Obedience

Paul Tripp wrote about the importance of obedience in his blog recently.* He addressed the fact that our attempts at obedience could never gain God’s favor. Nevertheless, the Scripture is full of commands, laws, ordinances, and exhortations for us to obey. In light of this, Tripp wrote:

“We all live under the same weight of the law, crippled by the inability of sin. We’re better at rebelling than submitting, more inclined to arrogance than humility, more skilled at making war with our neighbors than loving them. We leave a trail of evidence every hour that we’ve fallen short of the glory of God one more time.*

So, does God really require obedience? Yes, He does. Peter refers to the believers as “obedient children” (1 Peter 1:14). Indeed, the whole context presses believers to obedience in light of the glorious change in us wrought by Christ’s salvation. The grace that saves is the same grace that enables obedience. That is why He saves. God intends to restore His kingdom on earth, so, the disobedience that characterized our fallen condition should also be reversed.

Peter calls upon believers to prepare their minds for action (obedience) in three ways (vv. 13–16). First, they are to set their minds fully on the grace that is to complete their salvation when Christ returns (v. 13). They do this by refusing the old desires that shaped them in their ignorance and disobedience. However, if the grace of salvation is to conform believers to the image of Son, then conforming to the image of the world must stop.

Second, what negatively controlled their desires before salvation, causing them to obey the desires of their evil hearts, must be replaced with the positive control of the Spirit in new desires to be holy, as God is holy (vv. 15, 16). The term that Peter uses (anastrophe, translated “conduct” [ESV], “conversation” [KJV]) refers to deportment—one’s manner of living or life-style. One’s life must demonstrate the change wrought by grace (Eph. 4:22; 1 Peter 1:18; 2:12; 3:1, 2, 16; 2:7; 3:11). The point is simply this, if salvation takes away the old heart of rebellion and replaces it with a new heart of submission, should not obedience to God characterize our life-style before the world. If we are children of God, then, we must act like it (1 John 3:7–10).

Third, even though we are saved from the penalty and power of sin, we, as God’s children, still face God’s judgment (v. 17). He will impartially judge all on the basis of their works (Rom. 14:12). So, let us be motivated to living that conforms to God’s righteous standards and holiness. Our life-style will be scrutinized by God, not for salvation, but to weigh our progress in becoming more like Jesus. Let us “perfect holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). This fear is necessary because of remaining sin. Thus, a continual awareness of God’s purpose of grace in us and His careful attention to us and supervision of us should make us careful in our obedience before the world as His witnesses.

*http://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word /posts/why-obedience