Love God and do as...
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"Love God and do as you will," said Augustine, the fifth-century bishop and theologian. This seemingly outrageous saying is intended to show us the Gospel. Augustine was not a libertine. He meant that those who truly love God choose to do what is right. If the God we love is truly God, what we will choose to do will be God's will.
But what about sin? We human beings continue to sin and human life is still marred by brokenness and death. The finished product still lies ahead of us, in God's future. This does not mean, though, that freedom from sin is merely a pie-in-the-sky ideal with no present ethical consequences. There are many failures to be sure. But the grace of God means not only that we are delivered from death; it also means that even now our lives can rise here and there, now and then, above our selfish desires and our hollow idolatries and become obedient signs of God's reign.
But what about sin? We human beings continue to sin and human life is still marred by brokenness and death. The finished product still lies ahead of us, in God's future. This does not mean, though, that freedom from sin is merely a pie-in-the-sky ideal with no present ethical consequences. There are many failures to be sure. But the grace of God means not only that we are delivered from death; it also means that even now our lives can rise here and there, now and then, above our selfish desires and our hollow idolatries and become obedient signs of God's reign.
