There is no salvation, no eternal life, without obedience! Life was brought
to light through obedience to the faith. Understand what obedience to the faith is.
The faith of Christ is the law of trusting fully in what he has done. He is
the end of the law. Obedience to the law prepares us to receive the
promises by faith in Jesus Christ. Without it, no sanctification can take place,
for we, through the Spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Righteousness brings hope, but it is impossible to be righteous in any other
way than through obedience to the faith, because the righteous shall live by
faith. In Christ we receive both grace and truth, which God is able to
give because by faith, we are crucified with Christ and we live as Christ lives in
us. The faith of Christ is revealed to us in our human spirit and
consciousness. The faith of Christ has its roots in God Himself. It is in perfect
harmony with God’s reasoning, purpose, and His plans. And it is according
to this faith that we are confident of God’s performance of work in us. We
must believe and obey what the Spirit speaks to us and convicts us of in our
inner being and in our conscience. This is what the bible calls obedience to
the faith.
God tells us there is this revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world
began. That mystery is the faith in the gospel, in the word. This thing has its
roots in eternity before sin began. This is why we are told that faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God. Such a faith gives us a greater
sense of strength and firmness about the word: its roots go back into eternity
in the mind of God. The mystery made known through the prophetic writings
in the old testament are revealed and explained in the new testament. And
hearing this word prepares God’s people for the coming of Jesus. All
designed to produce obedience of faith. The bible says we are justified by
faith. We have peace with God through Jesus. This is a reality actually. In
the court of God we are either justified or condemned. If He justifies us, it
means that He has found in our favor and declared us to be just. We are
found not guilty. Surprise! The indictment against all of us is that we are
unrighteous. “None is righteous, no not one”. The indictment is true. The
omniscient judge considers all factors and declares that we are not guilty as
charged, but are in fact righteous, though everybody in the court knows that
in our behavior and our attitudes we are sinners. How can this be? How can
God justify the ungodly and be a just judge? God knows that we trust in Jesus
alone as the ground and basis of our justification, not in anything we are, or
do, or are helped to do, by God. Through this faith in Jesus alone, we are
united to Christ so that we are in him. No condemnation. The key thing: we
are in Christ Jesus. In Christ we are justified. Through faith we are united to
Christ, and united to Christ we are justified. And being found in Christ, in the
righteousness of Christ, or the obedience of Christ, or the righteousness of
God in Christ, his righteousness is imputed to us. It is counted as ours. In
other words, when God declares that we are righteous, there is a real basis
for it in the righteousness of Christ. It’s not a pretense. It’s one thing to be
forgiven when we are unrighteous. It is glorious and costly. It cost God the
life of His Son. But it is another thing — an even more amazing thing — for
God to say that the unrighteous are righteous. If forgiving the unrighteous is
astonishing, calling the unrighteous righteous is gloriously divine. This is how
grace can reign in us. This is what brings us closer to obedience to the faith.
But our obedience is not the ground or the basis of our justification. Faith
alone unites us to Christ, and Christ alone is the ground of our justification.
Our obedience is the fruit of that faith. The faith that justifies is the kind of
faith that, by the Holy Spirit, changes us. Thoughts, affections, and behaviors
change. A new mind of obedience grows. And the reality of justifying faith is
made manifest.
Faith goes beyond what we can perceive with our physical senses, so it does
not work by the rules of science. Faith allows us to believe that the invisible
God can do what is physically impossible. In that sense, faith is built and
grows on a spiritual plane, not a scientific one. That does not mean that
observation is not a part of what the powerful Creator does. In fact, there is
no contradiction or conflict between godly faith and true science. Since God
is the Creator of all things, science is simply the study of His creation. We
understand that the initial seed of faith is a gift of God and faith is the fruit
that comes from using God’s Holy Spirit. And so, Jesus tells us to believe the
gospel. But please do not think that our belief is some sort of achievement
or virtue. That’s an expression of human pride. Obedience of faith is for the
sake of Jesus’ name as it brings glory to God. Faith is the main thing and
obedience is the consequence of faith. But faith and obedience are distinct.
