“The Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness…”[1]
The thought of obedience to God turns many Christians off. They don’t want to think of the Lord as a taskmaster who will punish us eternally if we are even the least bit disobedient or don’t conquer every sin in our life. The thought of keeping a covenant, to some, may seem like a menial relationship where our only purpose in life is to please an angry old guy who imposes impossible to follow rules on us. What we need to see though is that obeying God has eternal benefits and incredible benefits here in this life as well.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits…[2]
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”[3] Today we might call that verse a purpose statement, the atonement of sin and our eternal life was the purpose of God walking among us and dying for us. Jesus died and rose again so that we might, “ obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away….“[4] But those eternal benefits are not the only benefits, there are other benefits that we see through scripture. Being obedient to our covenant with our Creator also means we are the sons and daughters of Him. [5] If we allow it, obedience and faith will change our character and will transform us into being who are more like Christ. [6] If we are in His will we will live life with more zeal, delight and a higher sense of fulfillment and He will give of peace of mind.[7]
There are more eternal and temporal benefits than even these, but there is a certain danger when we start focusing on the benefits of being in covenant with the Lord. We must be careful not to serve Him only for the benefits. Our covenant with God is not like our relationship with an employer where we work for a wage, if we only have faith or only seek to be holy just to get eternal life, we’ve missed the point of Jesus’ death just as badly as the Pharisees did. Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[8] Eternal life is a gift and it can’t be earned. We are saved by faith by, but faith without right choices and earnest effort is useless. More importantly we miss the true reason for our obedience, God’s glory. Our obedience causes us to change and become more like Christ. That change and our increasing love for others will bring recognition of the Lord and glory to the Lord. Our obedience says more about Him than any words we can speak. As we live lives that show His love for humanity, the world will begin to see the Lord’s true character in us.
We can see this principle in scripture, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”[9] Notice that Jesus didn’t just say do good works so God will be glorified he said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works…” That statement suggests that there is much more going on than just being good or doing good. The motivation behind our good life and good works matters and can be seen by others. If we just live good lives and do things to earn something or to bring attention to ourselves, others will see our self-centeredness and not our good works. However if our motive is to serve others because we love them and God, then the attention is on the Lord’s work in our lives and He becomes the focus.
Because our culture and the world have trained us to seek attention to ourselves, this isn’t easy for any of us. Our competitive culture makes us want to be out front and in the limelight. We are taught from an early age to do well for a reward and that we need to bring our accomplishment to the attention of the people who can reward us.
The idea that man’s highest purpose is to glorify God isn’t a new one, the Puritans, Reformers and many before them taught that idea and we see it throughout scripture.[10] With that idea in mind we see that being faithful to the Lord and our covenant with Him has less to do with salvation and more to do with our becoming like Christ and bringing glory to His name. It’s our faithfulness and obedience to His word that transforms us and that brings Him glory.[11],[12]
Notice that I did say, “being obedient to him has less to do with earning salvation” and that I did not say it has nothing to do with salvation. We need to keep in mind that Jesus did stress that faithfulness and obedience are as important as faith. The Lord has always expected men to have faith in Him, and He has also expected men to be faithful to Him. Not only are we are to trust Him we are to loyally follow and obey Him as well. Jesus did not teach that we are saved by faith alone as we can see in the parable of the sheep and the goats.
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’[13]
The sheep were chosen because of their actions not only by what they believed. We know Abraham was considered righteous because he believed and justified by what he did. In this parable the righteous are those who did the Lord’s will and took right action, in a sense they too were justified by what they did. Jesus also said, “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved”[14], in other words we must not only believe we must be stand in the face of persecution. Jesus is speaking about Covenant faithfulness. The essence of Covenant faithfulness is believing in the Lord, believing what He said and then doing His will.
“ But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers,
and is faithful to their descendants,
to those who keep his covenant,
who are careful to obey his commands.[15]
The Lord is a promise keeper; both to those who continue to trust and remain faithful to him and to those who do not. Only Caleb and Joshua, from the first generation of Israelites who left Egypt, were allowed into the Promised Land. (“…showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”[16]) The promise was lost to the others because of their unbelief and disobedience. (“…I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me…”18) Later generations of Israelites lost kingdoms and were exiled from Israel for their unfaithfulness and disobedience. God’s covenant with Israel and his promises to Israel were dependent upon their faithfulness and faithfulness always included obedience.
