Grace Changes Everything: How The Gospel Reshapes Marriage (excerpt from chapter 1)

Luke 6:43-45 teaches that every good tree bears fruit which proves its true nature. No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. This is the straightforward teaching of God's Word. Jesus' teaching boils down to this: If you are good, then you will do good. Simple, yet profound! Where does this ability to “do good” come from? New birth. New nature. New creation. New man. New identity. Citizen of a new kingdom. Child of a new Father. Servant of a new king. Totally forgiven. No condemnation. Living for a new purpose. Freed from old sins. Enslaved to new righteousness. Made obedient from the heart. Does all that sound too good to be true? Well, it is very good, and praise be to God, the Bible teaches that every Christian receives all of those gifts! It should be no surprise that radical obedience flows from a life that has been so radically changed from the inside out.

This means that every Christian husband and every Christian wife cannot live in ongoing, habitual, patterned rebellion. Even if your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and every last person in your lineage had the same precise sin struggle, new birth radically alters the family line! Sorry my Irish brothers. Having red hair is not a valid excuse for having a short temper. Try as you may, it is against your re-created nature to seek after sin and remain in it. If your natural father was an angry man, you are NOT enslaved to repeat his failures. If your mother was chronically depressed, you do not take your cues from her, but rather from your Father in heaven who is perfect. When you are born of His seed, you take on all of His characteristics. The old is gone, the new has come! By virtue of spiritual birth, you will increasingly bear all the fruits of being born of God. Amazing!