The truth is that faith and obedience are two sides of the same coin and are always found together in the Scriptures.
As well try to pry apart the two sides of a half-dollar as to separate obedience from faith.
The two sides, while they remain together and are taken as one, represent good sound currency and constitute legal tender everywhere in the United States.
Separate them and they are valueless.
Insistence upon honoring but one side of the faith-obedience coin has wrought frightful harm in religious circles. Faith has been made everything and obedience nothing. The result among religious persons is moral weakness, spiritual blindness and a slow but constant drift away from New Testament Christianity.
Our Lord made it very plain that spiritual truth cannot be understood until the heart has made a full committal to it. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own (John 7:17).
The willing and the doing (or at least the willingness to do) come before the knowing.
Truth is a strict master and demands obedience before it will unveil its riches to the seeking soul. For those who want chapter and verse here are a few, and there are plenty more:
Matthew 7:21; John 14:21; First John 2:4, 3:24, 5:2; First Peter 1:2; James 2:14-26; Romans 1:5; and Acts 5:32.
To sum it up, saving faith is impossible without willing obedience.
To try to have one without the other is to be not a Christian, but a student of Christianity merely.
verse
Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
— Romans 1:5
thought
Genuine faith generates obedience to the one in whom our faith rests.
prayer
Lord, I trust You. Who else is worthy of my trust? Help me to extend that trust to areas of life where my trust is weak or nonexistent.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
No one has any right to believe that he is indeed a Christian unless he is humbly seeking to obey the teachings of the One whom he calls Lord.
Christ once asked a question (Luke 6:46) that can have no satisfying answer, Why do you call me, `Lord, Lord,and do not do what I say?
Right here we do well to anticipate and reply to an objection that will likely arise in the minds of some readers. It goes like this: We are saved by accepting Christ, not by keeping His commandments. Christ kept the law for us, died for us and rose again for our justification, and so delivered us from all necessity to keep commandments.
Is it not possible, then, to become a Christian by simple faith altogether apart from obedience? Many honest persons argue in this way, but their honesty cannot save their argument from being erroneous. Theirs is the teaching that has in the last fifty years emasculated the evangelical message and lowered the moral standards of the Church until they are almost indistinguishable from those of the world. It results from a misunderstanding of grace and a narrow and one-sided view of the gospel, and its power to mislead lies in the element of truth it contains. It is arrived at by laying correct premises and then drawing false conclusions from them.
verse
Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?
— Luke 6:46
thought
If Christ is really our Lord we will submit to His Lordship, not just in selected areas of life but in all we are.
For Christ to be Lord there can be no restrictions placed on His Lordship.
prayer
O Christ, I acknowledge You as Lord and I bow to Your Lordship in all of my life.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . the snare Epictetus warned against is the very one into which multitudes of professed Christians are falling, viz., mistaking the word for the deed and falsely assuming that if they know the teaching of the Christian faith they are therefore in that faith.
The One who said, Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways, and be wise?(Proverbs 6:6), would hardly be displeased if we were to humble ourselves to learn an important lesson from an old Greek philosopher.
It will help us to locate ourselves spiritually if we face up to the rather ungracious question: Are you a Christian in fact or merely a student of Christianity? A lot will depend upon the answer, and if ever we should be frank, it is when we examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith.
Multitudes tread a hazy path to death because they will not bring themselves under the searching eye of God.
They prefer to assume everything is all right, though so to assume is always dangerous and may be deadly.
verse
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
— James 2:17
thought
Are we living out our faith?
If not, is ours genuine faith? In Christ there is enablement but it has to be appropriated and exercised.
prayer
O God, may I increasingly live my faith in You by trusting You for Your power in daily living.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The genuine philosopher, Epictetus used to say, was not one who had read Chrysippus and Diogenes and so could discourse learnedly on the teachings of these men, but one who had put their teachings into practice.
Nothing else would satisfy him.
He refused to call any man a philosopher who showed evidence of pride, covetousness, self-love or worldly ambition.
Epictetus was not impressed by eloquence or learning. It was a waste of time for the student to recite the list of books he had read. What has your reading done for you he asked his students, and looked not to their words but to their lives for the answer.
