If any of you grew up in a church similar to mine growing up, there was probably a heavy focus on obedience to God.  Affections for God, and grace were nice, but really you were just encouraged to obey. This resulted in most people in my church at least whitewashing the exterior of their lives to maintain false appearances to others.  When I would go to a small group, there were certain “respectable sins”, like pride, that would be discussed, but never any mention of sexual immorality, greed, vanity, or other more “serious” sins.  In recent years, this has reversed.  The church as a whole has made a massive push back against the idea of legalism, the idea that someone could become “ok” with God based upon good works, and this has been very helpful in encouraging people to open up about their sin.  The catch phrase, “it’s ok to not be ok” get’s thrown around a lot, but I wonder if that idea has allowed apathy to grow in the hearts of believers.

My fear, and the topic of today’s Word for the Day, is that the push back against legalism has given way to licentiousness.  There is no longer a healthy fear and reverence for the holiness of God.  Moreover, there is not a passion to intentional choose to make a practice of righteousness day to day.  People want to sit back and “let go, and let God.”  I’ve got a response to that idea… it’s the same response Jesus gave to Satan when confronted with such foolishness – Matthew 4:7 – “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”  God isn’t apathetic about your sin, why are you?  Sin is so serious to God, that He came and died a gruesome death, bore the full wrath of God, to make a way to reconcile sinful men and women back to Himself.  So where is the Biblical ground that we are to walk on between legalism and licentiousness?  I want to suggest, and hopefully show with scripture, that there is a way to deeply thirst, hunger, and pursue full obedience to God, yet also rest in His grace, knowing that our righteousness is not our own, but Christ’s.  There is a way to work hard, to run hard after God daily, yet trust that any growth in personal holiness is only His doing, His work in us.  That is my hope, that people’s hearts and minds would be able to find a home there.  I want people to have a passionate pursuit of personal holiness, coupled with deeply rooted humility to not rest in “their” accomplishments, but in the grace extended to us through the shed blood of Christ.

First, I want us to see that obedience to God is not a “nice to have” on top of faith.  Obedience to God is a command, it is the fruit of authentic faith, and it was modeled for us by Christ.  Let me again be clear, we all struggle with sin, but if there is no desire in you to obey God fully, you’re not walking as a Christian.  That should not be comfortable place for you, knowing that God is not mocked and no one can serve two masters – we are called to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith, and unrepentant sin is not a mark of a Christian.  Faith is not a fact claim to be understood, but a person, Jesus Christ, to be trusted and followed.  If you do not want to follow Him, that’s where you need to meet God in prayer, pleading that God would grant you faith to believe Him, and follow Him.

Hebrews 5:7-9 – “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.  Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.  And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” 

Jesus was perfected through His obedience.  Does that mean that Jesus was not perfectly righteous prior to His obedience?  Of course not, He was perfectly righteous from birth.  What this means is that His perfect righteousness was manifested through His works.  His glory was made known through his obedience.  We would not know the love of God, unless Christ was obedient to go to the cross.  Romans 5:8 – “God demonstrates his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.  It wasn’t that Christ did not love us, but His love was perfected on the cross, because it was manifested in His death.  John 15:13 – “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”  Therefore, Christ’s love, being perfect, needed to be displayed in it’s fullest measure, to reveal the glory of God.  In this way, his obedience made Him perfect.

In the same way, we, who have trusted on Christ, have His perfect righteousness.  Just as the Holy Spirit led Christ to the cross, we are being led by the same Spirit, into obedience that reveals the worth and glory of God.  If we love God, we should desire to make much of Him with our lives, and we make much of Him by joyfully obeying Him.

John 14:15 – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

1 John 2:29 – “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

1 John 3:9-10 – “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.  By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” 

So how is it that we struggle daily to obey, yet we do not rest our salvation in our “successes” to become legalistic?  My answer is good solid Biblical theology, and constant prayer.

Philippians 2:12-13 – “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

I say good Biblical theology, because to get this, you have to believe Romans 3:10-18, that there is nothing good in you that would seek after God, in yourself.  If you truly understand that (and hopefully we all do!), then you understand that those good works that God is working in you, will be attributed to the Spirit of God, instead of yourself.  This is where Philippians 2:13 is so helpful… it’s not just the works that are attributed to God, but even the will, your desire, to obey comes from God, because the Holy Spirit is in you.  Now this is another point where I’m happy I’m not a pastor, because I know I’d get a 100 emails about me saying that your will is influenced by God.  Not wanting to go off on too much of a tangent I’ll defer all those questions to Jonathan Edwards’ book on “The Freedom of the Will”, the scripture listed above, Romans 9, and proverbs 16:9.  Hmmm, well ok, I’ll give it one shot real quickly – our wills are separate from God, we are accountable for them 100%, and God knowing our desires, ordains our path such that His sovereign will is accomplished, and He is perfectly good because He is always pursuing the greatest good, His glory.  Saying that I realize will not be sufficient for many, so again, there’s always the “unsubscribe option” – I don’t claim to understand all of God’s ways, I just call it like I see it from His Word, and know that He is good.

Ok, back on track.  We passionately pursue righteousness, but we do not fall into a pitfall of pride, because we cannot take credit for one bit of true good in our heart/actions, it is the work of God, the Holy Spirit, in us.  We do not become legalistic, because from the beginning anything good we have is a gift; the Holy Spirit is a gift given to us by faith, and faith itself is a gift by the will of God the Father (Eph 2:8-9) purchased by the grace extended to us through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

So there is a tension here, and I believe it is a good tension.  On the one side, you a person that is potentially erring by being overly zealous for obedience believing that God’s affection or acceptance of us is tied to our works, indicating a lack of faith in the finished work of Christ.  On the other side, you have the person who LOVES grace, is apathetic towards the Bible and God’s call to personal holiness through obedience, who wants to rest in the grace of God through faith, but in reality, that person may not have had saving faith to begin with – there is not evidence that the Spirit of God dwells in them.  Usually people will fall slightly on one side or the other.  My exhortation today is to push towards the middle.  Meditate on the scripture above, and live passionately for the glory of God through grace driven effort.  Righteousness is meant to be the choice of a believer, a new creation in Christ, that is practiced every day.  Let the joy of God, and His acceptance of you as a sinner, move your heart to turn away from sin, and run towards Him.  Let all of this be blanketed with prayer, that in all things God would lead in us, and His glory be revealed through us.

Grace and Peace,
Adam