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###### Stop Doing Your Own Works

{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…

Exhortation and Counsel to Strangers to the Heavenly Trade

How to Get the Heavenly Trade

Stop Doing Your Own Works}

Second, stop doing your own works. “Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7 NASB). The first step in returning474 to God is to depart from sin and self. “Neither can we,” said Calvin, “hold converse with a holy God until we are estranged from our unholy self.” When the apostle advises the Ephesians to put on the new self—“That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:22–24 NASB)—he first exhorts them to put off the old self and the old manner of life. Grace does not build on an old foundation or adorn—but rather reforms—the former way of life of the saints, those whom God has called to Himself. In regeneration work, new garments are not put on top of old; the old must be put off before the new can be put on. Christianity is not a covering for, but a stripping off of a sinful life. You cannot be free to engage in God’s work until you leave your old works. “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness” (Romans 6:20 NKJV). You had nothing to do with holiness and had no freedom to do God’s work while you were sin’s slaves. “He speaks of their actual restraint from grace, not their legal freedom,” said Paraeus. You are not at liberty to do the work of holiness while under the command of sin.475 No one can serve two masters—that is, two contrary masters (Matthew 6:24).476 “How can the same person,” said Grotius, “follow godliness as his work, and at the same time be distracted with cares about getting and keeping earthly things?” It is vanity for people to dream of a compatibility between sin and holiness; their works are too contradictory to exist in one soul at the same time. Ruling iniquity and grace are contrary states; they cannot coexist in one person at the same time. Never think of setting up in the heavenly trade until you are freed from hellish servitude and invested with477 the liberty of the sons of God, which liberty is freedom from the love and service of every sin. Godliness calls for the whole person’s heart, strength, and time; it requires one to be free from any inconsistent obligations. You must resolve to break free from every way of death if you ever think to enter into the way of life.

474This also applies to those who turn to Christ for the first time.

475This is because sin is a harsh master who will not give its slaves that liberty. For example, a person may be legally free to walk or drive along public streets, but if restrained by a kidnapper to a locked room or by a whip, that freedom cannot be exercised for lack of ability. Sin’s bondage, even though invisible, is stronger and more complete than the bondage of the example.

476“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24 NASB).

477invested with: as used in this context, this phrase refers to a person of noble rank formally bestowing noble rank, such as a king making someone a knight. “For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28 NKJV).

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