Often Christians dismiss rules, as if the most joyful kind of life is the life without restraint, as if grace means we are free to live enslaved to our desires. But the gospel teaches a different way. Here are three ways Christians misunderstand obedience:
1. Jesus came to get rid of the law and thus to get rid of religious rules
2. It’s about Rules Versus Relationship
In some ways it is true in that we are not made righteous because we follow the rules (because we can’t) but because Jesus was righteous and followed all the rules on our behalf. Yet there cannot be a relationship without rules. For example, I’ve been married to my wife Angela for seventeen years. The basis for our marriage is not a contract, but a nurturing, growing relationship. And yet there are quite a few rules involved. In fact, the rules of our marriage are so important we chose to stand in front of hundreds of people and recite them to each other. We will stay married and faithful ‘in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, as long as we both shall live.’
This is pretty restrictive and yet the boundaries of our marriage—faithfulness, devotion, love—create an environment where love can flourish. Have you ever tried any kind of relationship without rules? Without any kind of boundaries? There is no trust. You don’t have a relationship actually. You have an acquaintance.
God created us to live in relationship with him and has given us rules by which we best flourish. Jesus himself said that the true test of love for him is not pithy expressions but concrete obedience. “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Action is the acid test of love. My father said he loved me, but I saw that he loved me when he got up every morning before dawn and went to work to support us. So it is with us, we prove our love for Jesus by doing what he asks us to do.
– Daniel Darling