Obedience and Compliance

There is an often-misunderstood distinction between the notions of obedience and compliance relative to the Christian experience. While obedience implies surrendering one’s sovereignty to the will of God, compliance connotes restrictions imposed by some external command or set of rules. Christianity is often perceived by secular society as oppressive due to standards imposed by religious ritual and ceremony. One must resist conflating religion and faith along with obedience and compliance.

The apostle Paul goes to great lengths elaborating upon the impact of Christ’s atonement for sin and how a sincere believer’s response will reflect their position of faith. In Romans 6:14, he asserts, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” This perspective reveals the implicit freedom within our relationship with our Creator through Jesus Christ.

Extreme misinterpretations of the context of “grace” relative to God’s moral standards have resulted in a significant contingent of people who identify as Christian, believing that sin is no longer taboo because the penalty for sin has been paid. Conversely there is also a sizable body of believers that feel compelled to observe the Torah. Denominations that observe a Saturday Sabbath exemplify this belief.

THE TRUE INTENT OF GOD’S GRACE

Somewhere in the midst of this tension lies the true intent of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. When Jesus declared, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18), He was speaking in the context of His earthly ministry.

A great many theologians and students of scripture apply this passage to Christianity. However, this appropriation is at odds with the proclamation in Hebrews 8:13, which states, “By calling the covenant ‘new,’ He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70 proved to be the end of the mosaic law due to the inability of Judaism to carry out the sacrificial requirements of the Law of Moses.

Furthermore, in Colossians 2:13-14, Paul writes, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all your sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” These assertions present a distinctly different perception of how the mosaic laws impact believers lives in contrast to the lives of the Jewish society in which Jesus preached.

Additionally, James reveals, “For whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.” This was illustrated in the Sermon of the Mount, when Jesus declared that even our very thoughts convict us of sin. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has  already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28).

This announcement reveals the absolute holiness of God in contrast to humanity, whose best deeds are like filthy rags compared to God’s righteousness (Isaiah 64:6). It is humanly impossible to keep the mosaic laws, therefore, no one can be declared righteous unless the righteousness of Christ is imputed onto them (Romans 5:19; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Only Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life (Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5) because Jesus was not merely human.

This incontrovertible fact is emphasized by Paul in Romans 3:21-23. “But now a righteousness from God, apart from the Law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

If believers were meant to observe the mosaic laws, then the good news would not be good news. “Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the Law; rather through the Law we become conscious of sin.” (Romans 3:20). However, the freedom we have from the Law is in no way shape or form to be construed as the freedom to indulge in sin.

Paul clarifies this concept in Romans 6:15-16, where he emphatically writes, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”

CALLED TO BE FREE

Paul elaborates in Galatians 5:13-18: “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, server on another in love. The entire Law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. Thay are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under Law.”

Paul goes on to list the acts of the sinful nature, including “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” (Galatians 5:19-21a).

After this, the apostle adds, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-25).

When Christians walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, they accomplish the essence of the Law without observing the Law. They are not in compliance with a written code – they are in alignment with God’s will because the Spirit within them directs their paths.

This phenomenon is attributed to faith. And this faith is credited to true believers as righteousness (Romans 4:18-24). Christ fulfilled the Law as no other could, and His worthiness is ascribed to His followers as their righteousness. Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if He were you.”

The dichotomy of compliance and obedience is both marked and extreme. The mosaic laws demand compliance that doesn’t translate into righteousness. Despite faithfully observing the laws of Moses, even the Pharisees could not achieve it because the Law became their obsession. Paul declares in Romans 8:1-3, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man.” Amen.