When we walk up to the door marked Temptation—and I really want to drive this point home—we need to preach to ourselves equal parts Ephesians 2:8–9 and 2 Corinthians 5:17. That’s the full gospel. We were sinners saved by grace at the start of our salvation experience, as Ephesians 2:8–9 points out. Yet that’s not the end of the story. That’s why you can’t pitch a tent in the sinner campground anymore. Your new identity is a sinner saved by grace who is a brand-new creation, as 2 Corinthians 5:17 points out. The old has passed away. The new you has arrived. You were born again to a brand-new
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