John 14:21 - prescription or description? (55 seconds)

"Whoever has my commandments and obeys them, he is the one who love me..." - John 14:21

For years I read this verse wrong. And when we read it wrong it becomes a heavy load. It was for me.

I think most of us learned to read it first as a prescription on how to become one who loves God... "if I obey his commands I will become one who loves God." In other words, my obedience transforms me. I also learned to read it as the prescription of how to show God I love him. I will prove to Him that I really do love Him by working hard at keeping His commands...and the harder I work at keeping His commands, the more He will see that I love Him and the more pleased He will be with me.

But what if this is not a prescriptive statement but an identity statement? What if because I am one who loves God (my identity), the result is I now have an ability to obey, and I do obey.

If we learn to read John 14:21 this way, it becomes an affirmation of the truth that our obedience is the evidence of what God has already done in us...rather than it being what we do so that He will do something in us.

Doing vs. Trusting (62 seconds)

When I was in college, I was taught that one of the questions that I should ask of the Scriptures in my morning quiet time was "Is there something here I need to obey?" This is not all that bad a question unless our motivation is so that we can become righteous through our obedience. We do not obey so that we can become righteous, we obey because we are already righteous (Ephesians 4:24). Paul describes this effort to become righteous by our behavior and effort in Philippians 3:6 as "legalistic righteousness." This is diametrically opposed to the gospel and Paul goes on to say he has left it behind..."not having a righteousness of my own...but that which is through faith in Christ." (Philippians 3:9)

Recently I have been pondering a different question in my quiet time - I think a more fundamental question..."What would it look like to trust You today?" As I mentioned last time, it is my trust that pleases God. Somehow this question seems to penetrate a lot deeper into my soul, into my desires and motivations. I think why it penetrates so much more deeply is that it is a relational question.

Rather than just focusing on "is the something I should do today," - now the focus shifts to "what is my relationship of trust?" Doing what somebody wants is a lot different that trusting that person.

Obedience is the Evidence of My Trust. (55 seconds)

1If God has given me a new nature and a new heart that is already righteous (Ephesians 4:24) - then my new nature is already pleasing to God. Now my flesh is not, but I am stuck with it until the day I die - and it is not going to be transformed. God is not in the business of transforming it, and neither should I. Romans 8:7 tells how the flesh cannot submit to God and it will not. The more I focus on living out of my new nature, the less the desires of the flesh will characterize my behavior.

So I have a new nature that is righteous and pleasing to God...so doing obedient things does not increase God's love or His pleasure. What pleases God is when I trust that what He says about me is true...and I then live accordingly. It is my trust that pleases God! This is Hebrews 11:6, "And without faith (I like to insert "trust" here - it is the verb form of "faith")...without trust it is impossible to please God."

So why do I obey? What causes it to be a reality in my life? It is because I trust...it is the result of my trust. Here is the principle: Obedience is always the evidence of my trust. It is not my effort to please Him.

Next post: How does this change my time with God in the Scriptures? Saturday, October 23.

My Identity is the Source of my Behavior...and my Effort!

Ephesians 5:8 "...at one time you were darkness, but now you are light...walk as children of light..."

"At one time you were...now you are..." We are not who we used to be! In Christ we actually are someone different. Paul in this passage doesn't just say we are now living in the light, but we are light. He then says that this light has a DNA of goodness, of rightness, and of truth ("for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true"). Because we are a new creation in Christ, we now have this new DNA implanted in us. Then Paul says we are to "walk" or to live consistantly with who we are. We do not behave so that we can become someone with the DNA of light, but because we have the DNA of light, we are to live that way..."walk as children of light." Live like who you are.

Note again that our behavior is not the cause of our identity...rather our identity is the source of our behavior.

The other day we talked about how grace is never opposed to effort...and here it is again. To "walk as children of light" takes effort. A three mile walk takes more effort than a three hour nap. And so we do exert effort...lots of effort...but it is effort focused on living out of our new identity, not effort focused on trying to eventually become someone different from the scum we currently are. Could it be that my obedience is the evidence of what God has already done in me?

"...be holy in all your conduct..."

I Peter 1:15 tells us to "be holy in all your conduct..." For years I read this to mean my conduct created holiness. Get "right and wrong" right, behave right - and then I will be holy. But what if I already am holy because God gave me a new nature that is righteous and holy? Could this then not be directions on how to become holy, but rather a description of how to express the holiness I already have?

A New Ability to Obey

God in his grace has not only given me a new motivation to obey, but a new ability to obey. That ability begins with Him giving me a new heart that is righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:23 tells me that this new nature I have is created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. Now I no longer obey to become righteous and holy, rather my obedience is the evidence of what God has already done in me. I can stop striving to become someone and something different from who I am...as though I could do that! What if my behavior did not create holiness, but was the result of holiness?

My Motivation for Obedience

When I become a Christian, what I am doing is trusting in the sinless life of Christ and the punishment of Christ as the basis of my relationship with God instead of my behavior, my effort, my trying harder. And then, just as I am depending on the life and death of Christ for a relationship with God, so God is depending on the life and death of Christ for a relationship with me! He sees Christ's sinless life as mine and Christ's punishment as mine and so is as pleased with me as He is with his son. He declares me to be righteous.

For this we are thankful...deeply thankful. We express this thanks regularly. Many would say this is why we obey...we obey because we are so thankful. Our motivation is rooted in a feeling, in an attitude.

I believe we have a more significant and reliable source of obedience...and that is a transformed heart. Romans 6:17 talks about how we are not who we used to be, slaves to sin, but now we "have become obedient from the heart." (ESV) We have a heart that can obey and wants to obey. Obedience is no longer just rooted in a thankful attitude, but in a new heart!