“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though not I, but the grace of God was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Obedience to the gospel is a response. We don’t start the process; God does. Whatever we do, we do in response to the love of Him who made our salvation possible. And of course, that’s the way God wants us to respond. With all my heart. That is, each of the three components of our heart must respond appropriately to the gospel.
Intelligence. Sin resulted from Satan lying to Adam and Eve about God’s character (Genesis 3:1-6), and since then, lies have been at the root of mankind’s broken relationship with God. The gospel seeks to put truth back in its proper place, and if we intend to respond correctly to God, we must study, learn God’s truth, and conform our intellect to that truth.
Emotion. This part of the gospel is almost exclusively emphasized these days, but we also sometimes become dangerously unbalanced in our emotional response to God. God created us with a wide range of emotions, all of which are healthy. As we see in the Psalms, we are to respond to God with all our feelings – not just the warm and fuzzy feelings that most people feel best about.
Desire. In its most basic sense, sin is the rebellion of our will against God (1 John 3:4). The gospel offers not only to forgive our past disobedience but to transform us back into individuals who are submitted to the will of our Creator. Therefore without obedience there can be no proper response to God’s grace. As Jesus said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say to you?” (Luke 6:46)
In fact, there are many ways in which our response to God can be less than wholehearted, but most of them boil down to one thing: A response that is merely passive rather than active. In other words, we don’t really respond For the gospel; We are content just thinking about how merciful God is. But that was not the Apostle Paul’s response, and we need to consider his words again and again: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” And his grace towards me did not go in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, although it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
“Those things, O God, for which we pray, grant us also the grace to labor for them” (Anonymous).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
