And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”
John 3:36 NLT
http://bible.com/116/jhn.3.36.NLT
Belief and obedience go hand in hand. True belief results in obedience. Faith results in our salvation because of God’s grace and mercy – that is available through belief and obedience.
Faith = Belief & Obedience
This is because God’s grace and mercy offers us forgiveness for our sins. Receiving this forgiveness of our sins with a heart of belief results in grattitude towards God for this free gift of grace that we do not deserve because our lives are not blameless. This spirit of grattitude opens our eyes to the truth about God’s loving and merciful nature – not as a prison warden holding a list of rules over our heads – but as a loving Father, teaching us through the law that we need Him, that we need to be like Him in order to grasp hold of the blessed life eternal that He has for us (a life of obedience).
It says “has eternal life” – present tense, not future. This blessed life eternal is not just a ticket that we place in our back pocket to collect upon on that rainy day when folks gather around our coffin as we are laid to rest in the ground. That blessed life eternal is today, as we walk with Him, as, He teaches us, as He molds us into His image little by little, as we love and serve others, as we share His gospel and, His love with a world so greatly in need of the healing touch of His Word and of His healing hands.
Yes, we will not know salvation in its fullest until that day when we see His face, we will not encounter our salvation until that day of judgement after we have run this race to its faithful finish, we will not fully celebrate our portion and our prize until we are absent from this body and in the presence of our Lord and Savior.
But if we are believing, if we are obeying – we are already experiencing the blessings of the life that He has for us that is glorious and amazing. We are already filled with those living waters that nourish our soul, we are already touched by His voice of conviction that we can test and confirm against the Word of God that makes us aware of the dangers of temptation, we are receiving His power to overcome the darkness and lead us in light along the narrow path, not that we are yet perfected or blameless of our own accord, because there is always room for another lesson, another improvement, another correction along this journey as we are reconciled to become more like our teacher, Christ Jesus.
Through our obedience, we aren’t drinking the same old poisons.we aren’t participating in those same old things that were detrimental to our lives and that we’re damaging our c testimony to others and that we’re a stumbling block to others. And we aren’t piling up more negative consequences for ourselves and for others . We are beginning to live and profit in His teachings and in His eternal nourishment. We are beginning to experience His hand upon our lives bearing good fruit.
Believe & Obey.
How can someone say that belief without obedience is really belief at all? What glory or honor does it bring to God, and what good does it do stumbling our fellow brothers and sisters?
How can someone say that obedience without belief is possible unless like c the Pharisees, they have set their eyes upon the laws of men or the law of Moses – which falls so short of the law of Christ and only demonstrates to men that they are condemned and are under a curse so that they might come to know their need for a Savior, a deliverance, a redemption, by the grace of the one true God.
Have a blessed day, friend. May your faith, your belief and your obedience grow strong and firm upon the Word of God.
Harold J. Ballinger 