Applying the Bible in new covenant terms encourages disciples of Jesus to know who they are, to know the life that is our relationship with God.
Otherwise application can simply sound like stop this, do that, try harder; it can sound like every negative experience either means you’ve done something wrong, or you simply need to know the steps to escape it.
It can encourage Christians to evaluate their lives in terms of what they are doing or not doing, rather than considering how deeply we’re resting in the finished work of Jesus and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit
From Jared Wilson:
Doing flows from being. Who or what you believe yourself to be will direct how you live. So if you’ve been living a defeated, dreary, weary Christian life
To see ongoing change in what we do, we have to experience the ongoing change in who we are. And the law by itself cannot change who we are. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can do that.
The law on its own has only the power of condemnation. It shows us what to do and – make no mistake – it means for us to do it. But the power to obey can only come from the only thing the Bible calls power – the Holy Spirit working through the good news of Jesus Christ’s sinless life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection.
And if you are sending your people out every week to a war to fight driven only by commandments and no gospel, you send them out to fight a war that’s already over.
Don’t just tell them what to do for God; tell them who they are in Christ.
The gospel must be at the center of our efforts of obedience, at the center of our application, driving it and shaping it.
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