People who strive to be obedient may, in the process of being obedient, either be pleasing to God, or they may be offensive to God. Here is an example. Imagine two different people. Both are tempted to commit adultery. Both find that the other person is willing. Both are influenced by their Christian faith to say no. Both overcome the temptation. But I am suggesting it is possible that one of the two is pleasing to God, while the other one, having performed the same action, is offensive to God. How is that so?
The answer has everything to do with Romans 1:5. Paul is describing both his ministry and what it is that he has preached everywhere he has gone. He says,
“…through whom (through Jesus) we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.”
The key to this passage is that Paul believes there is a kind of obedience that arises from faith. That would imply there is a kind of obedience that does not arise from faith. I will suggest that this is the kind of obedience that arises from a doctrine of works righteousness.
The Obedience That Arises From Works Righteousness
It is possible to obey God out of a posture of works righteousness. Galatians 3:10 says that all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. And then, Galatians goes on (in 3:11) to affirm that no one is justified before God by the law. There Paul means that no one is absolved of their sins, nor are they given right standing before God by doing or obeying the commands of God.
How so? It is possible, as was true of the Pharisees, to misunderstand and twist the true intent of the law. Instead of using the law to drive us to repentance, we use the law to tell ourselves that we are doing well. Furthermore, having kept the law, we now imagine that God is obligated to bless us in repayment for what we have done for Him.
Obedience by works imagines that every act of obedience deserves a reward from God. All our sacrifices should be repaid.
Think of all the people who think this way. (Perhaps you do.) Having sacrificed in some way for our faith, we find ourselves frustrated at least and angered at most because God has not been fair. On more than one occasion I have heard people speak this way. Some difficulty has occurred. How could God allow that? After all, that person was so faithful!
That kind of thinking is obedience of works. I work for God and God owes me the proper paycheque.
The Obedience That Arises From Faith
The obedience of faith starts with a singular and most basic premise. The only thing God owes me is eternal damnation. Our sins are so great that any day in which we find ourselves out of hell is a testimony to God’s grace and mercy. Hence, when God gave us His only Son, we got what we did not deserve. We deserved hell. Instead, in mercy, we got Jesus.
What Then Is the Role of Obedience?
A second premise is that our obedience offers nothing to God. Rather, the commands of God are God’s blessing to us. God is not our employer, whom we serve by our obedience. Instead, God is our physician, who has given us commands to heal us of our hellish natures – much like a doctor who gives us a regimen. By obedience to his treatment, we are healed. Once we grasp this, we see that our obedience to God is not beneficial to God. It is beneficial to us. By obeying, God is using His craft as a healer to remove out sinful tendencies.
But How Do We Obey by Faith?
Every time we find a command, we need to correspondingly find a promise. The promise is for the good that God will bring to us in the future. Then, by trusting in the unfailing promise of God, we obey. The next article will suggest how to find that promise in every command of God. Stay tuned.
