Having established that we are saved by God's grace through Jesus, not by anything we do ourselves, it is important to look at the place of 'being good' in the life of a Christian.
After taking that step of faith to trust in Jesus, and giving your life over to Him, the way you live as a Christian is vitally important for yourself, for others and for God's glory.
When you become a Christian, you essentially undergo a complete transformation of identity. Before, you were a sinner, trapped in darkness. After, you are perfect in God's sight through Jesus, in the light. Before, you had no power to stop sinning. After, you now have the ability to say no to temptation, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit within you.
To become a Christian involves a realisation of how awful sin is. Believing the gospel message means believing that your sin is terrible and deserves God's judgement. Therefore it makes no sense for a Christian to go back to living life the way they want it, regardless of God. As Paul writes,
'Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?' (Romans 6:1-2)
Peter argues that we should 'make every effort to add to your faith goodness... knowledge... self-control... perseverance... godliness' (2 Peter 1:5-6). These qualities prevent us from being 'ineffective and unproductive' in our knowledge of Jesus (2 Peter 1:8). This is a crucial point: if we as Christians carry on sinning without any repentance, we are not allowing God to change us, and we are being a very poor example to others of what being a Christian really means. How can you tell people that they need God's forgiveness if you're flouting His gift of grace by deliberately rebelling against His Word? The gospel message becomes 'ineffective' in us if we refuse to let it change every aspect of our lives. We can't just give God Sundays and then use the rest of the week however we want to.
The Christian life should revolve around giving God glory. He is not glorified when we live against Him. He is glorified when we praise Him for His grace in Jesus, and when we seek to live as Jesus did.
'This is how we know we are in Him: whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.' (1 John 2:5-6)
Notice the first part of that verse. John's basically saying that anyone can say they're a Christian. The real proof is in how they actually live life. Christians will still mess up and struggle with sin and their 'old self' (Rom 6:6, Eph 4:22), but the key word there is 'struggle'. Someone who isn't a Christian will not 'struggle' with sin. They'll just do it, without caring what God thinks.
In the light of Jesus' imminent return, we should live 'holy and godly lives' (2 Pet 3:11) to be found 'spotless, blameless and at peace with Him' (2 Pet 3:14). Imagine the embarrassment of Jesus returning and finding you doing something you shouldn't be doing!
And the key to fighting sin is really in replacing it with godly pursuits. Jesus says we should 'abide' in Him and bear fruit (John 15), so we should be seeking to use our lives to get to know Him better by reading His Word, share the good news of the gospel with others, and serve Him in everything we do by doing it whole-heartedly and for His glory, not our own.
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