How Obedience to God’s Word Positions Us for His Grace

From the “What were they thinking?” department:

Bath and Body Works has apologized for selling candles with a design that many compared to Ku Klux Klan hoods and robes.
The Iron Throne prop from the HBO series Game of Thrones sold for $1.49 million at auction.
A woman tried to smuggle a protected species of turtles into Canada on a kayak; she was arrested and faces up to ten years in prison and as much as a $250,000 fine.
A Washington woman who fed raccoons near her home for years had to call the authorities when nearly a hundred of the animals surrounded her house.

If you wonder whether stories in the news are true as reported, you’re not alone. According to Gallup, Americans’ trust in the mass media now stands at an all-time low. As does our trust in the judicial branch and the Supreme Court to determine right from wrong.

“He Is Not Afraid of Bad News”

Such distrust matters for a variety of reasons, among them the fact that we are nineteen days from one of the most contentious presidential elections in our history, one that involves constant media coverage and may well involve the courts.

Have Americans ever needed a trustworthy source of wisdom more than today?

Here’s the good news: “Blessed is the man who fears the Lᴏʀᴅ, who delights greatly in his commandments!” (Psalm 112:1). Such a person “is not afraid of bad news” because “his heart is firm, trusting in the Lᴏʀᴅ” (v. 7).

When we trust God and his word, we position ourselves to experience his “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). If we truly believe that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), we therefore believe that he cannot cause or allow anything to happen that he does not redeem for a greater good.

However, there are gradations at work here.

“They Cried to the Lᴏʀᴅ in Their Trouble”

When we disobey God’s word, we clearly reject his will. He redeems such rebellion by convicting us of our sin and calling us back to Himself with the goal not only of restoring us but of growing us to a deeper place of maturity.

For example, the psalmist noted that when people “rebelled against the words of God,” he “bowed their hearts down with hard labor” (Psalm 107:11–12). As a result, “they cried to the Lᴏʀᴅ in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” (v. 13). In this way, God redeems our sin for greater good.

Such redemption, however, clearly requires our participation, something God can encourage but never coerce (cf. Revelation 3:20). And even when we choose to repent, the consequences of sin remain. If I drive a nail into a plank of wood, you can remove the nail, but the hole is still there.

On a second level, God redeems our sin through events, circumstances, and other people so that the aggregate total is a greater good than was the case before our sin. He redeemed pharaoh’s “hardened heart” with the Exodus, though we have no indication that the Egyptian ruler ever repented and thus participated in this redemption. He redeemed Judas’ betrayal of Jesus through the atonement, though Judas committed suicide without ever (apparently) experiencing the Lord’s atoning grace for himself.

All this to say, God redeems our sin for his glory and humanity’s good, though we sometimes, perhaps often, miss the experience of such redemption personally.

“Not Knowing Where He Was Going”

What of our obedience to his revealed truth?

When Abraham was willing to follow him “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8), the Lord led him to what would become his descendants’ Promised Land. When the prophets heard and spoke God’s word to the people, he used their obedience to call the nation to his best for them. When Paul responded faithfully to the Macedonia vision (Acts 16:6–10), God used him to take the gospel into Europe and the Western world.

Such redemption is not earned as though we must merit God’s favor. Rather, when we choose to obey God’s word, we position ourselves to experience his grace. We open our hands to receive what his omniscient, omnibenevolent will chooses to give.

I am not suggesting that such redemption is always apparent at the time or that obedience is always easy. The Father led his Son to Calvary (Matthew 26:42), even though Jesus would then suffer the cruelest, most tortured death a human can experience. The Lord led Paul to Jerusalem even though the apostle would be arrested and imprisoned as a result (cf. Acts 21:10–14).

But I am saying that the God who is love must always act for the best in the eternal scheme of things. His biblical will must always be for his greatest glory and our greatest good even if it does not seem so at the time. His unchanging character requires that it be so.

Obedience “Treads Adam’s Dance Backward”

Let’s close with one other factor: Obedience to biblical truth not only positions us to experience God’s best in response—it also situates us properly as creatures before our Creator. It counteracts the “will to power” that infects our fallen minds and souls as we seek to be our own god (Genesis 3:5). It appropriately identifies the Lord as our king and ourselves as his subjects.

As C. S. Lewis eloquently observed:

“In obeying, a rational creature consciously enacts its creaturely role, reverses the act by which we fell, treads Adam’s dance backward, and returns.”

Will you enact your “creaturely role” today?

NOTE: In a world where disagreement often leads to division, Respectfully, I Disagree gives you a roadmap for maintaining civility while staying true to your faith. And How Does God See America? offers you a biblical perspective on today’s challenges. To thank you for your gift of $25 or more, we’ll send you both resources. Get your political bundle now.

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the Day:

“We must stress that the basis for our faith is neither experience nor emotion but the truth as God has given it in verbalized, propositional form in the Scripture and which we, first of all, apprehend with our minds.” —Francis Schaeffer

Published Date: October 16, 2024

Jim Denison, PhD, is a cultural theologian and the founder and CEO of Denison Ministries. Denison Ministries includes DenisonForum.org, First15.org, ChristianParenting.org, and FoundationsWithJanet.org. Jim speaks biblically into significant cultural issues at Denison Forum. He is the chief author of The Daily Article and has written more than 30 books, including The Coming Tsunami, the Biblical Insight to Tough Questions series, and The Fifth Great Awakening.