Obedience is a wonderful point of focus for Christians these days. For we do not obey God out of a spirit of fear, but one of liberation.

Scripture reveals to us that salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and that obedience is a product of salvation – not the cause.

Herein lies the misconception about Christian obedience and liberty. Obedience to God does not concern a list of do’s and don’ts, the performing of which leads you to salvation. When a preacher discusses obedience today, this is often what you hear. “We need, brothers and sisters, to be obedient to God, or else we’re going to go to Hell!”

Obedience to God and one’s final destination may indeed have a relation to one another, but there may be a fine line of differentiation between where one thinks the connection concerning liberty and obedience lies, and where it really is. (Obedience is “indicative” rather than “initiative”? It indicates that one truly is a disciple of Christ, but the obedience in and of itself is not your salvation.)

The truth is, we Christians are free in Christ. We have come to know the Truth, and by knowing Him, we are free indeed. Paul even says that, for the Christian, all things are permissible (1 Cor. 10:23).

Here we stop. “All things are permissible?” one may ask. “If that is the case, then we can forget about right and wrong, good and evil, and, in essence, we can do what we like!”

And here I say, “Yes, by all means, you can do what you like!”

Now we return to what Paul says: “All things are permissible to me – but not all things are beneficial.”

Concerning the objection that, if all things are permissible to the Christian, then there’s no reason to do what is right in God’s sight, and if all things are permissible Christians would just begin to do whatever they want, I would ask you to examine your faith in God, and make sure that you trust that the wonderful work He begins in a believer, He will finish (Phil. 1:6).

The true believer, being a new creation in Christ Jesus, will not desire to use his or her liberty in Christ to return once again to bondage in sin. The person who thinks that true liberty lies only in betraying the love of God and returning once again to the vomit of sinfulness, or who thinks that true liberty could and should be happily used for regression instead of progression spits on the gospel of grace and denies the very existence of God Himself.

How does this person do that?

Because if you really believe in God, and really believe that through Jesus Christ we have received His Spirit of true liberty, then you have truly tasted of His wonderful love. And from that love comes the desire to love Him in return.

And what does it mean to love God? The Lord tells us in the Gospel of John, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me” (John 14:21).

And why do we love God in the first place? John says in his epistle, that “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

If God is real (which He is!), and we have truly been set free in Jesus Christ (which we have!), what immeasurable joy wells up in our souls when we consider the possibilities of that truth! No longer are we under the bondage of the Law, where we must constantly check ourselves and hold ourselves up to the standard of holiness meant to illuminate our own sinfulness. No, but in our very liberty we will return the love of God which He has so freely and truthfully given us and by our new natures will obey His commands out of true love and a desire to be faithful. We will want to honor and live up to the calling that we have in no way earned.

This is the fine line between obedience “to salvation” and obedience “through salvation.” The first will lead you to nothing but your own sinfulness, while the second will assure you of your salvation in Christ.

And what is the will of God? Firstly, that we believe in Him whom God has sent (John 6:29). And secondly, as believers in Christ, that we love God with all our being, and love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus says that the whole Law, and all of the Prophets, hang on these two commandments (Mt. 22:34-40). And Paul tells us in Romans, that those of us who love one another have fulfilled the law (Rom. 13:8).

What then, can we conclude? That, in loving God, and in loving one another, we fulfill the law in joyful obedience to God, and that Christians will do so out of a joyful liberty, rather than a tormented bondage to the Law.

This all stems from a wonderful truth: Salvation is from God alone! He has reached down into your life, taken your heart of stone while you were yet an object of wrath (Eph. 2:3), and has transformed you into a new creation! Thanks be to God that our salvation was not dependent upon our own merit, or our own righteousness, for without the grace of God, we are all justly found guilty and worthy of His wrath. But in Jesus Christ we are redeemed, bought back as God’s elect, at peace with God through Christ!

To those who are perishing the gospel is utter foolishness, but to those of us who are being saved it is nothing but the power of God, demonstrated as foolishness to put to shame the “wisdom” of this world.

What is the gospel? It is first the truth that none of us can earn heaven, and all of us are under the wrath of God, unless we put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is possible because of Christ’s work on the cross, where he bore our sins, our rebellion against God and made peace with God through His death. God validated this and defeated death by raising Christ from the dead, who now reigns at the right hand of the Father, and will return to judge the living and the dead.

This is the gospel: that in Jesus Christ we are at peace with God!

Rejoice in Christ!

We are truly free to love God with all of our hearts, and to love each other, meeting each other’s needs as God allows.