How often do you wonder, “Do I have to be good today?” Yes, even Christians ponder that question, and sometimes our logic is: “Why be good if I’ll be forgiven?”

Because sin changes things. It changes a person over time to become more uncontrollably addicted to bad behavior, to become more self-absorbed, to blindly miss how terribly he or she is hurting others and God. Unopposed sin changes from enemy to friend, like the serpent trusted by Eve.

Jesus changes things too.

Jesus is your life, and you are dead to sin. Dead people don’t need anything. When Jesus your Savior gives you everything you need, you don’t need what sin offers to give you.

Jesus is your Lord, and you are free from sin’s control. Sin is not a giver but a taker. Jesus is Lord over every sin. Even the one you haven’t controlled. Yet.

Jesus is your love, and you have true beauty in him. Acceptance. Desirability.

“Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? . . . Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. . . . God’s love has been poured out into our hearts” (Romans 6:1,2,15,18; 5:5).

A faith that saves you is a faith that changes you.