The Bad News About Obedience

Do you ever get tired of sinning?

If your answer is No, then there are two options: Either

1. you're not tired of it, or
2. you are no longer sinning.

Either way, this chapter is not for you.

But if your answer is Yes, then there is news for you -- the Bad news about obedience -- which may provide a tremendous encouragement.

Most of us have been able to accept, at one time or another, the bad news of the gospel, that we cannot earn or merit God's forgiving grace. We have admitted that all of our good works can never purchase salvation. But it's not the good works that have been causing us to lie awake at night, staring at the ceiling, it's the other kind! We read texts like Revelation 3:5 and discover that even though our names may be in the book of life, it's possible that they will be blotted out. We see signs all around that emphasize the nearness of Jesus' coming. We see the sin and failure still present in our lives. And we are worried. We know we're not doing that well. And we begin to wonder where obedience fits in with what we've believed about salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Now I have a solution for you today! It's surefire, guaranteed to work! I have here a button that you can push. If you choose to push this button, you will never fall or fail or sin again -- forever. Are you interested? Wait just a minute before you decide, because once you push the button, you can't change your mind. If you push this button, it may cut down on some of your fun. It may change your life-style drastically. Are you sure that you are ready to live without sinning? Are you sure you want to?

PUSH FOR VICTORY!

There have been two responses to this offer as I have made it around the country.

One response, "Quick! Show me the button!"

The other response, "No way! I'm having too much fun the way I am."

Usually there are no in-betweens.

Did you decide to push the button? We know that pushing any button, to say nothing of a cyber-space one, couldn't really solve the problem of sinning. But we are often willing to try anything, just in case.

Have you ever been to a service where you wrote your sins on a little piece of paper and carried it to the front of the church to be burned on a makeshift altar? Have you ever sat down and made out a list of New Year's resolutions? Have you ever made promises never to sin again? If overcoming were that simple, many of us would have become overcomers a long time ago. In fact, even if overcoming were extremely difficult, many of us would have become overcomers long ago, if only we had known for a certainty how to achieve it. But we have not known how it was accomplished and so have continued to try the gimmicks to no avail.

What options are available to you when you see the gap between your performance and God's standard of obedience? Perhaps there was a time when you thought that the solution was simply more water under the bridge. Many young people have the idea that by the time they are twenty, or maybe thirty, that somehow they will have outgrown the sin problem.

But those of us who are over thirty have discovered that we have had to raise the number. Now it's forty, or sixty, or eighty! Righteousness by senility! And today the plot thickens, for signs all round us are not of a nature to give us much assurance of being able to get old enough to stop sinning before Jesus comes again, before the time of probation is up for everyone.

Because of the evidence that Jesus' coming is right upon us, people are getting panicky. One of our biggest temptations is to adjust our theology to match our experience, instead of finding out how to change our experience to match our theology.

The Christian world has met the problem by three teachings:

1. Salvation was guaranteed at the cross.
2. Only believe is all a person has to do. And
3. No one can keep the law anyway.

There are heavy forces at work trying to cause us to simply accept these ideas. We are urged to join them in proclaiming the investigative judgment to be a farce and spiritual gifts a hoax, and to give up expecting to be overcomers. This is why it is so important for us to understand the mission of the church of the remnant, a mission that goes beyond Luther and the other Reformers, that prepares a people for the coming of Jesus.

Satan's original charge was that the law of God could not be obeyed. When man broke the law of God, Satan rejoiced and added another charge -- that man could not be forgiven. He had no idea that God would pay the penalty Himself, but Jesus' life and death proved that sinners could be forgiven and that the law of God can be obeyed, not only by Jesus, but also by those who live the life of faith as He did. This twofold message of forgiveness and obedience is the heart of the remnant mission during the time of the three angels and is the final work of Christ in heaven. Jesus as our High Priest provides forgiveness for sinners and power to obey. These two truths are equally necessary. It is extremely important that the last people of God understand this twofold work of Christ. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to fulfill their mission. Justification by faith -- God's work for us -- and the righteousness of Christ -- which includes God's work in us -- are the two themes to be presented to a perishing world.

The major theme of Jesus' own book, the book of Revelation, is overcoming. Victory in the keynote of the message of the entire book. We are reminded again and again of the fact that God's grace includes not only unmerited favor, but unmerited power as well.

Paul understood it, for he said in Romans 1:17, "The righteous will live by faith." Those who have been justified by faith are to live by faith as well. Not only justification comes by faith alone, but in the same way, overcoming comes by faith alone. "Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him." Colosians 2:6. All of salvation is realized through faith in Jesus, and through faith only. It is all a free gift.

BACK TO THE VINEYARD

Jesus used the analogy of the workers in the vineyard to teach the bad news of the gospel, and we can again join Him in the vineyard to learn of the bad news about obedience

John 15 is probably one of the most outstanding passages in all Scripture showing us how obedience comes and teaching us that genuine obedience is natural and spontaneous. For obedience is the fruit of faith. The fruit of the Spirit are the fruit of faith. And the fruit of faith develop in our lives in the same way that fruit develops in the vineyard. Development happens when the branches are connected to the vine and abide in the vine. "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:4, 5.

