Why obey
GOD?
by David A. Depra
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Why should a Christian
obey God? That is really like asking,
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"Why
should a child love a parent?" There really isn't any WHY to
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it.
The love simply happens because of a relationship.
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One would think that
we could say the same thing about our
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relationship
with God, as our Heavenly Father. Instead of asking
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WHY
we ought to obey Him, almost as if it is some kind of imposed
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obligation,
we perhaps ought to ask WHAT to obey. Sometimes
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we
act as if God is at our disposal, rather than we at His.
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Obedience
is, in fact, a fundamental part of our Christian walk.
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But
what part? This is an especially important question to ask when
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you
consider that we are saved by grace, kept by grace, and walk
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in
the grace of God. So where does obedience fit in?
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This, of course,
brings up the issue of law vs. grace and also that
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of
license. It must. Christians need to get this straight. We are
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talking
here, not only about the gospel of salvation, but the gospel
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and
Truth by which we must live after we are saved.
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Unto Good Works
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One of the scriptures which best
describes the place of works,
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or obedience, in
the life of a Christian, is found in Ephesians. There
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Paul, in a
nutshell, describes the impact of the gospel on the
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Christian life:
for by the grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of god, not of works,
lest any man should boast.
for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which god hath before ordained that
we should walk in them.
(eph. 2:8-10)
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Here Paul says that we are saved
solely by grace, and not our
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works. That's
simple enough. Yet before we say, "I already know
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all of that,"
and go on, let's READ what is being said here. It may
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contain a bit more
than we ever noticed.
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Paul is, in this
verse, drawing a contrast. Yes, he is saying that
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our
works haven't a thing to do with our salvation. He says, "Not of
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works,
let any man should boast." In other words, if salvation were
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of
our works -- even a little -- then we could take some credit. But
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it is
not based on our works -- even a little. So we cannot boast.
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So
far so good. Nothing new there.
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BUT --- that is not
the end of the thought. Paul then draws a
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contrast.
He gives the REASON WHY we cannot boast. He says,
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"FOR
we are HIS workmanship....." In other words, THAT is why
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our
salvation cannot be based on your works." We are HIS
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workmanship.
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Can we possibly see
what Paul is saying here? Ask it again:
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WHY
is our salvation NOT based on works? Because we are
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GOD's
workmanship. Get that. Rather than US doing works for God,
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Paul
is saying that GOD is doing a work in US. THAT is grace.
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THAT
is why salvation is not based on works. THAT is why
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NOTHING
is based on works. GOD is the one doing the work. Not
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US.
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Paul
goes on to make this even more clear. He says, "For we
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are
HIS workmanship...." --- and then he describes that
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workmanship.
He describes exactly what God is doing. He says,
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"Created
in Christ Jesus UNTO good works, which God has
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ordained
that we should walk in them."
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Here we see that God
does a work in us to create us, or birth us,
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in
Christ Jesus. But UNTO something. UNTO what? Good works.
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In
other words, the RESULT of salvation in Jesus Christ is good
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works.
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Now, you and I usually
have it backwards. We think the good
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works
are supposed to come first. We think that good works will
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create
us in Christ Jesus -- either by saving us, or by earning us
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something
once we are saved. Some of us still think that God
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accepts
us based on our works, and that we must maintain our
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standing
with God through those works even after we are saved.
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Paul says no. That is
error. It is really what it means to be "under
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the
law." The Truth states that rather than US doing works for God,
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God
is doing one in US -- that is -- we are HIS workmanship. We
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are
created in Christ Jesus solely by the grace of God. But not so
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we
can "sin that grace might abound." No. Rather, "unto good
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works."
These good works are ordained of God that we might
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walk
in them.
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This passage from Ephesians is so
simple, yet contains the
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essence of the
Truth of grace. It is hard to believe we could read
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it and miss the
point.
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A Good Tree
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Now, there is a reason why things
have to work this way. Never
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think that
Christianity is simply a matter of God saving us and then
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handing us a bunch
of rules to obey. That is not the Christianity of
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the Bible. It is
dead religion.
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The Christianity of the Bible is a
changed life, full of good works,
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because it is a NEW
BIRTH. New creations in Jesus Christ do
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good works. But we
do them because we have a new nature -- not
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because we have a
list of rules to obey.
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This is vital to see. It goes back
to something Jesus said. He
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said:
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For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt
fruit; neither doth a corrupt
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tree bring forth good fruit.
For every tree is
known by his own fruit.
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(Lk. 6:43-44)
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The Bible sends us a
clear message: We cannot obey God.
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We
cannot. Indeed, God gave us His law to PROVE it to us. The
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law
continually shows us we cannot obey God, and exposes us as
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dead
sinners. The more we try to keep the law, the more we find
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that
we are a "bad tree."
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The only solution is to BECOME something
other than a "bad
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tree,"
-- i.e. -- a GOOD tree in Christ Jesus. God must do that. He
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must
create us in Christ Jesus, solely by His grace. Then, and only
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then,
are we a new creature -- God's workmanship -- created in
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Christ
Jesus. Then, and only then, are we created "unto good
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works."
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A Christian, therefore, obeys God -- not
because the law
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demands
it -- but because it is his nature to obey God. He wants
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to
obey God -- despite all of the failures along the way. There is
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a
CHANGE as to desire and motivation.
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Not to Earn
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If you were told that your obedience
to God earned you nothing,
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what would your
response be? For some of us, it might be, "Well,
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then why
obey?"
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THAT is, of course,
the question, isn't it? For if we are obeying
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God
simply because we think it is earning us something -- whether
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it be
His increased favor, some eternal reward, or some better
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standing
in the kingdom -- then how can we tell Him we love Him?
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Imagine our children
obeying us as parents simply because we
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pay
them a weekly allowance. What love is there in that?
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Obedience
to God is supposed to be the outcome of a LOVE
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relationship
with Him. It is supposed to be the outcome of being
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created
in Christ Jesus. This is the Christianity of the Bible, and
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thank
God it is. As Paul said, "I
am what I am by the grace of God."\
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