was the new heart promised as part of the new covenant. In other words, in this ‘ethical’ teaching he was not criticizing Judaism for being concerned with ‘externals’, and focusing instead on ‘internals’. He was carrying through the entire kingdom-agenda

This distinction between outward act and attitude of heart was quite frequent in the Hebrew Bible,156 and there is no reason at all why Jesus should not have used the idea and indeed made it central to this part of his agenda. This does not make him a good Platonist, or for that matter a good liberal Protestant, rejecting everything ‘material’ or ‘

The Word now has us in a new way and that means we can have the Word too in a new way, beyond what was possible for us simply as Spirit-filled creatures. Unlike Christ’s humanity, the preceding weaknesses and faults of ours will have to be purged, erased, in the process, but our humanity might some day still see the holiness of Christ’s own life th

It is a high privilege to be saved by grace. While we can never earn our salvation, it does come with responsibilities. We have a calling to live up to. What we do or don’t do is a reflection on Jesus, either good or bad.