Thursday, April 30, 2015

Believe, Learn, and Obey



It is important to understand our place as born-again believers. God has given us a new nature. He has freed us and adopted us as His sons.  As such, it is important to clearly define what our role as sons of God means practically in our daily walk.

Often times christians are under the impression that they will never struggle in their walk with Christ.  They take Matthew 11:30 to mean that the christian life is characterized by continual victory, devotion and joy. 

Others teach that christians must live perfect lives, whether through the greatness of their own faith or through rules, discipline, traditions and willpower. 

Still others teach a sloppy, feel-good christian life.  They teach that God's love is so big that He is never displeased with our actions and that we should never feel guilty about sinning.

But scripture points to a life that is lived in communion with Christ. Our walk with God is first through faith, secondly through knowledge and finally through application.  We are lead by God in these three ways.  He is the object of our faith, His word is the source of knowledge - of His will and His commandments, and His power gives us the ability to follow Him. 
 
How does this look from our perspective? We must believe, learn and obey. 

Believe.  (John 3:16, Romans 10:9, Acts 16:31)  This is the essence of the gospel.  It is the imperative imperative.  It is the only requirement for salvation.
 
Learn.  The Word of God is a bottomless well, it is the wisdom of the omniscient creator, the revelation of God's heart, the source of absolute truth, and the nurishment of our souls.  We can never learn and meditate enough on it.  (Philippians 1:9, Colossians 1:10, Psalm 119:11)
 
Obey.  As we learn more about God we see that His commandments are for our benefit.  As sons we are no longer under the tutor of the law (Galatians 3:24), as sons we are given freedom from the power of the law and its condemnation.  But a true son is brought into a relationship with the Father.  If we love God we will obey His commandments (John 14:23) - through both training and discipline. We are not compelled to obey as if it is something that is unnatural, rather we want to obey and the please our Father. 

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