Blog-votional: Life is Not a Sitcom: The Struggle to Live the Christian Life

My mother loves me dearly and I would bet she would have nothing but good things to say about me and my brother, Roger.  Sure, I was a better kid than he was.  He was always punching me and starting the arguments.  Hey, this is my blog and I can twist the story how I like.  There.  Anyway, my Mom would say great things about us not because we were kids without faults, failures, fusses, and fights; but she would say we were great (near perfect) because of her heart of love and her ability to sense that Roger and I love her dearly.  We did not always obey Mom or Dad.  We made mistakes.  Yet of us Mom will say, “Our sons are some of the best you could hope for.  They never gave us a bit of trouble.”  We blush at the very suggestion.  You see, Mom does not measure us by an absolutely legal obedience.  She measures Roger and me by our obedient spirits.  Our propensity, our desire, our determination to obey Mom and Dad — that’s what Mom measured, and she covered our defects with her gracious love and compassion.  Now that sounds like something Jesus does for us everyday!  Well, it is.

We’re discussing the struggle to live a victorious Christian life.  Victorious Christian living is more than just “let go and let God” make you victorious.  Foolish thinking.  The Scriptures are clear that we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.”  We are to “present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy…”  We are to “seek you first the kingdom of God and then…”  Dozens of additional phrases from the Bible could be listed.  So, what if we try to be obedient and fail?  That’s the question of the day or this blog.

Briefly, there are two concepts to keep in mind when you consider obedience to the Lord.  One is the concept of legal obedience and the other is the concept of gracious obedience.  The first is the efforts in our fleshly nature to obey with an absolute, perfect obedience without a single failure.  It is a frustrating “works salvation” that is based on grit and grunt work to be in the Lord’s favor.  This is futile and I’ve “been there, done that!”

But there is such a thing as gracious obedience.  This is a loving and sincere spirit of obedience motivated by God’s grace to us.  It is often defective, but it is accepted by God and He covers the blemishes by the work of the Cross of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Through divine grace, God looks at our hearts, not at our works or human efforts.  He looks at me and says in effect, “Parker, with all your defects, you have a heart that desires to be obedient to Me.  You have a spirit that wills to submit to My Lordship, even though you frequently fail.”

The whole point of the cross of Jesus Christ is that He died, bearing the full penalty for our sins and failings, so that His shed blood can cover whatever is defective in our day-to-day obedience. 

Lest you get the wrong idea, return to my opening illustration about Mom.  That is exactly how Jesus Christ treats us everday!

Think about these words: “He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me” (John 14:21).  True knowledge of Christ should result in a spirit of gracious obedience…a propensity, desire, and determination to submit to Him in word, thought and deed.  That’s what Jesus measures, and He (listen to this!) has already covered our defects with His shed blood on the cross.  Now, it just doesn’t get any better than that!

Dr. Stan Parker