Obedience. The word conjures up images and thought of behavior and performance for many people. Legalistic pastors and leaders often teach on obedience in an effort to spur people on in their works – trying to make people fall in line and follow rules and regulations; leading many people into guilt, despair, confusion and fear when they fail… wondering how they could ever measure up, “be good enough” or be accepted and approved-of by God.
New Covenant obedience as defined in the scriptures, however, shows us a different kind of obedience. One not founded on the works or self-effort of man, but one based on the perfect work of Jesus Christ. This kind of obedience is backwards to man’s idea, and the thinking of the world. The world says that we must perform to become… we must perform properly to become accepted. However the scriptures tell us that in the New Covenant, we believe that through Christ, we have become accepted already, and we perform because we are New Creations through the Spirit. In reality, our belief is our obedience. We are obedient to the truth. And this is what we will be studying today.
Most of us have heard the phrase before that “Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship”. It has become a somewhat cliché catch-phrase, or something clever and witty to say. Many people say it, many people hear it, and nod in agreement,, but their relationship is really empty on the inside of them; and I am speaking of believers when I say that. And please understand that I am not saying that in a judgmental way and certainly not in a condemning way. I am going to be completely open and honest right up-front that my intention today in this study is to encourage you in your personal relationship with Jesus and how to live every day through that relationship, because really that’s the only way to live.
I have encountered a vast number of people in my time, who will readily claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus because it is expected of them to say that. It’s the “proper Christian response” but inside they are desperately hurting and empty and their spirit is starving because they honestly don’t know how to have a personal relationship with Jesus. So, these people walk around empty, but too afraid of the ridicule of those around them to actually admit that they don’t understand, and suffer in ignorance. In many churches today, Jesus has been reduced to nothing more than a Fire Net that saves you from going to hell when you die and that is it. Yet He is so very much more, and He came to give you much more as well. He’s didn’t come to just be merely a Fire Net, He came to give you Himself, and to enable you to live through Him, and this personal relationship is what we will be studying today.
The title of today’s study might be seen as almost too obvious. However while many believers may claim to already know that God is for them and not against them, when we dig a little deeper, we make some startling discoveries. For example, a surprising number of people actually live their lives from the perspective of God actually being against them even while claiming to believe that God is for them. When we pray, we often do so in a manner that seems more like trying to convince a reluctant God to move on our behalf, rather than the way scripture instructs us to address Him: as a loving Father willing to freely give us every good gift. And this is just one of many common examples.
In this study today, we will be examining in detail, exactly how God is for us, what that means, and what is rightfully ours as a result. This is as much a study of our rights and privileges in Christ Jesus today as it is of our relationship with Him – because really, both are connected. It is by seeing this truth that we will be established on the good foundation of Jesus Christ, rooted in His Grace, that enables us to stand firm in faith and receive what is ours.