The bible says our faith is spoken of throughout the whole world and our
obedience is come abroad unto all men. Everything about our faith and our
obedience is entirely by what Jesus did for us. We lay our righteousness on
the ground before him as filthy rags in order to come to him as his subjects
so that we can benefit from the merits of his obedience. Ongoing obedience
is the outworking of our salvation. It is not a subsequent thing; it is faith in its
concrete expression. The obedience of faith is a trusting submission to Jesus
the Lord, bowing the knee to him at the start and going on bowing the knee
to him thereafter.
The faith that God looks for in His people is the faith that exceeds the mental
assent to the truthfulness of who Jesus is and what He did for us on the
cross. Obedience comes from faith, and faith is made the substance of the
truth and the evidence of the beauty and worth of Jesus in the gospel.
Therefore, faith is the root of all Christ-exalting obedience, not just the fruit.
Faith demands commitment at the level of our heart, but obedience demands
commitment at the level of our doings. Faith requires us to have a deep
conviction that God will keep His promises and do what He says He will do.
Faith is greater than obedience. Genuine faith can only be demonstrated by
obedient action. If we truly trust in God and His Word and promises, then we
will fully obey Him. Anyone can say they have faith, but the people who
actually live by faith will act in obedience to God no matter where God leads
them. The faith which pleases God, is an obedient faith. “Not every one who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does
the will of my father who is in heaven”—this contains a warning all need to
ponder. The bible stresses man’s faith is unto salvation. The watchword of
the Reformation was, “the just shall live by his faith.” But all of this recognizes
that the expression of faith by the mouth must be joined with obedience to
the divine command. There are individuals who stoutly affirm their belief in
the bible “from cover to cover,” but whose “faith” is lettered, not worded, and
this spiritually belies the lives they live. There is this principle we find in the
scriptures, that profession of faith must be associated with obedience of mind
and will. We only too often demand of God that we see the ending before we
obey. Obedient faith trusts in God to bring about the consequences
according to His purpose. We trust the One who gives the call, confident that
He would not lead us astray. Abraham was told to go…he went. This same
Abraham was later confronted with a greater crisis. God had given him a son
in his old age. The covenant promises were wrapped up in the boy, and the
father’s love for this child was overwhelming. But one day God told him to
take the boy and go to a distant mountain, there to offer him as a sacrifice.
“Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest”—with every word
there was a deeper thrust into Abraham’s heart. Surely in circumstances
such as this he would have been justified in temporizing, in asking questions,
in offering an alternative. None of this took place. Abraham obeyed without
question, leaving early the next morning on his sad pilgrimage. But coupled
with his forthright obedience there was also a sublime faith. “God will
provide,” he told the questioning boy. Nevertheless, how sorely was that faith
tested and how marvelous the will to obey. The altar was prepared, the son
bound, the knife raised. As far as God was concerned, Abraham did offer up
his son, and because of that faith, coupled with unswerving obedience, God
renewed his covenant promises -“for I know that thou fearest God”. Sin
came into the world because of disobedience and continues today, causing
world chaos and our own personal predicaments. God has commanded us
to love one another, but we disobey Him. He has commanded us as
individual believers, to go into all the world and teach the gospel, but this is
a secondary interest, not a consuming one, with most of us. At the personal
level we believers often live in disobedience to God’s specific calls on us. We
rationalize His commands and equivocate in our reactions to them so that
with our lips we draw near, but in our hearts...we are far from Him. There are
times when God does demand of us blind obedience, when our faith should
impel us to courses of action the end result of which we cannot foresee; but
where there is faith combined with obedience there is also rich blessing. The
entire question of obedience is closely coupled with our prayer lives. Only
too often we pray for guidance with the mental reservation that if we like the
prospects we will go ahead. What a travesty on true faith! We cannot fool
God. He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. He knows those
reservations and often refuses to hear because we are actually putting Him
to a test of our own devising. Never forget, the prayer of faith includes a
willingness to obey, and this is not always easy. It is a lesson hard to learn
but one we must not evade. Even our Lord, we are told, divested himself of
his inherent rights as the Son and “learned obedience by the things which he
suffered”. God does not exact obedience as a tyrant; He calls for it as an
evidence of the reality of our faith. On the one hand, this is His rightful due;
on the other, it is a demonstration for all to see that our faith is in the
assurance of promises. Unquestionably God expects of us a faith which
believes and an obedience which complies without question.
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