God's love did not only free us from our slavery to wrongdoing. It also supplies us with the power to do what is right. Because of what Christ has done for us, we are now enabled to do what pleases the Lord without the desire for our good works to be our atonement for what we have done before being saved. Rather, what we do now stems from our identity as His redeemed, beloved people.

The right view

The Bible tells us that "we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago" (Ephesians 2:10 NLT). God has designed all of us for good works – thoughts, words and actions that are pleasing to Him and are beneficial to others. However, some people perceive this wrongly.

Some people think that they should do things so that they could earn God's forgiveness and salvation. Friends, "salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it" (Ephesians 2:9). Thus, no matter how many things we do, we won't be able to earn God's salvation.

How salvation works is actually the opposite of this. We don't do good to earn the right to be saved. Rather, we are saved by what Christ has done, and because of what He has done for us, we do the good that He wants us to do.

2 Corinthians 5:15 says, "He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them."

Supercharged

Think about it. Back then we tried to earn God's forgiveness, but we can't because no matter how many good things we do, the truth remains that we are sinners condemned to eternal death (see Romans 3:23). But because Christ has freed us from that condemnation and has purchased our freedom for us using His blood, we are now free to do good out of thankfulness to His love.

This love of God should supercharge us to do all the good that we can do! Think about it: Our sins were forgiven, our hopelessness broken, and our curse taken away from us. All that we have now? The love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (see Romans 8:31-39).

Who you are

So now you are a new creation (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). This new creation has a new heart, has the mind of Christ, has the Spirit of God living inside it. This new creation is alive in Christ and for Christ. Because of this, your desire would be to do that which will please God and give Him glory.

You are not who you were. You are an entirely new creation, "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10 ESV).