He required of the young men who sought him out that they bring their lives into immediate harmony with the Stoic doctrines. If you don't intend to live like a philosopher, don't come back, he told them bluntly. He drew a sharp distinction between a philosopher in fact and a student of philosophy, and would have nothing to do with the mere student.
With him it was all or nothing. There was no middle ground.
This is not to advocate the teachings of the Stoics, but to assert that many of the heathen in their blindness appear to have more light than some Christians and that the children of this world often show more real wisdom than some of the children of God.
For the snare Epictetus warned against is the very one into which multitudes of professed Christians are falling, viz., mistaking the word for the deed and falsely assuming that if they know the teaching of the Christian faith they are therefore in that faith.
verse
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
— James 2:26
thought
Speaking "church" language, even quoting Scripture, is not the same as practicing it.
Faith will express itself in faith deeds not just words.
Is our practice consistent with our profession?
prayer
Lord, keep me from falling into the habit of "talking the talk" but not "walking the talk." In Jesus' name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It is fear of falling into the hands of God that makes us so eager to get things reduced to a formula. We feel that if we can learn the secret of salvation or the steps into the blessed life, we can control our future and (though we would not admit it) control God Himself to a large degree.
This saves face and preserves our self-confidence, but it also mutes the voice of power in the gospel and weakens the operations of God in the soul.
Only the despairing heart can know the inward witness. In the final analysis, no one can lead another to God. All he can do is to lead the inquirer to the door of the kingdom and urge him onward. Between God and the returning soul there is a zone of obscurity through which he cannot see. It is the light that no man can approach unto and past which no one can go on his feet or by means of reason or theological knowledge.
There faith must make its leap of pure trust into the arms of God crying with Job, Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him? (Job 13:15), or with Newton, O Lord, I trust in Thee completely, and if I go to hell I'll go down standing on Thy Word. It is this utter desperation that brings the witness, and yet I cannot tell anyone how to reach such a state. All I can do is to urge everyone to repent and believe on Jesus Christ. If the repentance is genuine and the faith real, all human confidence will come crashing down and the humbled soul will be forced to make its leap of faith alone.
The reader that cannot find his way from here is in all probability still impenitent.
And let him beware of seeking cheap comfort from a text jockey who will cry `Peace, peace. . . when there is no peace? (Jeremiah 6:14). He had better by far take his Bible and retire to the secret place to seek God alone. If there's hope for him, he'll find it there. But he'll find it nowhere else.
verse
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
— Luke 24:45
thought
Salvation is wholly God's work. By His enablement we can share the Good News and pray. It is God who opens minds to understand. Imperative is one-on-one encounter with God.
prayer
Father, no one can trust You for me, nor can I trust You for someone else. Lead me into full and genuine trust in You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
About the intimate workings of the Holy Spirit in the human heart there is a highly personal relationship in which no third person can share.
The sacred work of redemption was wrought in darkness. No strange eye could see what was taking place when the sins of the world entered the holy soul of Christ that He might die under their weight and thus make his life a guilt offering (Isaiah 53:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Matthew 27:46).
That there is a deep mystery about the new birth is plainly stated by our Lord. "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." "How can this be? Nicodemus asked. You are Israel's teacher,? said Jesus, and do you not understand these things?
I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? (John 3:8-12). It is bordering on the irreverent to suggest that this sovereign work of the Spirit can be induced at the will of a personal worker by means of a textual recipe.
The moment this is attempted, the Spirit withholds His illumination and leaves the worker and the seeker to their own designs.
And the tragic consequences are all about us. All any Christian worker can do is to point the inquirer to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29).
That was all John the Baptist did. He did not attempt to create faith in any of his hearers.
The Spirit alone can open the heart, as John well knew. It is our task to arrest the sinner's attention, give him the message of the cross, urge him to receive it and meet its conditions.
After that the seeker is on his own.
The individual is out of the hands of the instructors and helpers and in the hands of the God with whom he has to do.
verse
One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.
