Does God Care How You Live After You're Saved?

By Pastor John Erickson

Christians can get themselves into two very strange places when we talk about rules.

On one side, we start acting as though following the rules is what earns us a relationship with God. We make a checklist, start keeping score, and quietly begin believing we're better than people whose checklists aren't going so well.

On the other side, we start thinking that because we're saved by grace, how we live doesn't really matter.

And somewhere in the middle is a question we need to take seriously: If God saves us by grace, why does he still care how we live?

The book of Ezra gives us a really helpful way to think about that.

Rebuilding a Temple Wasn't Enough

Earlier in Ezra, God's people returned from exile and began restoring their worship. The altar was rebuilt. The temple was rebuilt. The rhythms of sacrifice and celebration started again.

Those were good things.

But there's a problem. You can perform the right religious activities without allowing God to change the rest of your life.

You can sing on Sunday and treat people terribly on Monday. You can know every worship song and have no idea what it means to show patience, generosity, or honesty to someone who inconveniences you.

And I'll be the first to admit this is not just a problem for other Christians. It's something I have to examine in myself.

This is the situation when Ezra arrives in chapter 7. The people have religious practices, but they need to learn how to live as God's people.

Notice the Order of the Story

Ezra 7 opens with a genealogy. I know. Exciting stuff. That's usually where people decide it's time to check their email.

But those names matter. The author connects Ezra to Aaron, the priest, and tells us Ezra is deeply trained in the Law of Moses.

It's almost like the beginning of a television episode: Previously, on God's people...

We're being reminded of the Exodus. God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, brought them out, and then taught them how to live as his people.

Now another generation has been delivered from exile, and Ezra comes to teach them God's instruction again.

Do you see the order?

God rescues his people first. Then he teaches them how to live.

They don't earn their rescue by checking off enough rules.

That's a picture we need as followers of Jesus, too.

Obedience Follows Salvation; It Doesn't Purchase It

Paul tells the synagogue in Acts 13:39 that through Jesus, everyone who believes is set free from sin in a way the Law of Moses could not accomplish.

The law was never meant to do the work only God can do.

Sometimes Christians treat obedience like a membership fee. If I do enough good things, God will finally accept me.

But the gospel works in the other direction. Because Christ has acted for us, we can respond to him with trust and obedience.

And that response matters.

Imagine someone helping you out of a destructive situation, giving you a fresh start, and then inviting you to learn a new way to live. Would you say, "Thanks for getting me out, but I don't want anything to change?"

The freedom is real. And learning to live in that freedom is real work.

God's Instruction Is a Gift, Not a Scoreboard

Ezra 7:10 says Ezra devoted himself to studying God's law, putting it into practice, and teaching it to others.

I love that order.

Study. Practice. Teach.

He doesn't merely learn information and then tell everyone else what they're doing wrong. He gives himself to living what he's teaching.

I think that's a needed challenge for anyone who takes Scripture seriously.

I am grateful for speed limits on our neighborhood streets. I have four children, and I do not want drivers deciding that a hundred miles an hour sounds reasonable near our home. Yet I can become much less enthusiastic when I am the driver being corrected.

That little contrast exposes how easily I want the protection of an instruction without accepting its authority over me. God's instruction is meant to help us live well together, not simply restrain the people who annoy us.

It's possible to become an expert at arguing about the Bible and still be a lousy neighbor.

But the goal of studying Scripture is not winning theological trivia night. The goal is learning the character and ways of God and allowing them to form us.

Jesus says in Matthew 5 that he came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. We read these Scriptures in light of him, the one who shows us what faithful obedience looks like.

Sunday Has to Reach Monday

Here's a practical question: What does your relationship with Jesus change about how you treat somebody tomorrow?

Not just how you feel when the music is playing. Not just how well you understand a sermon.

How do you speak to your family when you're tired? How do you handle money? What happens when someone disagrees with you? Are you becoming more truthful, merciful, patient, and generous?

A hammer is a useful tool, but you cannot build an entire house with only a hammer. If we expect God's commands to do the saving work that belongs to Jesus, we are asking a good gift to do something it was never meant to do.

And if we use those commands to keep people away from grace, we have turned a tool for growth into a weapon. I want our church to be a place where people meet the love of Jesus and receive help learning a new way to live.

Those are not ways to buy God's love. They are places where our response to God's love becomes visible.

So when we study the Bible, let's not stop with, "That's interesting."

Let's also ask, "What would it look like to live this?"

God's grace gives us freedom. And by that same grace, we can learn a different way to live.