Practical Obedience

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will solve his ((the rich young ruler)) difficulties and make him ( and all of us) free to become the child of God. Such is God's diagnosis of the man's moral difficulties.'

My thoughts- We DON'T want to believe that 'practical obedience' is the answer. It's too simple but at the same time,  much too hard for us to follow. If we were told that we had to undergo a special quest, travel here and there, recite special words, buy certain things and all that would guarantee us eternal life, we'd do it! We'd gladly do all of that as long as we didn't have to truly obey God's commands. People would be lining up to undergo that quest waiting to lay their hands on that golden ticket to paradise. Once they had that ticket and were assured of eternal life  that would leave them free to behave any way they choose. They would never have to worry about sin, never have to worry about anything at all. Some people want us to believe that CHEAP GRACE is a golden ticket we put in our safety deposit box and no longer have to really worry about anything concerning eternal life ever again.

Tell me, why would Jesus tells us to STRIVE against sin?

Why would Jesus tell us to PICK up our CROSS DAILY?

Why? If we have His grace?

Why would He tell the sinners to go and SIN NO MORE, if it didn't matter is they did sin, as long as they just believed in Him and His dying for them?

Clearly, beyond ANY doubt whatsoever SIN is still in play after we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, His grace forgiving us, saving us.

Luk 18:18  And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Luk 18:19  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

Luk 18:20  Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

Luk 18:21  And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

Luk 18:22  Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

We ASK this same question don't we?

And Jesus makes sure that this ruler knows that GOD is good, and it is GOD he is talking to asking this question. Then Jesus says- 'You know the commandments.'  And the ruler countered with the fact he'd kept them all from his youth till then. 

So WHY did Jesus bring up the moral law? Was it to tell the ruler that it wasn't going to guarantee eternal life, just keeping the moral law? 

Jesus went on to say, 'Yet lackest thou ONE thing.'  

You've got most of it right but not all of it.

Jesus didn't say forget about the moral law, stop keeping it, you don't need to obey that old moral law any longer.  Jesus said that ruler was doing good but there was one thing missing.  That one thing was a REAL desire to follow Jesus above all else- above all the money in the world, above everything, believing in Jesus as if He matters more than ANYTHING, literally anything in the entire world and beyond!

The ruler did NOT believe that much and he went away sad, unwilling to give up his riches for eternal life.

He was willing to obey the commands but NOT believe in Jesus.

We are more than willing to say we believe in Jesus but NOT obey the moral commandments given to us by Christ.

He wanted the obey without the believe and most people today want the believe without the obey.

Bonhoeffer- 'The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will solve his ((the rich young ruler)) difficulties and make him ( and all of us) free to become the child of God. Such is God's diagnosis of the man's moral difficulties.'

Practical obedience.

We'd rather do just about anything other than truly obey God as His word tells us we need to obey Him.

Do you remember all those studies on what Jesus was teaching us about life and how to live it? How much of it have we retained? How much of it do we follow? Are we living our Savior's words?  Are we seeking constant forgiveness for falling far short of the mark set before us? Are we striving against the sins that would take from us our desire to follow our Savior all the way to eternal life with Him?   That's what happens when we disobey without any striving, without any seeking of forgiveness and grace, we LOSE our desire to belong to Jesus.  Please LORD help us to NEVER lose the desire to be YOURS!

Save us LORD, save us!