Beyond Obedience

Obedience: To hear and act accordingly.

False Obedience:

Psalm 66:3 “...Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You...”

Psalm 81:15 "...Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him, And their time of punishment would be forever...”

Christ’s Obedience:

Romans 5:19 “...For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous...”

Christ’s Comments on Our Obedience:

John 14:21 "...He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him..."

John 14:23 “...Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him...”

John 15:10 "...If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love...”

Our Obedience requires Christ:

Romans 15:18 “...For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed,...”

2 Corinthians 10:5 “...We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,...”

1 Peter 1:22 “...Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,...”

Considerations:

We all have been made in God’s image.

We all have God given value within the vast sea of humanity.

Our dilemma is that we have fallen short of what we were created to be.

Corruption exists in our present reality.

Questions:

How do we get from our current reality to God’s good intentions?

What keeps us from getting to where we should be?

The Obedience dilemma:

When obedience is perceived as the way to God’s good intentions:

Lists are created identifying things to obey.

Lists created from Biblical text result in groups of people focusing on particular behaviors.

Groups boldly claim to have the proper list and other groups, with other lists, are deemed wrong.

Obedience to a system of beliefs may create improved behavior, but does it really get a person to who they were created to be?

The Obedience pathway in secular society results in governmental laws and regulations which may control some behavior, but at best, external control still doesn’t fix internal corruption.

The Obedience pathway in religious society can easily create the type of society which found itself in direct opposition to the Son of God.

Beyond Obedience:

Only God Himself can cause rebirth, and transform the corrupted into the redeemed.

His perfect plan requires belief in Jesus (the Justifier) and surrender to the Holy Spirit (the Sanctifier).

God’s plan takes a person into the love of the Trinity, not into a struggle to obey endless regulations.

When we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, obedience follows, but attempting obedience will not necessarily take us to loving the Lord our God with all that we are.

The flesh can’t get a person to where the Spirit is intent to take them.

Galatians 5:16 “...But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh...”