Pauls writes in Rom. 1:5 that his ministry is to bring about ”the obedience of faith” among the nations.  What do you think?  Is there any difference between the obedience of faith and the obedience of the law?  The law obedient doesn´t think so.  But to the faith obedient there are huge differences.  Let us mention just a few of them:

The law obedient tries to live up to the holy commandments of the law.  The faith obedient lives out what the Lord by His Spirit works in him.  “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Phil. 2:13.

The law obedient´s  focus is on meeting the requirements of the law.  To the faith obedient the requirement of the law is fulfilled in us by God´s Spirit (Rom. 8:4).

The law obedient is starring at the letter of the law which is a killing thing (2 Cor. 3:6), but the faith obedient looks to the Lord and His glory and is continuously being transformed (2 Cor. 3:18).

The Bible of the law obedient is more like a law book, but to the liberated faith obedient it is a Book of “joy and the delight” of the heart (Jer. 15:16).

The life of the law obedient is a life of bondage without real joy and enthusiasm which was sadly the case of the legalistic Galatians (Gal. 4:15).  The life of the faith obedient is freedom in the joy of the Lord with all the strength that goes with it.  (Neh. 8:10)

The law obedient is striving for more holiness.  The faith obedient has found perfect rest from all striving in Christ who has become our “righteousness and sanctification and redemption”  (1 Cor. 1:30).

The law obedient has no real passion for lost souls.  No wonder, for the law obedient is always looking at himself and his own misery and his lack of law obedience, while the faith obedient knows what it is to be saved in our perfect Savior which makes him long for the salvation of others.

The faith obedient has once and for all come to the point where he gives up his own self righteousness and by the obedience of faith surrenders to Jesus Christ as his only sufficiency now knowing that the secret of a victorious life is his union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.

The faith obedient knows from painful experience the struggle between the desires of his sinful flesh and the desires of the Holy Spirit, but by the grace of God he has chosen which side to be on thus choosing the powerful rule of the indwelling Spirit day by day.

O, yes, this is the secret of the happy life of the faith obedient contrary to the boring life of the law obedient.  Isn´that your experience?  If not, why?

Finally, it is possible to know everything written above in theory. The Lord wants to draw you and me into the reality of a life of faith obedience which is really a life under the transforming grace of Christ.  Once the life is thus committed to our all sufficient Savior in the obedience of a happy child of God, the faith obedient soul will from own experience know what it is to be filled with His Spirit in a freedom which words can´t describe.  But is is real!
-jn-


April 11, 2010