Tag Archives: Obedience

God’s Path to Salvation – Step Four – Repent

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14130441997_a4c5a31a2d_o     The next step in God’s path to salvation is to repent of the things that we have done, or are doing, which are not in accordance with God’s word.  Jesus Himself taught that repentance was necessary when He taught His disciples about those Galileans who were killed by Pilate, or about those upon whom the tower of Siloam had fallen upon.  He told them that unless they repented they would all likewise perish (Luke 13:3, 5).

     Similarly, Paul stood upon Mars’ Hill in Athens and preached to those who were listening about the “unknown” God.  In that address, Paul stated that repentance was necessary for salvation.  Regarding their past ignorance of God’s will he told them, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).  Notice that God calls upon all men, all of mankind to repent.  Notice also that He calls upon all men everywhere.  That means that no one is exempt from the command to repent.

     Later, Paul would tell young Timothy that God wants all men to come to a knowledge of the truth and to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4)  Additionally, Peter explains that God is not willing for anyone to perish spiritually.  He wishes for all men, again that is all of mankind, to repent of what they have done wrong.  Peter writes, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).  Because it has been almost 2,000 years since the sacrificial death of Jesus upon the cross, men are likely to wonder about the second coming.  It is God who is holding off on the end of the world, because He does not want anyone to perish.  He wants all men everywhere to come to repentance and be obedient to His will.

     Therefore, we need to repent of our sins in order to lay hold of eternal life, but just what is involved in that repentance?  Is it just saying that I am sorry for what I have done?  Is it just saying that I am sorry that I got caught doing something wrong, or is there more to it than that?  We must not be misled into thinking that repentance is just a feeling of momentary sorrow with no change in our actions.  There is much more to repentance than just that feeling of sorrow.  Repentance means that we make a change in our life.  We do not just feel sorry for what we have done, but if we are sinning against God then we change our lifestyle to reflect His wishes, His commands, His will.  Paul explains this difference in writing to the church at Corinth:

Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.  For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.  For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter (2 Corinthians 7:9-11)

Notice that Paul is not rejoicing in their sorrow, but in the fact that their godly sorrow produced repentance, a change of direction.

     It is our godly sorrow that will lead us to repentance.  Our repentance, our change of mind, our change of direction will then lead us to God and His salvation.  It is not like the sorrow of the world whereby we might just be sorry that we were caught in wrongdoing.  Let us all put our sins behind us, and throw off that weight so that we may run our race unencumbered by sin (Hebrews 12:1).  Let us learn to repent of what we do that does not match God’s will, so that we can have that hope of eternal salvation when our life here is done!

A Desired Result

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WaxOnWaxOff     In the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, a young boy who is tired of being bullied comes to Mr. Miyagi to learn karate.  While training him, Mr. Miyagi is shown to have some strange teaching methods.  He has Daniel wash and wax his vehicles, sand the floor of his deck, and paint his fence.  When Daniel doubts that he has learned anything useful, Mr. Miyagi shows him what the motions that his muscles have memorized can do to help him defend himself.

     In the Bible we can read of a similar situation.  Naaman, a commander of the army of Syria, came to Israel to seek out the prophet Elisha in order to be healed of his leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-8).  As he approached Elisha’s house he was met by a messenger who had come from Elisha.  The messenger told Naaman that in order to be cured of his leprosy he must dip in the Jordan seven times (2 Kings 5:9-10).

     Naaman was furious.  He thought that Elisha would wave his hand all over the place and make a great show in calling on the name of God.  Instead, Elisha has sent his word by a messenger.  To top it all off, Naaman was told to dip in the dirty Jordan river, not the much better rivers back home in Syria (2 Kings 5:11-12).  Nevertheless, Naaman did what the prophet instructed him to do, and his leprosy was healed (2 Kings 5:13-14).  Like Daniel with Mr. Miyagi, Naaman learned that simple obedience produced a desired result.

     How is it with us?  Do we expect to be tapped on the shoulder by God and told what to do?  At one time God spoke with man either directly or through the prophets, but now He speaks to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2).  Jesus’ message for salvation is simple, “he who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16a NKJV).  We may be looking for a grander scheme, but why not simply obey what God has said to do.  After all, it worked out pretty well for Naaman!

Blisfull Ignorance

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Perhaps you’ve heard it said that ignorance is bliss, or that what is not known cannot hurt us. The idea is that if we do not know that something can hurt us, then we will have no need to worry about it.  Therefore, we can be blissful and happy.  But how does this play out in reality?

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Do you know how fast you were going?

 We can be ignorant of the speed limit and drive as fast as we wish. Will our ignorance of the law be a viable excuse when the police officer pulls us over?  Ignorance of the law will not stand up as a defense.  If we ignore the speed limit, we will pay the price (fine) for that ignorance.  We can be ignorant of the fact that the stove top burners can hurt our hand.  Here again, ignorance will not keep us from coming to harm if we place our hand on a lit stove burner.

 Many in our world today act as if they can be ignorant of God and His requirements, and yet all is well. They go on in blissful ignorance with no care for their future state.  And, indeed, we may see many people who live this way and nothing bad ever befalls them.  Have they somehow found a path that circumvents God’s requirements?  Is there bliss in their ignorance?

 God paints a different picture of ignorance and a lack of knowledge concerning Him. The prophet Hosea spoke for God and lamented the fact that His people were being destroyed by a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).  Paul writes by inspiration to the Romans that God’s power and divine Godhead are evident in the creation, such that they (those who ignore God and walk in ignorance) are without an excuse (Romans 1:18-20).  When Paul stood on Mars’ hill in Athens and addressed the Greeks, he stated that in times past God may have winked at man’s ignorance, but now calls on all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).

