Evangelical Obedience # 3

Evangelical Obedience # 3

Love to God and our neighbor is indeed the great duty enjoined by Law (Deu. 6:5; Lev. 19:18) and the Gospel alike (Gal. 5:13-14); yet it is a love which manifests itself by a hearty obedience (2 John 6). Though Christ delivers from the curse of the Law - yet not from its precepts: "That we being delivered out of the hand of our (spiritual) enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life" (Luke 1:74-75).

Every privilege of the Gospel entails an added obligation upon its recipient. As creatures - it is our bounden duty to be in entire subjection to our Creator. As new creatures in Christ - it doubly behooves us to serve God cheerfully. It is a great mistake to suppose that grace sets aside the claims of righteousness, or that the Law of God demands less from the saved than it does from the unsaved. Nowhere are the high demands of God set forth more fully and forcibly, than in the epistles addressed to the saints. Take these as samples: "But as He who has called you is Holy - so be holy in all manner of conversation" (1 Pet. 1:15; "That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col. 1:10).

But right here, a formidable difficulty presents itself. On the one hand, the renewed soul clearly perceives the necessity and propriety of such a standard being set before him, and cordially acquiesces therein; yet on the other hand, he has to acknowledge, "to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not" (Romans 7:18). Though it is his deepest longing to measure up fully to the divine standard - yet he is incapable of doing so; and though he cries earnestly unto God for enabling grace and unquestionably receives no little assistance from Him - yet at the close of this life, his desire remains far from being realized.

Now the healthy Christian is deeply exercised over this, and instead of excusing his failures cries, "O that my ways were directed to keep your statutes!" (Psalm 119:5). But that is only half of the problem, and the least difficult half at that. The other half is: "How is it possible for a holy God to accept and approve of imperfect obedience from His children? That He will not lower His standard to the level of their infirmities, is clear from the passages quoted above; yet that He does both graciously receive and reward their faulty performances is equally plain from other verses. In what has just been stated, we discover one of the fundamental differences between the Covenants of Works and Grace.

Under the Covenant of Works - a rigorous and inflexible demand was made for perfect and perpetual conformity to God's Law, and no allowance or relief was afforded for the slightest infraction of it. A single default, the least failure - was reckoned guilty of breaking all the commandments (James 2:10) - for not only are they, like so many links in the same chain, a strict unit - but the authority of the Lawgiver behind them was flouted. Nor was any provision made for the recovery of such a one. The constitution under which the first man - and the whole human race in him - was placed, was without any mediator or sacrifice; and no matter how deep his remorse, or what resolutions of amendment he made - the transgressor lay under the inexorable sentence: "soul that sins  - it shall die!" (Ezekiel 18:4, 20), for God will by no means clear the guilty. Moreover, under the first covenant, God provided no special grace to enable its subjects to meet His requirements. He made man in His own image, and pronounced him "very good," and then left him to his native and created strength. Finally, under that covenant, man was required to yield obedience in order to his justification - for upon his compliance, he was entitled unto a reward.

Now, under the Covenant of Grace - everything is the very opposite of that which obtained under the Covenant of Works. Complete subordination to the divine will is indeed required of us - yet not in order to our justification before - and acceptance with God. Instead, the moment we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and place our whole dependence on the sufficiency of His sacrifice - His perfect obedience is reckoned to our account; and God pronounces us righteous in the high court of heaven, and we are entitled to the reward of His Law. Consequently, our subsequent obedience is rendered neither under threat of damnation, nor from a mercenary spirit - but out of gratitude for our deliverance from the wrath to come, and because of our acceptance in the Beloved.

Nor are we left to our own strength - or rather, weakness. God does not barely command us, and then leave us to ourselves; but "works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phi. 2:13). He communicates to us His blessed Spirit and makes available that fullness of grace and truth which there is in Christ our Head - for He is not only a Head of authority - but also of efficacious influence: "From whom the whole body (the Church) fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part" (Eph. 4:16).

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 4)