Home  Articles  Site map

"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (Jn.3:36 NASB). It is not by obeying the law that we receive salvation but through repentance from our sins and placing our trust in Jesus as our Saviour. However, when we come to God like this in all humility and sincerity, God causes us to be born again, and begins to write His laws on our heart and mind (Ez.36:26,27). In other words, our faith in Christ will lead us to obedience to His laws (Ro.1:5). If this obedience is not growing in our life, we have not 'believed' in the proper sense of the term. Unfortunately, much of Christianity has taken away obedience from the life of Christians and over-emphasised 'belief'. The result is that a lot of people are imagining themselves to be Christians when they are not, and a lot of Christians are not able to grow in their relationship with Christ because they are not obedient! Also, anyone who teaches obedience is called out as legalistic or as going back under the law! Reverence for God has been replaced with frivolity and a casual approach.

Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt.5:19). How often do you hear these days that we should keep God's commandments? We only hear about believing and faith! James warned the early church about thinking that a so-called faith that is not accompanied by works of obedience is actually dead (Ja.2:17).

Jesus recognises as those who love Him only those who obey His commandments (Jn.14:21). Our love for Him is shown by the eagerness with which we seek to obey even the smallest of the commandments. Of course, we are not referring to the laws concerning rituals, sacrifices, festivals and other external practices. What we have now is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Ro.8:2). Our obedience comes from our heart, where we increasingly hate the things that God hates and love to do His will in everything. We learn to be careful not only with what we do and speak, but also with what we think and the attitudes we keep. That is how we show ourselves as children of God.

When we read the Bible, we ought to see what more we need to change in our life in order to obey God, and not merely to store up knowledge. It is through such obedience that we become transformed into the character of Jesus. How sad it is if we focus on ministry, church activities, declarations, etc., while our personal lives are not being transformed! How sad when we don't obey even the things we are able to, but wait for God's grace to change things while we sit with 'faith'! An enemy has done this.

We need to wake up, and if we have become alert, let us warn others. The time is very short.

Tweet