— Acts 16:14
thought
Let's be extremely careful that, in our zeal, we do not attempt to do what only God can do that is, to open the hearts of people. Our part is to present the Good News as clearly as we are able, faithfully praying that God will open hearts.
Are we so praying?
prayer
Lord, it is You who opens the hearts of people to respond to the Good News. Forgive me for trying to act as the heart opener.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
I once wrote of the need of the inner witness and pointed out that the lack of it is producing a strain of feeble Christians, weak, half-hearted and pitifully unsure of themselves.
A reader wrote to say in effect that she agreed with me fully and wanted very much to experience the inner witness but did not know how to proceed. She ended her letter with the request that I write something that would make the whole thing clear to her and others.
Much as I should like to comply with this request I am, of course, unable to do so
. Indeed the very notion that the things of God can be reduced to a formula is back of many of our spiritual failures. Christian workers, in their eager desire to get the seeker through, will, it seems, stop at nothing. They try to induce faith by baiting the seeker with Bible texts, all the while smiling and helping by voice and gesture. The whole performance, while undoubtedly well-intentioned, acts as a powerful suggestion to raise expectation and predispose the seeker's mind to accept whatever the worker desires that it should.
Then follows a series of questions and answers, the questions carefully put in such a way as to suggest the answers, ending usually with the familiar Well, if He doesn't cast you out, what does He do? Of course there is only one answer to that question and the bewildered seeker gives it,
Why, He takes me in.
This brings on a burst of Amens, along with a great deal of backslapping and handshaking, and another convert has been made.
That such a convert lacks inward assurance is not surprising.
verse
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.
— John 3:36
thought
How do you see into another person's heart to determine if that person is believing in the Son? You can't. You can only present the Good News as clearly as you are able, all the while trusting the Spirit to open that person's heart to believe. Then the issue is deeply personal, solely between that person and the Lord.
prayer
Lord, I cannot peer into another person's heart to know if they are fully trusting You. That I am fully trusting You I can know as I wait before You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
While it is true that theological truth is modified by its passage through the individual mind, it is also true that there is an anointing which teaches us about all things (1 John 2:27). It is the Holy Spirit, poured out into our hearts (Romans 5:5).
There is no danger that we go seriously astray from the truth if we walk humbly, trust completely, search the Scriptures daily, expect divine illumination and lean not on our own understanding.
Most assuredly the Holy Spirit will take control of our minds and help us to think like God.
Then will be fulfilled the Scripture which says, But we have the mind of Christ(1 Corinthians 2:16).
verse
'But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.'
— John 16:13-14
thought
Ultimately it is the Holy Spirit who takes what is Christ's and makes it known to us.
He may use human teachers or our own disciplined study but He, the Spirit, is the "Truth Guide."
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for the human teachers You have used to open Your Word to me.
But far greater thanks I give for the Holy Spirit who takes what is Christ's and makes it known to me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
That we must often receive new truth into minds already cluttered up with old truths, half-truths and scraps of downright error, and fit it into the total in such a way that it will appear right and feel?right to the heart, makes it extremely difficult for us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The camel may squeeze through the eye of the needle and be well on his way before some of us can rid ourselves of our hindrances and get our minds clear for the free reception of God's unadulterated truth.
Lest the bare statement of the facts tend to discourage someone, let us look at the other side of the question.
Undoubtedly God knows our frame and remembers that we are dust.
We should not berate ourselves too much for this weakness. Even an apostle had to have a vision from heaven to free him from some of his old misconceptions and open his heart to a new order of truth (Acts 10:9-16).
And we should remember that it does not take a perfect understanding of all truth to save a man and bring him into communion with God.
Furthermore, God has sent us a Teacher in the person of the Holy Spirit (John 16:12-15).
f we humble ourselves and come to God as little children, He will reveal His Son in us and favor us with revelations of spiritual truth unknown to the wise and the prudent (Matthew 11:25-27).
verse
They asked each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?'
— Luke 24:32
thought
What a difference it makes when God opens the Scriptures to us. A light goes on. Understanding is birthed. Prayerful study is our part. Illumination is His.
prayer
O Lord, that I may disciplined in the study of Your Word, not merely to achieve intellectual understanding but heart enlightenment.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/