Grace and Obedience

Not enemies!

It is clear in Scripture that we are not saved by obedience. It is also pretty clear that a sure sign of being saved is obedience. These two facts are seemingly at war in the church and it doesn’t need to be that way, nor should it be.

Hear me out. Striving to be obedient to the commands of the New Testament is not legalism. At all. Jesus said that if we love Him we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). So what exactly are those commandments? Well Jesus tells us that too….

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22: 34-40)

Well there you go! Just love God and love your neighbor!

Um, what does that mean? How does that look? Why does the New Testament, especially in the teachings of Jesus and the epistles, have so many imperatives if we are off the hook for commandments?

The life of a born-again believer is not one of constantly doing an inventory of obedience and good works to make sure you are who you say you are. It is also not a life where you get a “get out of hell free card” and then can do whatever you want. In any event that is not the attitude of a born-again believer anyway. I stand in awe and amazement that God would save a rebellious sinner like me in spite of, not because of, my righteousness, holiness or volition. I rejoice with my brothers and sisters that we are free of performance based religion, especially those of us saved out of mormonism. I also recognize that my obedience is pleasing to Christ and nothing is more important to me than pleasing Him.

I am almost forty years old. I have lived in America all of that time. Because of that background, I know what is expected of me. I have to pay my taxes (or I would if we had a tax system that made any sense and didn’t refund me money when I don’t pay a dime of taxes in the first place). I am expected to stand and remove my hat for the national anthem at sporting events. The rules of the road are more or less the same in every state, a stop sign in Oregon looks like a stop sign in Florida. I know what I am supposed to be doing.

For a new believer though? Whatever stage of life you are at when you are born-again, many of the presuppositions you operate under suddenly change. The innate selfishness of an unregenerate person suddenly doesn’t jive any longer. That is why the New Testament, Paul in particular, spends so much time telling Christians how they should act even though they are not required to act in a certain way to be saved. We are not to forsake meeting together so that we can encourage each other to good works (Heb 10:24-25). Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church (Eph 5:25). Live lives worthy of the Gospel (Phil 1:27). These commandments and exhortations serve as guides to sanctification, not as rules for justification, but that doesn’t mean they are meaningless.

I am concerned that in our rejoicing over our freedom from rules, we are neglecting our calling. Grace and obedience are not enemies but walk hand in hand as recipients of God’s sovereign grace live lives of increasing obedience. Is saving grace that doesn’t lead to obedience really saving grace? Is obedience presented as a prerequisite for salvation? Both are wrong. Our challenge is to walk the narrow path between the extremes.