The mere habit of going to church on a Sunday will not itself necessarily produce in us the right fear of God. Nor will reading the Bible, praying, and so on. I can maintain such habits like an unstoppable Swiss watch and still be utterly devoid of true fear of God. Those things do not convey grace ex opere operato. They are means of grace: they are points of contact with the gospel, which alone has the power to transform us. In other words, it is not the mere act of going to church that does us good; it is the gospel that we hear there. It is not the habit itself that transforms but the
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