Another Response to an online Group

I wrote this in response to a statement I made about faith and obedience.

I admit that obedience can't be completely throne out. It's hard to discount it, for its certainly pleasing to God. But if we think about the kinds of things we can do to please God we get a clearer picture of obedience, which in turn can shine a light on verse like the ones you quoted.

For example: Loving one another, giving, loving your neighbor as yourself, extending grace and forgiveness, sharing the Gospel, healing the sick, taking in the homeless, etc. All these things please God. All these things trace back to loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself, which I'd point out was what Jesus said all the commandments hinged upon. Hence, John 14:21 in context should read, "He who understands loves God utterly and completely, as well as loving others and himself; it is he who loves me."

The gentlest way I can put this is to say that it seems clear to me that God is more interested in our faith than our obedience. But God is working with me to get over my fear of offending people so let me dive into a stronger way of putting it.

There is an obvious connection between the law and our modern understanding of obedience, which is misunderstood and therefore the cause of many disagreements among Christians. Are we talking about being obedient to the law or obedient to God.

If I asked most Christians which is true:
A) you can obey God and not the law, or
B) you can obey the law and not obey God.

Most Christians today would answer B. After all, how can you obey the law of God and disobey God? It's easy. We call these people pharisees. Conversely, it is also possible to obey God and disobey his law. That's why we have Grace in Jesus Christ. Simply put, the entire old testament proves that people suck at obedience. Therefore God used a better way, a new covenant.

I would say that obedience to the law is worshiping what was created instead of the creator. In this way it is no different than worshiping a tree, which is made by God but is not God in itself. We call this idolatry. It doesn't matter what you elevate above God a tree or the principals of Christianity, its still idolatry. Actually to make matters worse what most Christians seek to obey isn't the commandments of God at all but really there own denominations recompilations of the law, which is the same as obeying that which is made by man. That's what Paul was talking about on Mars hill when he said that God doesn't need things made by man to be worshiped, for "in Him we move and breath and have our being."

If it sounds like I'm making too much of this concider listening to "Room of Grace" by John Lynch. I've already mentioned that obedience is connected to pleasing God. Striving to Please God is a dangerous thing to do. Its like imagining God on the other side of a grand canyon called, "your sins and failings," and you decide to try to reach God by feverously knocking dirt into the canyon from your edge. You just get further and further from God. The other option is enter grace and find out that Jesus is standing nect to you, saying, "you sure do have a pile of things to work on, can I help?" If you want to believe option B you will need faith.

And that's why faith is better than obedience.