The only obedience that God accepts is that which comes from the work of the Spirit within the believer. It is, therefore, both the fruit of the Spirit and the work of the Christian. To position one of these aspects of biblical obedience over against the other is the error of those who believe that sanctification hardly, if at all, necessitates the efforts of one who is converted. But that work—and it is work—is the effort of the believer spurred on, and assisted, by the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” He made it clear that these two elements are juxtaposed, not placed in opposition to one another. It’s foolish—not only unbiblical, therefore—to think or teach otherwise. Those who do so, serve only to confuse believers about a matter that was cleared up early in Reformation theology. Why do they now think they are wiser than the Reformers?

This seems to me to be an unsuccessful effort, of people who have nothing new in biblical interpretation, to discover something anyway. If a matter has been settled by the church, it is wrong to stir up the thinking of the general population of Christians about any change in such long-settled theology unless it is clearly an exegetically-supported change that can be demonstrated to be a genuine advance in thought that improves upon accepted Reformation doctrine.

And, in particular, it’s dangerous to play around with the Gospel, which is good news to be believed: it is the news that Jesus died to save His people, bearing their punishment for their sins, and that He rose again from the dead. When one by grace, through faith, trusts Jesus as Savior, all His sins are forever forgiven, His righteousness, now placed on the books, is that perfect righteousness of the Lord, and He now possesses the Spirit Who enables Him to please God by obedience (as he could not beforehand: Romans 5:5).

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But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.      (James 1: 22).

How timely is this command since there are those who would question the fact that we should obey God by doing something to improve our Christian lifestyles.

For some, any effort on the part of the Christian to do what God commands is wrong.  In one way or another—contemplation of the cross is a current one—we are told not to make efforts on our behalf (that’s the arm of the flesh), but wait for the Spirit of God (or Christ within us) to do what needs to be done to conform to the “word” for us instead of us. That is to say, according to them, sanctification is not a joint effort by the believer and the Spirit to obey the truth, but a submission on the latter’s part, while the Spirit of God takes over completely.

Certainly, progress in the Christian’s life isn’t made apart from the Spirit, Who perfects His truth in us, but His fruit comes only to those who “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), which he defines as “living by the Spirit” (v.25). To do so, each must “”examine his own work” (6:4), “work for the good of all (6: 10), and be sure he is carrying “his own load” (v.5), since the Spirit won’t do so for him, instead of him.

The self-deceiver is the one who thinks that it is enough to know the truth, and forgets the many biblical exhortations to “do the truth” (cf. John’s writings in particular).

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But grow in (by) the grace (help) and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:16).

More often than not, in NT (Koine) writing, it seems that the Greek “en” (often translated “in”) ought to be translated by one of its other possibilities–“by, with,” etc. Here, I am sure that it should read “by,” as I noted in the parenthesis in the quotation. The idea of a “spherical dative” is foolish here (as in many of the translations made of this important preposition).

What Peter was trying to get his readers to understand is that in order to grow in their faith it takes grace and knowledge—both, of course, applied to daily living—in order to grow. And growth, as one learns more about Christ and becomes more like Him, is what sanctification is all about. That grace (here, “help,” the second meaning of the word grace, is also a more appropriate translation).

Growth comes about as a believer learns more of the Christian faith and is helped by God to practice it. More and more he progressively comes to walk as he should (not, in this life without failures, of course). But if one is a true believer, he grows. He will change. He can because he is a new creation. Sanctification is not “on the spot,” as one modern preacher recently said. Nor does it come about without effort: studying and prayerfully applying scriptural truth. It is the result of knowing God’s truth about putting off the old sinful ways and replacing them with new biblical ones that please God. Growth is a sign of life—in this case, spiritual life. No growth—no life.

Think about this and refuse to be herded by the crowd that teaches that something other than growth is essential.

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Therefore, leaving the elementary message about the Messiah, let us go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God .  .  . (HCSB Hebrews 6:1)

In making his “Inspired Translation” of the Scriptures (never completed), Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, got to this verse and, misunderstanding it, inserted the word “not”: [“not leaving . . .” etc]. He, of course, was woefully wrong. The people to whom Hebrews was written were long-time Christians who had become dull, and could not appreciate strong teaching (see Ch. 5). Therefore, the import of this verse is that they needed to go beyond the first teachings of the faith to more meaty material, so that they could grow in the truth. They were still sucking on a bottle of milk (see 5:12-14)! He wanted them to mature.

Today, to the contrary, we are told that to mature in the faith, we must go back to the first principles (elements) of Christianity (“Preach the gospel to yourselves”) and concentrate on them.  This strange idea—so contrary to the true method of growth—is being rapidly adopted by pastors and people who ought to know better. The passage before us today strongly counters it. The trouble with this new view is—because it isn’t biblical, it doesn’t work; people do not grow that way. They grow strong spiritually when they “go on” to the meatier truths of the faith, and then put them to practice in daily living!

Have you discovered that you don’t grow by continuing to drink only milk? Re-read, the book of Hebrews (focusing on chapter 5) and learn differently!

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Yet, Paul in his letter to Titus, ends each of the three chapters with comments about the necessity of true works by the faithful. And the statement of James 1:25 says it all: Christians are “blessed in the doing” (CCNT/P).

Some think that Christians, even though they are “new creations,” are incapable of doing what pleases God. But Paul says that were “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). They always mess up every attempt to act righteously. If the former were true, and all the exhortations to do good, to live by the fruit of the Spirit and so forth, would be fruitless if not worthless. Indeed, if it were impossible to please God by following His commands (in the power provided by the Spirit, of course) Christians might think it impossible to attempt honoring God in their daily living.

But the fact is, as James assures us, it is in the doing of God’s directive will (found in the Scriptures alone) that we shall be blessed. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

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If you love Me, keep My commandments.

One does not become sanctified by “contemplating” the cross. He grows by grace as he does the will of the One Who called him. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise—the Bible is clear:

Turn away from evil and do what is good;
Seek peace and pursue it     (Psalm 34: 14).

Those commands all call for action. Sanctification is the fruit of the Spirit!

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And, yet, there are those who believe that any command given to another believer is merely law or works, or something equally as reprehensible to them.

It is neither wrong for God to command us (as Christ in the great commission did), nor preachers today to do so. God doesn’t wrong us by doing so; He commands His children as any good Father would—for our benefit. Why is it, then, that this strange idea is abroad today that all commands are wrong?

Is the problem, then, that we ought not need commands, and that the idea of issuing commands indicates those who need them are living at a lower level than they should?  Or is it simply that the objectors just don’t like to be told what to so?

Whatever the reason, commands there are in the Bible—and we’d better heed all of those directed to us. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

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