The two men on the road to Emmaus said to the Stranger, "Stay with us," for it is late in the day. There are two important things in the Christian life. The first is to get with Jesus; the second is to stay with Him. In terms of the vineyard, it is important for the branch to become connected with the vine, but it is equally important that the branch stay connected.

Here is one of the problems in the Christian world. People have labored under the delusion that if they got with Jesus at some point in time, everything would be taken care of from then on. They become disappointed when they discover this isn't the case. Nothing is taken care of when we get with Jesus -- unless we stay with Him.

And how do we stay with Him? In the same way we got with Him. Connection comes by faith, and faith comes by communication. If you don't communicate with someone, you will not be personally acquainted with him. You will not know him. and if you don't know someone, you will not trust him. It's that simple.

The biggest problem of the church today is that we are not staying connected to the vine. We are not spending time day by day in communicating with Jesus. We are not abiding in Him. And the result is that we find that we are producing little, if any, fruit.

Genuine obedience comes naturally as a result of the continuing relationship with Jesus, just as fruit comes naturally as a result of the branch continuing to be connected to the vine. We recognize that this principle is true for the natural world, and many of us admit that it is also true for the spiritual life. But in spite of our admissions, surveys of church members show that only about one out of every four or five is spending any time at all in personal, daily Bible study and prayer and communication with God.

If you are interested in bearing fruit, answer the following questions:

• Do you know God?
• Do you know Him as your personal Friend?
• Did you spend significant time talking to Him this morning? Or were you too busy with your own plans?
  

Since we understand from this parable of the vine and branches that we, as branches, can do nothing if not connected to Him, then the only legitimate place to put our effort would be in becoming connected with Him.

But this presents us with a problem. Fruit doesn't develop overnight. And we're in a hurry. So when we hear that the entire basis of the Christian life is to come into fellowship with the Lord Jesus and to keep on coming to Him, we say, "That sounds good. I think I'll try that." We try it, and it doesn't work. We still make mistakes and fall and fail and sin. And after a few days or weeks or perhaps months, we scrap the whole business and go back to our gimmicks, back to trying hard to be good enough and hoping against hope that we'll make it.

WHAT DO YOU TRY
AFTER YOU TRY RELATIONSHIP?

So what's left? After you've "tried" relationship with Jesus, and it "didn't work," what do you try next? The answer is, Nothing. Because you really may not have tried the relationship with Jesus at all! The relationship with Jesus involves total commitment. It involves giving up on yourself and on the possibility of ever becoming an overcomer apart from Him. It involves resolving to continue to seek Jesus day by day, until He comes again, no matter what happens in your life in the meantime. It involves becoming absolutely locked in on the one principle that God gets top priority in your day, that you invite His control over your life day by day WHETHER YOU EVER GET TO HEAVEN OR NOT!

The purpose of the relationship is not to get us to heaven. The purpose of the relationship is not to bring us victory over our sins. The purpose of the relationship is to know God as it is our privilege to know Him. It is for His own sake that we seek Him day by day, not for OUR sake. And while it is inevitable that those who endure to the end in seeking the continuing relationship with Jesus will be saved and also will be overcomers, this is not the primary reason for continuing to see the relationship with Jesus.

The devil knows that if he can make us think that the purpose of the relationship is for overcoming, he's got us. When -- because of our immaturity -- he causes us to sin, he can get us to scrap the relationship on the grounds that it 'isn't working.' And as soon as he can get us to scrap the relationship FOR ANY REASON, he knows he has got us.

If you have your eyes open, you can see this underlying purpose in all that the devil hits us with.

• Did you fail today?
  Might as well give up the relationship, the devil insinuates, and try something else.
• Are you having trials and sorrows and disappointments?
  Might as well give up on this relationship bit, he counsels, because it's not working.
• Are you impatient for the fruit of the Spirit to develop in your life?
  Better try something else, he suggests, since this relationship this is working too slowly.

You see, you can't keep a relationship going if your primary motivation is to overcome sins. Even if you HAVE been overcoming AND experiencing the victory that comes as a by-product of looking to Jesus. Any time you turn around, put your attention on yourself, and begin checking yourself for fruit, you are going to fall and fail. It is a spiritual law that when you look to self, you are overcome. But when you look to Jesus, you are an overcomer. And one of the main reasons why it takes so long for the fruit to develop is that we insist on swinging back and forth between two extremes -- first looking to Jesus and depending on his power but then checking ourselves to see how we're doing. How many of us have spent our entire Christian lives like children in the garden, pulling up the tiny green shoots every few minutes to see if there's a radish there yet. Misdirected effort!

What do you try after you try relationship? There's nothing else to try. Relationship is the end of trying. And that's why it's bad news. Because there's nothing that you can do to earn or merit your obedience. It is a gift. And that's bad news for the person who has done pretty well, on the outside, part of the time! It's a humbling thing to realize that you are just as incapable of dealing with your present sinning as you are to deal with your sins of the past.

But for all of salvation, the answer is in the vineyard. It's in being connected to the Vine -- continuously, unbrokenly, every day. It's in finding your joy in the companionship of the Owner of the vineyard. It's bad news, because you can't deserve any of it. But it's still the best news in the whole wide world!

Continue to the next chapter or go back to the Table of Contents.

This page maintained by Allen Roy. Last Update on 12/13/99