A man must first BE good in order to DO good in God's eyes. Jesus warned:
15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn {bushes,} nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matt 7:15-19)
Rather than attempting to merely ACT piously, the nature of the tree itself must change. In other words, "Doing must flow from Being."
Jesus, “brushes aside as trifling all attempts at altering products, whilst the producer remains unaltered” (Alexander Maclaren; p168).
Once our heart has been transformed by faith in Christ, new life begins to surge within.
The “…Spirit of God moves in our spirits and, like the sap in the vine, permeates every branch and tendril, that fruit to eternal life will grow. Christian graces are the products of the indwelling divine life, and nothing else will succeed in producing them. All the preachings of moralists and all the struggles after self-improvement are reduced to impotence and vanity by the stern, curt sentence—‘a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit” (Maclaren; p169).
You cannot will yourself to what God considers good works. You must be born again.
It does little good to try and convince sinful men to stop their sinning by simply remonstrating them. Now saved, old habits must be displaced and replaced by the power of a new affection. This is key.
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