We are taught in Proverbs 26:11 that “as a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” And, still, many professing Christians live as though they could not possibly care any less about how the Lord views sin. When confronted about their behavior, many will defend themselves, dismissing our concerns as legalistic, demonstrating a misunderstanding of what legalism is. They look with contempt on God’s law, thinking that the Old Testament is irrelevant to the modern Christian, forgetting that Paul instructed Timothy to “let no one look down on [his] youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show [himself] an example of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:12).
In 2 Chronicles 19:7, we are told to “let the fear of the Lord be upon [us],” and to “take care and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God…” They misunderstand the work of salvation and why only Jesus was able to carry it out. It is true that flesh is incapable of keeping the righteous demands of the law. For us to have any hope of salvation, someone had to be righteous, so the Lord Himself became a man, and kept the law, so that His sacrifice would be acceptable. So, as Romans 7:4 teaches, “my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead…” We can’t stop there, though. The same verse goes on to say: “that we might bear fruit for God.” So, are we free from the law? Yes, Jesus fulfilled its just requirements once and for all. So, should we go on sinning? No, he saved us from our former ways of life.
Isaiah 1:16-17 issues a warning for God’s people: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” The Lord calls, in both the Old and New Testaments, for us to repent. Our minds should be like David’s in Psalm 101:3: “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.” We have been set free from our old lives “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24).