How do we apply what we learn from the Old Testament to our Christian walk? Do we just decide to believe one day and from that day forward all our sin is forgiven no matter what our level of commitment to the Lord is? Can we live half-heartedly for the Lord, say our prayers at night and still be able to say He is Lord? I don’t believe that’s possible. If Jesus is Lord He must be Lord of our every thought, word and action, we can’t really think Jesus is our Lord if we only follow Him on Sundays, holidays, when we have troubles or when our religious friends are over to visit. Seeing our covenant with Jesus covenant through the Old Testament examples given to us in scripture might help us to have a more accurate idea of what our relationship with Jesus should look like. We often look at Christianity through those things that come from outside scripture, forgetting that Christianity is the metamorphosis of Judaism. It’s built on the foundation that Abraham, Moses and the prophets laid. If we can keep this in mind we may find something in scripture we’ve never seen before.
None of our heroes from scripture were perfect, except of course Jesus. Each had their faults and some, like David, were guilty of terrible crimes. Abraham, Noah, Job, and others were imperfect, yet they were all called blameless or righteous. We can see in their stories that it was their belief in God, their determination to follow Him and their level of commitment that set them apart. In the letter to the Hebrews we learn that, that same level of commitment is needed in our New Covenant with the Lord. “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation …”[17] As children of the Lord’s we must also learn obedience and our salvation depends not only on our beliefs but on our on our obedience as well. Obedience doesn’t earn our salvation, our faithfulness does. Faith plus our effort to be as Jesus wishes for us to be is how we are saved.
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.”[18]
I want to be very careful about something here; there is a level of commitment and faithfulness to the Lord that we can’t achieve in a moment or by ourselves. The Apostles were not the people Jesus wanted to be the moment they decided to follow Him. Jesus molded them into the kind of people He needed them to be and He showed quite a bit of patience with them as they learned and developed, and there is no doubt that Grace was continually extended to them. As Peter wrote, to we who believe, the Lord, “is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance…” [19]
We are much the same. We won’t be perfect Christians just because we believe, we must be willing to allow God’s Spirit to help us grow and we must be open to seeing ourselves as the Lord sees us. The Lord will patiently forgive us as we grow, but at the same time He will expect a great amount of effort on our part. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me”[20] and there’s nothing in that sentence that says Jesus will do our work for us or that following Him will be easy. On the other hand He also said “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you”[21] so we can rest assured that we won’t be expected to become faithful servants with no help.
Possibly the salvation of Israel from slavery in Egypt can help to illustrate what I’m saying. Israel had to believe the Lord before they would have the courage to leave Israel. In fact they had to trust Him just to survive the Passover and the Plague of the Firstborn and they also had to be obedient. So we can see that they believed and we can see that the Lord made it possible to leave Egypt. We also believe and He makes it possible for us to be born again. The Lord delivered Israel from Egypt, took the through the Red Sea, however He did not supernaturally transport them to the Promised Land. He did make it possible for them to have a new life, but their new life was dependent upon their trust in Him and their faithfulness to Him. He made it possible to leave Egypt, but they had to choose to leave, and they had to put forth the effort to leave. Once we are born again we must make the effort to be faithful to Him and to become what He wants us to become, He will be there with us as we struggle and just as He did with Israel he will give us decisive victories. But we can’t lose sight of the fact that even in the victories the Lord gave Israel, they had to have faith and put forth effort. Nothing was easy for Israel and the Lord has never promised an easy walk for His followers. Through thick and thin Israel was to remain faithful to God and His covenant with them, and that is true for the Christian as well.
Ask yourself this, “Does the Lord want me to believe in Him or does He want me to believe Him?” Of course the answer is that He wants us to believe He exists, but He also wants us to believe what He has said. It’s never been enough to just believe that He exists and James, in his letter he made that clear when he wrote “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:18-19) James also wrote, “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.” (James 2:8) Quite simply James is saying it’s not enough to just believe there is one God; we must also faithfully obey Him. An old hymn sums up what James was saying, and it also tells us what makes up covenant faithfulness, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”[22]
[1] 1 Samuel 26:23
[2] Psalm 103:2 (NASB)
[3] John 3:16 (NASB)
[4] 1 Peter 1:4 (NASB)
[5] 1 John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.” (NASB)
[6] Galatians 5:21-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (NASB)
[7] John 10:10-11 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (NIV) Matthew 11:28 ” “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
[8] Romans 6:23 (NASB)
[9] Matthew 5:16
[10] 1 Peter 4:11 (NASB) “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
[11] “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (NASB)
[12] “For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all…” 2 Corinthians 9:12-14 (NASB)
[13] Matthew 25:31-40
[14] Matthew 10:22
[15] Psalm 103:17-18
[16] Exodus 20:5 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
[17] Hebrews 5:8-9
[18] Psalm 103:8-14 (NASB)
[19] 2 Peter 3:9
[20] Matthew 16:24
[21] John 14:26
[22] “Trust and Obey” Text: John H. Sammis and Daniel B. Towner