Grace Motivated Obedience

There is a blog post here where Pastor Tullian wrote,

“The gospel serves the Christian every day and in every way by reminding us that God’s love for us does not get bigger when we obey or smaller when we disobey. And guess what? This makes me want to obey him more, not less! As Spurgeon wrote, “When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so, and sought my good.”

Therefore, it’s the gospel (what Jesus has done) that alone can give God-honoring animation to our obedience. The power to obey comes from being moved and motivated by the completed work of Jesus for us. The fuel to do good flows from what’s already been done. So, while the law directs us, only the gospel can drive us.”

I am on a journey to understand grace more fully and while I have far to go I am beginning to see that my motivation to obey God needs to come from what Jesus did on the cross. My motivation needs to be love and gratitude because of the gospel.

Think of it this way, if I obey with an attitude that says, “if I obey, then God will bless me, love me more and answer my prayers” then my obedience is motivated by what I can get from God. I obey so that He will give me things and love me. My obedience is self-focused and conditional on what God will do.

On the other hand, if I understand that I have been saved by grace and therefore have everything I need in Jesus and do not need anything more, then I will obey out of love. My motivation to obey comes from a grateful heart for all that He has done for me. My motivation is to please God.

I want to obey, not because of what God will do, but because of what He has already done. This is living a grace filled life. I am still learning and to be honest it's hard to get my mind around it completely. I have lived so much of my life focus on the law instead of the cross.

I want to live a life of obedience motivated by grace. What about you?

 

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