bondage

Here's something that totally confuses me.

People say that when you accept Jesus Christ into your heart and life, things should change for you- that you will turn your life around and start doing good, whereas before every thought of your heart was only evil continually. I beleive this no questions asked, because out of love for what Christ did for me I see no choice but to do my best to follow the commands he lays out in his word. So far so good.

Lately, however, I keep catching wind of this idea that upon salvation we are endowed with some kind of special ability to do good that we didn't have before. And also that once you are a Christian, you will be able to acheive levels of goodness unreachable to the unregenerate person. This is very new to me, and I'm not sure I'm really buying it. I tend to think that being good is every bit as difficult after you become a Christian as it was before, the only difference being that you have a greater motivation to do good and a greater knowledge of what goodness is after salvation. Also I tend to think that there are many unbeleivers who do a perfectly fine job of "being good," even though there is no true faith in their actions. They just want to live cleaned-up lives because it makes them happy.

So what's the difference between people like that and born again Christians, other than the motives and the state of the heart? In Born Again Colson talks about people who had already been saved but were still struggling with achoholism or drug addiction, until they were "filled with the Holy Spirit." And then they just lost the need to drink or smoke, like the holy spirit had actually performed a miricle in their bodies. If that kind of thing really happens today, I can see how it could be easier to be good after salvation. But I don't know if it does.

I think I almost understand this, but I can't quite put my finger on it yet. So there's some food for thought, follow-up post probably soon to come. Thoughts?