Living By Faith Blog

How should we obey?

Last year Tullian Tchividjian and Kevin DeYoung blogged about the right and wrong way to obey Christ (here’s a listing of their posts, and related articles).

Their discussion was helpful and gracious — but did not resolve the issue.

A summary

DeYoung says that obedience — while born of faith, dependent on faith, and powered by faith — also requires effort  Our effort does not earn or deserve anything from God.  But still — in addition to faith — we need effort.

Tchividjian agrees that we need effort.  But he says effort is not something separate from faith.  Effort should focus on strengthening faith — faith in our justification.  When we have faith in our justification we will automatically obey: “Good behavior happens when we daily rest in and receive Christ’s ‘It is finished’.”

DeYoung is not satisfied.  He says that while faith in justification is essential — it’s not enough.  We are not just called to trust in  justification — we are also called to obey commands like “put on, put off, put to death, strive, and make every effort.”  Trust — and obey.

Tchividjian disagrees.  “The power to obey comes from being moved and motivated by the completed work of Jesus for us.”  It’s not that we take one step of faith, and then a second step of obeying.  We strengthen our faith — and faith moves us to obey.

They cover a lot more.  But they clearly differ on this one point –

Tchividjian — obedience comes from faith alone — faith in our justification.  Our effort should go into strengthening faith in our justification.

DeYoung — obedience does not come from faith in justification alone.  We need effort in addition to faith.

Sounds like a stalemate.

Can Piper help?

John Piper gives another option.

Piper says obedience is by faith alone.  But for Piper, faith involves more than just trusting my justification.

For Piper, faith means trusting all that God promises to be to me in Christ Jesus, including both His promise that I am freely justified through Christ, and also His promise to fully satisfy me in Christ (Future Grace, p.27).

When I trust God’s promise that I have been justified through Christ alone — and that I will be satisfied in Christ alone — then I will obey.  (There’s other promises and motivations in Scripture– but for the sake of simplicity I’ll just focus on these.)

Prayer or TV?

Here’s an example.  If I’ve had no time at all in prayer, and am tempted to skip prayer and instead watch TV, that could be because –

• I think I’ve sinned too much to be welcomed by Christ, or because
• I’m trusting “American Idol” to satisfy me more than Christ.

So what can I do to obey?

Faith in justification is essential.  If I don’t understand that by faith alone in Christ alone I am forgiven and loved and welcomed by God, I won’t gladly turn to Him in prayer.

But faith in justification is not enough.  Because if I trust that TV will satisfy me more than Christ, then even if I know I can turn to Him, I won’t.  I’ll turn to TV (or I’ll pray begrudgingly — just as bad).

So to pray, I must fight the fight of faith.  Depending on my heart condition, that might mean fighting to trust that –

• because of Jesus I can turn to God as I am and He will welcome me, or that
• Jesus’ nearness is infinitely more satisfying than “American Idol.”

Either of these might require intense effort — fighting the fight of faith — through prayer and God’s Word.

But once I trust that I am completely forgiven and welcomed by God through Christ, and that Christ’s nearness is infinitely more satisfying than “American Idol” — I will pray.

Is this taught in God’s Word?

Yes, because dozens of biblical commands are motivated by the promise of greater heart-satisfaction in God.

Take John 14:21 –

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

Jesus promises that obedience will bring a greater experience of His love and heart-satisfying presence.

To respond to this promise I need to trust that I am justified by faith alone in Christ alone (otherwise I could think past sin disqualifies me from this promise, or that I need to be good enough to earn this promise).

But I will also need to trust that Jesus’ presence will be graciously given to me as I obey, and that His presence is more satisfying than anything else (otherwise the promise of His presence won’t motivate me).

When I trust that I have been justified by Christ alone — and that I will be fully satisfied in Christ alone — I will obey.

Back to DeYoung and Tchividjian

So DeYoung is right when he says it’s not enough to trust in my justification.

And Tchividjian is also right when he says obedience must be by faith alone.

But wouldn’t they end up agreeing if they also stressed Piper’s point — that obedience flows not just from faith in Jesus as our justification, but also from faith in Jesus as our heart-satisfaction?

Why this is important

One reason is because none of us has all the motivation we need for obeying Christ.

So — if Jesus and the apostles motivate us with both past justification through Christ, and with future satisfaction in Christ — wouldn’t it make sense to use both motivations?

Wouldn’t this produce more Gospel-centered obedience — for the glory of Christ?

I think it will.

What do YOU think?

Do you have any feedback, pushback, or comments?  Feel free to leave a reply below.  Thanks.

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To read more on why heart-satisfaction is so crucial, click here.

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