"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
(John 3:36)
John the Baptist couples faith and obedience. I don’t think that the two should ever be separated. I agree with James, “faith without works is dead.” (Jam 2.17) and Paul, “walk in a manner worthy of your calling.” (Eph 4.1) It’s like throwing a live grenade into a room full of soldiers. If they believe it is a real grenade, they will respond. Now I’m not going to get into the business of evaluating how fast they moved. That’s another part of the Christian life called zeal. But the fact is they moved! This demonstrates they truly believe it was a grenade. Faith is Jesus should evoke us to action. Obedience is a product of true faith. Where we get into trouble is when a person says “I only need to believe,” insinuating that because they have obtained the data on Jesus somehow that saves them. The demons in Hell have the data (Jam 2.19). Or the opposite is just as dangerous; “I’m going to Heaven because I’m a good person.” We couldn’t be good enough in a million years (Eph 2.8-9). So it is faith in Christ. That same faith moves us to obey Him or it isn’t really faith at all. (2 Cor 13.5) FJ30
For questions or comments drop me a line at charleswood1@gmail.com