 We can ignore God. We can make that choice.  We can claim ignorance is bliss.  However, ignorance of the law is no excuse.  Ignorance can bring us great harm.  Jesus declared that His word would judge us in that last day (John 12:47-48).  Therefore, we must know what His word says for us to do.  God desires that all men seek Him out, repent of what is wrong in their lives, and live in obedience to Him.  That is the true path to bliss.  Are you truly blissful this day?

Hammer Away

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nails     My last remodeling project got me thinking.  As we were going through the process of deconstruction and trying to be careful to limit the amount of scratches and bruises, I began to think about installing the new floor.  You see, when we undertake any project where we are going to be using a hammer and nails it has our full attention.  We don’t want to slip up and hit our fingers or worse yet, pierce our flesh with a nail by mistake.

      Now think about Christ and what He did for us.  He had the power to stop anyone from doing any harm to His body, but He did not exercise that power.  At any time during His mockery of a trial, the scourging of His body, or the nailing of His body on that cross of Cavalry Jesus could have simply said the word ‘stop’ and could have brought His torture to an end.  Concerning His life, Jesus said “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father” (John 10:18 NKJV).

      No one had the power to take Jesus’ life unless He allowed it.  The amazing thing about His love for us in that Jesus allowed those Roman soldiers to take His life.  At a time when we were without hope, at a time when we were still sinners, Christ died for our sins (Romans 5:8).  We work hard to make sure that we don’t slip and allow a nail to poke us in the hand by mistake, but Jesus allowed them to drive large nails through His flesh on purpose.  It is hard to comprehend just what Jesus suffered on our behalf.  So then, are we allowing that sacrifice to have an impact on how we live our lives?

Peace and Safety

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3828960388_ebf3fe4262_z     Last week my family and I traveled to our nation’s capital on vacation.  While we were in D.C., a man jumped the fence and attempted to gain entry to the White House.  It was not me.  However, it made us think about the security measures we did see while in Washington.  At most of the museums and monuments, there were security screenings and metal detectors in an effort to make us all feel safe.

That feeling of safety is something we all crave, especially in our modern world.  News of attacks and planned attacks seem to dominate the news.  And while the extra security measures are necessary to try to prevent further attacks, do they really make us feel safe?  When the security guard is talking to his buddy about last night’s game instead of watching the x-ray monitor, do you really feel safer?

While we may never be at peace or feel that we are completely safe in a physical sense in this world, there is a peace and safety that comes from the Lord.  This peace allows us to pillow our heads at night and sleep, without having to worry about what will come in the night.  As David wrote, “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8 NKJV).

If we are in a right relationship with God, if we are in obedience to His will and His word, if we have put our trust in Him, then we can have peace.  We have a peace of mind, even if we don’t live in a world that provides us with much hope of physical safety (John 14:27).  We can have that peace, because we know that if anything happens to this earthly body, our eternal soul will be in the hands of a God who loves us.  If you want that peace too, you can have it by seeking God and obeying what He has told us to do.

God Wants You!

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I can remember being in school gym class as sides were being chosen for a game of kick ball.  Everyone wanted to be picked first to be on the best team.  No one wanted to be picked last, because if you were last, you were not really picked.  As one of my classmates aptly pointed out, being the last player chosen meant that team ended up with you by default.  They did not choose you.

How comforting it is to know that if we are obedient to God’s word that He has chosen us for salvation.  There is no pecking order, and God has not ended up with us by default, but we were chosen by Him to be His children.  Consider what Peter writes in saying,

“Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:4-5, 9 NKJV).

God has chosen those who will obey Him to be His own special people, a royal priesthood, a chosen generation.  He has chosen us to be His, and He has chosen us for His own special mission.  That mission is to proclaim the praises of the One who has called us out of the darkness and into His marvelous light.

God wants you, but you have to come to Him in simple obedience of His word, as a living stone or living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2) in order to be accepted by Him.   Are you a member of that chosen generation?  Are you one of His own special people?  Are you a part of that royal priesthood?  If not, why not?

Obedience Trumps Sacrifice

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Image          Many times we may come up with our own ideas about what we think would be a good sacrifice to make for God.  It may be that we want to build a great cathedral.  Perhaps we think that giving up something that we like to eat for a certain time period would be a good sacrifice to make for God.  Is this what God wants us to do?  Does He want us to try to figure out what to do on our own?

            In the Old Testament we have an account about King Saul that gives us some insight into this question (1 Samuel 15:1-31).  In this narrative, Saul is returning from defeating the Amalekites, and he and the people have planned to make a sacrifice to the Lord.  For this reason they have not destroyed the best of the sheep and oxen, but have instead brought them back with them (vv. 9, 15).  As Saul encounters Samuel along the way, he is very happy with himself for coming up with this grand idea.  However, God is not pleased with Saul.  Samuel points out to him that he has not followed the commandment of God.  Saul was commanded to destroy everything that the Amalekites had (v. 3).  They were not supposed to bring anything back with them.  Yet Saul has not carried out this command given to him by God, and God is not pleased.  Samuel instructs Saul that God does not delight in sacrifices as He does in obedience, for it is better to obey than to make sacrifice (v. 22).

            We should heed the words of the prophet as well and realize that what God wants from us more than anything is our obedience to His word.  We can say that we believe in God and then go our own way and not obey His commands.  However, if we do not obey, then we do not truly believe.  No matter what sacrifice we may think is appropriate for God, this account clearly shows that obedience to God trumps what we think we can sacrifice for Him.