Dear BPCWA worshipper, We cannot earn salvation by obedience to the law of God, but when we are saved through the Covenant of Grace, obedience is expected by God in the covenant. The underlying requirement in the Covenant of Works is obedience. Just because man failed to obey God in the Covenant of Works and fallen man hates obedience thereafter does not make obedience something bad. Let us not forget, even our Saviour, Jesus Christ, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb 5:8).

Obedience is the priority. Obedience is what pleases God, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1Sa 15:22). But we can become all too familiar with Bible verses so much so that we begin to ignore it and think, “It doesn’t apply to me or my situation”. If so, we numb ourselves against what our conscience accuses us of as wrong. An honest heart is essential if you sincerely want to avoid sin. Search our hearts to be honest about who we really are, what our motivations really are, and what we really want and desire to be. It is certainly true that man may not know, but God knows. As we learned in last week’s sermon about King Joash, God sends messengers, but we may be so deep in our deluded disobedience that we can refuse to see the truth and come to the light. Ignoring our disobedience through rationalizing will only lead to eventual outright disobedience. The inevitable downward spiral will result in us becoming what we never imagined we would become. We can end up living a sinful syncretic life but not acknowledging the wickedness of such a life. When that happens, we can get so used to disobeying God’s commands that we cannot even recognise the godly counsel He sends. We will even say, “I don’t see what is the big deal” about this and that, because our hearts are more ready to disobey than to obey. We will think that if “good” comes out of our actions, why should our choices be considered disobedient and therefore evil? That was exactly the state of Eve when she was deceived into disobeying God outrightly, all the while thinking there was nothing wrong for her and Adam doing so if they became as “gods”. We are told, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Gen 3:6). God leaves us the account of the Garden of Eden so that man can learn the importance of obedience.

Obedience in the covenant of grace. We know all too well that Christ came to live a perfectly obedient life so we can be saved. It is without doubt that we are saved wholly by Christ’s sacrifice and no amount of good works contributes in any way to our salvation. This fact must not make us think that obedience to God is therefore not very important since Christ obeyed God perfectly on our behalf. After salvation, the child of God must have a different view of obedience. Obedience is not about gaining salvation, but about pleasing God, our Heavenly Father. Obedience is no longer merely conforming with outward actions but that which begins inwardly.  Salvation transforms our hearts and inclines our thoughts, ways, and lives toward God.  Any truly born-again child of God will have an inward desire to please the heavenly Father. Before salvation, God’s law is a rod to be despised. After salvation, our new heart now yearns, “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” (Psa 119:5). Salvation changes our view of obedience and God’s laws. The Christian now loves to obey God and needs to grow to love obedience more and more. In our first love after salvation, we desire to know the specifics of how to avoid sin and how to obey more fully to please God. And as we grow spiritually, we want to be as sanctified as humanly possible by God’s grace. We desire more relevant applications to help us obey God more carefully in each area of life. But the world seeks to train us to view obedience as a “burden and painful suffering” when we cannot do or get what we want if we obey. Sadly, as we lose our first love for our Saviour and when we backslide, we too begin to believe the serpent’s subtle lie.

To walk as Christ walked must be our heart’s aim. We are not yet perfect in our sanctification, but we know we are children of God when we want to grow more and more in obedience to perform God’s will from the heart. The saved believer knows that God, the Holy Spirit, in us is grieved when he sins and that gives him no peace because his fellowship with God is broken. He desires a restoration, as David experienced when he genuinely repented of his sin, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice” (Psa 51:7-8). And it was so with Peter when Christ’s gentle chiding broke his heart, “Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee” (Joh 21:17). This is a fruit of the abiding Holy Spirit within a believer. If you sin with little remorse or concern, consider with all urgency and seriousness if you genuinely have the love of the Father in you. Sin must grieve the believer. And obedience after forgiveness must make the believer rejoice, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee” (Psa 51:12-13). As Calvin puts it, Christ’s “heart was ready to yield a willing and cheerful obedience”. This is the heart that Christ had so that He could fulfill the life of perfect obedience. May this be our hearts.

Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.  (Ps 112:1)

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor