I Peter 1:15 tells us to “be holy in all your conduct…” For years I read this to mean my conduct created holiness. Get “right and wrong” right, behave right – and then I will be holy. But what if I already am holy because God gave me a new nature that is righteous and holy? Could this then not be directions on how to become holy, but rather a description of how to express the holiness I already have?
Archives for April 2010
A New Ability to Obey
God in his grace has not only given me a new motivation to obey, but a new ability to obey. That ability begins with Him giving me a new heart that is righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:23 tells me that this new nature I have is created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. Now I no longer obey to become righteous and holy, rather my obedience is the evidence of what God has already done in me. I can stop striving to become someone and something different from who I am…as though I could do that! What if my behavior did not create holiness, but was the result of holiness?
My Motivation for Obedience
When I become a Christian, what I am doing is trusting in the sinless life of Christ and the punishment of Christ as the basis of my relationship with God instead of my behavior, my effort, my trying harder. And then, just as I am depending on the life and death of Christ for a relationship with God, so God is depending on the life and death of Christ for a relationship with me! He sees Christ’s sinless life as mine and Christ’s punishment as mine and so is as pleased with me as He is with his son. He declares me to be righteous.
For this we are thankful…deeply thankful. We express this thanks regularly. Many would say this is why we obey…we obey because we are so thankful. Our motivation is rooted in a feeling, in an attitude.
I believe we have a more significant and reliable source of obedience…and that is a transformed heart. Romans 6:17 talks about how we are not who we used to be, slaves to sin, but now we “have become obedient from the heart.” (ESV) We have a heart that can obey and wants to obey. Obedience is no longer just rooted in a thankful attitude, but in a new heart!