Confessions for Sweatless Holiness
David W Palmer
(Romans 1:17 NKJV) For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (Parenthesis added)
To some degree, we all know that this is true: “The just shall live by faith.” After all, faith in Jesus is the only way to be saved from an eternally damned destiny:
(Romans 3:23, 28 NKJV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ... {28} Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
We are justified by faith and faith alone. So far in this series, we have seen that the faith that pleases God and justifies us before him is expressed in confessions of faith. In truth, without this confession, we simply cannot be saved:
(Romans 10:9–10 NKJV) That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. {10} For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Once we have been born again by faith, and thus been justified before God, we then have his challenging instruction as our responsibility:
(Romans 12:2 NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
This is a crucial statement in our understanding of how God designed us to operate in his new covenant—as born again new creations. So, let’s read it as it is translated from the Aramaic original to see if that is any different or if it sheds some further light on this vital statement:
(Romans 12:2 APE) And do not imitate this world, but be transformed by the renovation of your minds, and you shall distinguish what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
In both original languages, Greek and Aramaic, these translations show that the renewing of our mind, or its complete renovation, is our responsibility. God has provided a full measure of all that we could possibly need in the new creation—forgiveness, freedom from Satan’s dominion, weapons, armour, the use of Jesus’s name, etc. But this all-important passage says that in tandem, God has given us the responsibility of renewing our minds to what he has made available through his great and precious promises, as this is the only way we can fully experience what he has provided:
(2 Peter 1:3–4 NKJV)
