The Obedience Agreement

I am YHWH your Elohim; walk in My statutes, and 
keep My judgments, and do them;
And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign 
between me and you, that ye may know that I am 
YHWH your Elohim.                                         
Ezekiel 20:19-20


I was reading this in a Sabbath service listing and a little something clicked.  In this verse, God is telling his people to walk in His ways and follow His word.  He says that this obedience to His ways is the sign between God and the believer of the covenant of their salvation.  It is obedience to Gods ways that sets apart from the rest of the world and is a proof to them that we are God's chosen.  If we as believers are not following the ways of God, there is nothing to distinguish us from the rest of the world.


When one looks at the Churches today, does one really see anything different than what the rest of the world is doing?  I got crickets going off in my head here.  As a matter of fact, in many cases when one starts bringing up obedience to Gods laws in the church, one is met with mighty resistance.  They will argue that they don't have to keep Gods ways any more.  Names will be hurled your way, like heretic, false teacher, Judaiser, and the like.


Now, look at this verse logically.  If God is saying that obedience to His ways are a sign  between God and His people, then rejection of that obedience would be a sign of....  rebellion?  Jesus says that if you love me, keep my commandments.  If you are not, then do you really love Him?  If you are being disobedient, that is a sign of disrespect, is it not?  It is at least a sign that we are not keeping up our end.  And yes, there are consequences.


People have this fear that somehow obedience is a bad thing; that somehow they are stepping outside of grace and will be judged by a law they cannot keep.  This is not the case.  One does not follow rules with the expectation that God somehow owes them salvation.  One is obedient because God in His love has shown us grace and mercy in that while we were yet sinners He sent His only begotten Son into the world to take away our sinfulness.  We should want to do what God wants us to do, out of love and gratefulness for Him.


God's ways may seem difficult sometimes, but we have been given the Holy spirit to reside inside of us to lead us, guide us, steer us.  He will strengthen us to do what is right if we will ask Him to.  He will embolden us to break away from the world and live as a covenant people.


He knows this is hard.  It is not in our nature to do what God wants us to do.  This is why so many people try to stamp out any remembrance of God because each time they are reminded of God, they are reminded that they way they are living is wrong and that they should be submitting themselves to do what God says do.  We should not be finding this kind of hostility in the church when we talk about obedience, but we do.  It is sad.


The time for playing church is over.  It is time to get serious about God and being obedient and subservient to Him.  We cannot go on praising God on a Sunday, and then living like the world the rest of the week.  Sitting in the pew once a week then rushing home so you don't miss the football game and drink beer just doesn't cut the mustard.  We need to get serious about our faith, and that means getting serious about obeying our creator.


It is our obedience that associates us together and with the Lord.  It is our identity card.  People should be looking at us and seeing something different than what they see in the world.  We talk about Christ living through us, and what was it that Christ did?  He lived in perfect obedience to the Father in all things.  Do you think for one minute that Jesus would be happy with us not following God's ways when He sacrifice himself on the cross so that we could be empowered unto obedience?  God hates sin and sin is defined in I John 3:4 as transgression of God's law.  If there is no law, there is no sin.  If there is no sin, there was no need for a savior.  If there was no need for a savior than Christ died in vain, and we are in an awful lot of trouble for eternity.


I will close with these great words from Peter.  2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.