obedience is freedom

We live at a time where in the name of “Grace” obedience to Christ and His commandments have been relegated to the categories of “unimportant” and “secondary”.  This of course is a betrayal of the Apostolic faith and false teaching is spreading like wildfire throughout the Body of Christ.  So called “Grace” teachers are in fact perverting the doctrine of grace and selling it cheaply.  Grace cost God EVERYTHING and in response to God’s grace He requires us to die to ourselves and live lives of wholehearted obedience.  Every Christian will utter the words, “I love God” but in reality many would be hard-pressed to answer the question, “How do you love God?”

1 John 5:3 – In fact, THIS is love for God, to OBEY His commandments

Jesus said, “If you love me, you WILL OBEY my commandments – John 14:15

The convicting reality is that if we are not obeying Christ and His commandments, we are simply NOT loving God.

The craziest of all lies being propagated in the name of truth however is that “obedience to commandments is legalism”.  Christian teachers who have no idea whatsoever what Paul meant when he was speaking about “the law” somehow think that obeying God’s commandments is the same as Paul’s condemnation of Second Temple Judaism’s (1st century Judaism) notions of attaining righteousness through keeping the law.  The two concepts (obeying Jesus & Jews meriting righteousness through keeping the Mosaic Law) are completely different.  

Obedience has NOTHING to do with legalism and the very concepts that Paul and the Apostles were condemning.  Obedience to Christ is actually freedom!  Freedom from ourselves, freedom from bondage, freedom from sin and death.  How ironic that in the name of being “progressive” and being “free”, Christians today are finding themselves in greater deception, and real bondage to sin and addictions than possibly at any other time in the history of the Church.

Grace frees us to obey.  Obedience is the way we remain free.  For CHRIST’S SAKE, don’t let anyone deceive you into thinking that God’s Word is saying anything less.