A PERSPECTIVE ON GRACE, FAITH, WORK, TRAVAIL, OBEDIENCE, REPENTANCE

GRACE, FAITH, WORK, TRAVAIL, OBEDIENCE, REPENTANCE:

TERMS THAT STAND IN CONTRAST BUT NOT IN CONTRADICTION

A CHALLENGE FROM FRIENDS

I had four separate conversations with friends that caused me to have concern with some of the doctrinal trends that have been developing in the church over recent years.

One friend was telling me that, under the New Covenant, Christians do not have to repent. Grace has brought forgiveness and a believer does not have to “repent” of sins.

A second friend was telling me that the terms “obey” and “obedience” were part of the Old Testament Law, and therefore, not appropriate for the New Testament Christian.

A third friend expressed concern over my sermon entitled “The Blessing is Beyond Obedience” and that this message undermined faith.

On a fourth occasion a friend expressed a mild disapproval at my teaching on “travail and labor in Intercession.” His implication was that travail seemed to suggest “works” rather than faith.

The error in my friends’ approaches is that their positions rested on one facet of a Biblical truth overemphasized to the exclusion of other legitimate aspects. In formulating any Biblical doctrine, one should look at all the scripture verses related to the subject, those you like and those you don’t like, and then formulate a doctrine that draws a circle inclusive of all those verses. The whole Bible must be our foundation, not just one pet principle. Neither should it be only one facet of any one truth.

FAITH AND TRAVAIL

The following terms are inter-related: Grace, Faith, Work, Travail, Obedience, Repentance.

We are looking here at Biblical concepts that work together in harmony. These virtues are foundational aspects of Christian character and effectiveness.  They are perfectly compatible with each other and work harmoniously together. They may stand in contrast, but they do not stand in contradiction or opposition.

For instance, “laboring in prayer” does not contradict “faith in prayer.” The Apostle Paul speaks of praying with “all prayer.” This means there are many patterns in prayer. It can sometimes be a simple word of faith, ask and believe, or sometimes a more protracted supplication, or even intense labor and travail. All are done in faith; and we see all in the life of Jesus. He sometimes simply spoke a word of faith to get something accomplished. But then he also “offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears.” There is a place for both. Paul said that Epaphras “labored in fervently prayer.” The disciples could usually cast out demons with a word, but also encountered situations in which the demons came out ”only by prayer and fasting.”

Situations that require patience do not indicate a lack of faith. Hebrews speaks of “faith and patience,” (Hebrews 6:12). They work together.

Obedience does not mean salvation by works. By the same token, salvation by grace does not remove our need to obey, and salvation by faith does not remove our need to work. “Laboring in prayer” does not mean a works/merit mentality. Laborers are called into the harvest.  We labor, travail, fight in prayers in the same way as we labor in the harvest (Matthew 9: 38, John 4:38, Col.4:12).

Labor itself is not contrary to grace. Paul said that grace labors (1 Cor 15:10). We labor and work, even as Jesus did. It is part of our service. But we do not work to earn salvation, which is by grace through faith, and not of works.

OBEDIENCE

Grace does not remove obedience as part of the Christian’s life. Obedience is not just associated with law and rules, but in the Christian life obedience is a dynamic of relationship. Even in the New Testament we obey God, our Master and Lord. We obey Him and keep His word.  Obedience is an element of “relationship,” a vital expression of our walk with Jesus Christ.

Obedience existed before the law. While obedience is also associated with law, it exists apart from law. Obedience was a living and vital part of “relationship” long before there was the law. In our relationship with the Lord we obey Him, we obey His voice.

Adam “disobeyed” (Rom 5:19) before there was ever a “law.” He disobeyed the Father.

Abraham obeyed long before there was “the law.”  His obedience in offering Isaac was not to a law, but to a command or word arising in his relationship and communication with God.  Hebrews 11:8, 17.

The rich young ruler’s disobedience was not to law but was a refusal to obey a word arising in his relationship with Jesus. It is interesting that in this case it was easier for the young man to obey the law than to obey the voice of Jesus. The lesson is that in your relationship with Jesus, He might ask you a hard thing.

Jesus obeyed the Father. He was obeying His Father’s voice.  Hebrews 5: 8, John 8:55. (He was not “under law,” but nevertheless, His actions never broke His Father’s law). Like Jesus, we obey the Father and the Holy Spirit. Being led by the Spirit we fulfill the law, we do not destroy it.

.Hebrews 5:8-9.  “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.”

Philip 2:8. “He became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross.”

He was obeying the Father…not a law. Although the scripture prophesied that HE would go to the cross, yet there was no law that commanded Him to do this. He was obeying the Father, not a rule. Sometimes the voice of the Father asks us “to do” a hard thing, sometimes something more difficult than anything in the law.

Luke 18: 18-30.

The law did not tell the rich young ruler to sell everything and follow Jesus. But the voice of Jesus told him to do that. The young man testified that he had “kept the law.” But now was unwilling to obey the voice.

The law did not tell Abraham to offer up his son, but the voice of the Father did tell him. (The voice also stopped him). He obeyed the voice, that sometimes tells us to do “a hard thing.” To say “we are not under the law” does not relieve us of our responsibility to obey the voice of God. That voice will not allow us to do evil, and it will not always lead us into soft places and comfort.

The New testament is filled with verses using the word “obedience” and “command.” Peter’s writings alone include 10 sections of scripture using the word “obey” or “obedience” or “obedient.” The New Testament has commands and we are told to obey His Word.

REPENTANCE

Grace does not remove the need for repentance. The great commission commands repentance. Even Christians are commanded to repent when there is sin in their lives. I have a list of eighteen New Testament verses of scripture which speak of repentance. I list here only a few of them.

Jesus in the great commission told the disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel “Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:20.

In Luke 24:47 He commanded that “repentance….should be preached in His name to all nations.”

In Jesus’ message to the seven churches in the first three chapters of Revelation he commanded them saying, “Repent, or I will remove your candlestick.”

The apostle Paul in his message to Athens said that God now “commands all men everywhere to repent.”

“Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect Law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”  James 1:22-25