Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Obedience

In the book of Genesis, God places what could be called the "test of all tests" upon Abraham. God tells Abraham to journey into the land of Mount Moriah. There Abraham was to build an alter and kill his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God.

"Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Genesis22:2

Without hesitation Abraham left the next morning with his son and two other servants. After a 3 day journey he came to the place where the Lord told him to go.

Then Abraham took his son up the mountain, built an alter for the Lord, bound his son, and set him on the alter. Before Abraham was able to deliver the death blow an angel of the Lord called out to him...commanding him to stop.

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Genesis22:12-13

Does this selfless act sound familiar?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John3:16

Just like Abraham was willing to do, God offered up His own son to die on the cross in order to wash away our sins. Jesus paid the ultimate price in order for us to be cleansed and have an opportunity for eternal salvation. God was willing to do this out of love for us, even though man was consistently disobedient to Him.

How many times have we decided not to give our our time and efforts to God? How many times have we decided to either skip church, not pray before a meal, go to bed without saying a prayer, or be selfish when we know we shouldn't? God doesn't ask us to sacrifice a loved one in order to prove our love for Him. All He asks is that we obey Him. How do we do this? We do it by following Gospel. Some might respond to that by saying, "Well the Bible is a big book, how do I know where to start?"

Start with refreshing your mind with the 10 commandments. See Deuteronomy 5:6-21 to review the Commandments.

The following quoted excerpt was taken from gotquestions.org and explains the difference between the 10 Commandments and the new covenant that Jesus gave us.

"Many people mistakenly look at the Ten Commandments as a set of rules, that if followed, will guarantee entrance into heaven after death. In contrast, the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to force people to realize that they cannot perfectly obey the Law (Romans 7:7-11), and are therefore in need of God’s mercy and grace. Despite the claims of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16, no one can perfectly obey the Ten Commandments (Ecclesiastes 7:20). The Ten Commandments demonstrate that we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and are therefore in need of God’s mercy and grace, available only through faith in Jesus Christ."

"Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law of Moses (Matthew 5:17) and create a new covenant between God and His people. The old covenant was written in stone, but the new covenant is written on our hearts, made possible only by faith in Christ, who shed His own blood to atone for the sins of the world. Luke 22:20 says, "After supper, [Jesus] took another cup of wine and said, 'This wine is the token of God's new covenant to save you – an agreement sealed with the blood I will pour out for you.'"

Final Thoughts:

In the days to come, let's try to free ourselves from the heavy pressures and stale promises of the world. Instead, let's revisit the 10 commandments and really think about how we can obey/apply each commandment in our daily lives. If we don't know God's laws then how can we obey them?

You've probably heard the old saying... "The only thing certain in life are taxes and death." We all know that 10 out of 10 people will die. But, will 10 out of 10 people enter into eternity? Not likely if we don't read, repent, and release ourselves to follow God's laws.

On the day of judgment how will you respond if God asks you if you wholeheartedly followed His commandments?

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Revelation 22:14

God bless you. And this is for His Glory!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Verse of the Day