Tour De Obedience Part Deux: What's the Big Deal?

It's a good question, really. If we live in a state of grace, by grace and through grace, and it's grace that secures our place with God and not our works, what's the big deal about obedience?

Grace is not inconsistent obedience. Maybe more is at stake than we who are in the "living in grace means living by inconsistent obedience" camp commonly think. In fact, the Scriptures can't seem to say enough about God's commands and how important it is to obey:

"Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn to the right or to the left" -God to Joshua, Joshua 1

"You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed" Psalm 119. In fact, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and the whole thing is a celebration of God's commands and the essential nature of obedience to them. Read it when you get a chance, it talks about commands and obedience in ways that I certainly don't commonly think about them!

And this command and obedience love-fest ain't just an angry, Old Testament thing, either:

"If you love me, you will obey what I command." Jesus, John 14:15

"If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love." Jesus, John 15:10. Yikes, was that a conditional clause talking about our obedience and Jesus' love for us? Maybe there's some ways to look at this that take some of the sting out, but at the very least we've got to see that Jesus is serious about this obedience thing.

Other peeps get into the act as well:

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
-Paul, Galatians 5:19-21. What's interesting about this passage is that this is after he's spent the whole book of Galatians railing against law-keeping as the way to get to God--and yet here he's still arguing that our obedience is an essential part of becoming inheritors of the kingdom of God!

George MacDonald put it this way to those who were asking if they or their friends were really Christians: Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because He said, "Do it," or once abstained because he said, "Do not do it." It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe, in Him, if you do not do anything He tells you.

So yeah, obedience, it's pretty important. Maybe you didn't need this post to understand that. How we obey and how grace fits into all this, that's where we're headed next.