The Motive for Obedience

The Motive for Obedience

The meaning of God’s Law also provides the motive for our obedience.

“When your son asks in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.’” Deuteronomy 6:20, 21

The meaning of God’s Law also provides the motive for our obedience. This should be especially so for the believer in Jesus Christ.

What does the Law of God mean? It means that God has set His love on a people whom He has redeemed from slavery and degradation. He is determined to renew and restore this people, so that they make His glory known to the ends of the earth. The Law of God provides the moral and spiritual renovation God’s people require in order to fulfill His Kingdom purposes.

When we understand God’s meaning in giving us His Law we should be motivated to embrace that meaning, particularly if we have come to know and benefit from the redemption He has accomplished for us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The motive to obey God’s Law is inherent in the meaning of that Law. God means for us to glorify Him. He has saved us and is equipping us for that grand and lofty calling. Our motive in obeying His Law is thus to enter into His holy and righteous and good meaning for our lives, so that we might realize His eternal purposes and blessings as fully as possible.

We do not submit to the rule of God’s Law in order to be saved. Having been saved, redeemed from sin and death by our Lord Jesus Christ, we surrender to the rule of Law in order that we may love God and our neighbor in good works that glorify Him.

The psalmist says that the righteous person meditates day and night in God’s Law (Ps. 1). Would you like to get started in this discipline? Order a copy of The Ground for Christian Ethics and The Law of God. The first will explain the importance of God’s Law and guide you in taking up the practice of daily reading and meditation. The second provides all the statutes, precepts, and rules of God’s Law organized under their proper number of the Ten Commandments.

–

In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.