit we receive grace and power to bring thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ, whereby we are transformed into the image He desires. By overcoming sin in the thought-life we grow daily more like Christ in external actions, becoming useful instruments in the Lord’s hands. Permitting this interior operation is the greatest work a person can undertake. As stated earlier, the loves formed in this life remain to eternity, whether evil or holy. Those who cultivate evil loves continue them after death in the dire states of hell. But those who permit the Lord to form holy loves through shunning evils as sins and cooperating in sanctification by the study of the Word unto a living faith will rejoice in those loves forever in heaven. For the Lord sanctifies (regenerates) a person from Divine mercy, beginning from infancy through implanted remains of good, continuing to the end of life in the world, and thereafter to eternity. From Divine mercy He leads away from evils and falsities into truths of faith and goods of love, maintains the person therein, and finally elevates him into heaven and bestows happiness. These operations of Divine mercy constitute the remission of sins, as the former unregenerate life is put away and exchanged for righteousness through the Lord’s aid. A person, however, possesses freedom and may acquire truths yet reject the Lord’s leading, choosing to remain in unrighteousness. Such do not truly believe the Word and cannot inherit eternal life. Faith alone does indeed save, for the works that proceed from genuine faith are from the Lord, not from the self. Hence James 2:24: “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” And James 2:17: “Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone,” meaning genuine faith in Christ produces a changed life and good works. The Apostle John concludes in 1 John 2:15-17: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” The doing of God’s will, that is, our works, is effected by the Lord’s Spirit within us, not as merit earned but as grace and mercy bestowed upon those who believe His holy Word. To discern what one truly believes, examine the life. If a person professes to reject adultery yet habitually views pornography, he believes in adultery; for true belief is in what is done, not in mere knowledge or verbal profession. The Word teaches that a person can shun evils as of himself, but cannot implant good as of himself. The Lord continually inflows into the will with the endeavor to enable desistance from evils, placing this in the person’s freedom, together with the ability to apply himself to good. The Lord grants the faculty of understanding truth, yet if the person refuses to understand, it is because he wills not to understand, on account of the evil of life; for falsity defends evil, and truth condemns it. This is taught in Luke 16:13: “No servant can serve two masters... Ye cannot serve God and mammon,” that is, acknowledge truth in the Word by faith yet oppose it in love by willfully and without regret doing the evil one professes to reject. Such a divided mind leads to its own destruction. Therefore a person cannot receive spiritual good from the Lord, nor be led in mercy, unless he desists from evils through the process of sanctification. With this understanding we implore the Lord to govern all our thoughts as we consecrate our lives to His example and teachings, that each life may become a reflection of our loving and merciful Savior.
- John Kreitzer

"Faith is an internal affection which consists in a heartfelt desire to know what is true and what is good, and this not for the sake of doctrine as the end in view, but for the sake of life. This affection conjoins itself with the affection of charity through the desire to do according to the truth, thus to do the truth itself. " -Rev. Clowes

In Rev 22:14 Jesus states, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, (live righteous lives) that they may have a right to the tree of life (have salvation) and may go through the gates into the city (enter Heaven). Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolators (those who belive they have earned salvation of their own works) and everyone who practices falsehood (lives unrighteous lives based on false biblical teachings). I, Jesus have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.”

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Romans 2:13 for not the hearers of the word are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the word will be justified; "The good and truth of faith is that which constitutes the church, yea, which is the church, for in the good and truth of faith is the Lord, and where the Lord is, there is the church. Let us all live our faith to bring good and truth together and with this conjunction our life truly is our church."

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Romans 2:13 for not the hearers of the word are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the word will be justified; "The good and truth of faith is that which constitutes the church, yea, which is the church, for in the good and truth of faith is the Lord, and where the Lord is, there is the church. Let us all live our faith to bring good and truth together and with this conjunction our life truly is our church."

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