Summary
Under the new covenant, our faith is more important to God than our works. This isn’t to say that a holy lifestyle no longer matters to Him, just that it’s now possible to live that way through trust in Him, rather than through self-effort. Trusting God involves relying on Him and putting our confidence in Him. Our belief and dependence, first, allows us to receive from Him; this requires that we have a personal relationship with Him. Relying on God moves us away from feeling like we’re obligated to perform to please Him; believing that we’ve already been made the righteousness of God causes us to want to live that way. God has forgiven us of all our sins, and He sees us as righteous, even when we behave badly. Faith like Abraham’s makes us holy before God, no matter what we do..
