The fruit of salvation is obedience to God. Christ, the obedient one, saves us and gives us his righteousness, not just to rescue us from the eternal effects of our sin, but to empower us to display our reciprocating love for him through our obedience to God. He, upon our salvation, begins to restore what was lost in the fall. In this verse, we see how obedience opens the door to all that God has to give of his Holy Spirit. This filling of the Spirit, in turn, gives us a supernatural desire and power to live more and more to righteousness! We saw an example of that in the first century church last week.

Immediately when we read these commands of obedience, which are everywhere in God’s word, many obstacles come to our mind; the greatest, perhaps, being that it seems impossible. We tend to equate obedience with absolute perfection. We add up all of the things we are supposed to do and all of the fruit we are supposed to bear and think that this is what God requires of us, and then give up before we start.

In actuality, what God wants is our heart. It is the heart that says “yes” to his commands! It is the heart that decides wholeheartedly (pun intended), to the best of our ability, to daily follow him in obedience. In this way, we cooperate with God in our sanctification process. We agree with him on what is right and good and on what is not. God’s commands are always given to protect us and to bring us abundant life and freedom (see day 1 of this week). Then, as we step out in faith and love for our Father, to do what he calls us to, he provides the grace and strength for us to obey (see day 2 and 3 of this week). What the law demands of us, grace promises and performs for us. We will not do this perfectly! But, if at the end of the day, you confess those sins (as we do nightly in Personal Worship) and ask forgiveness, and begin again the next day, committed to obey, you are living an obedient life, and will continue to grow in holiness and in the power of the Spirit!