Keep The Horse Before The Cart

By Michael Delaney

There is a possibility of an honest mistake in a decision taking in good faith. This is typical of the way we apply some of the biblical principles our Christian life journey. An example of this is when obedience to the law is placed ahead the obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is an absolute necessity for obedience in order for the grace of God to effectively work in our personal experience.  The question is what kind of obedience.  Here are two references describing the true obedience required to make the salvation experience real to us as individuals by the grace of God;

And to you who are trouble rest with us, when the Lord Jesus chall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. (II Thessalonians 1:7)

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ II Thessalonians 1:8

Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. (I Peter 4:16)

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (I Peter 4:17)

Obedience to the gospel is not synonymous to obedience to the law.  The Bible is plain that by the works of the law (legalistic law keeping in order to produce righteousness or merit salvation) shall no flesh be justified ... Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Galatians 2:16

Therefore obedience to the gospel is something distinctly different than mechanical law keeping.  This obedience is a heart of obedience to the truth as it is in Christ. It is an obedience of surrender and submission to the will of God and a willful compliance to allow self to be crucified in order that the very life of Jesus may be manifested in the experience.  This life of Jesus is always in perfect conformity to God's holy law and so it can be said that when we obey the gospel, Christ is formed within and His Holy and perfect life is counted as our own.  This is justification by faith.  Then, for the rest of the believers life, until death or until the second coming of Christ, the power of grace through faith produces that life of Jesus – a life that is perfect in law keeping – in our experience according to our genuine faith response.  Therefore, obedience to the gospel always produces obedience to the law.  It is never the other way around.  To say that law obedience will produce obedience to the gospel is like putting the cart before the horse.  Galatians 2:20 is the guiding principle for obeying the gospel. The following is my personal paraphrase of that text:

Galatians 2:20 Paraphrased

“I have been crucified with Christ when I was IN HIM two thousand years ago, (2 Corinthians 5:14), yet I remain alive!  Yet it is not the fallen, carnal man that I once was that lives BUT NOW it is Christ living in me!  And the perfect life I lived IN HIM when He carried me within Himself two thousand years ago is now being manifested in my personal experience!  Yea, it is even by the VERY FAITH OF JESUS HIMSELF, that He graciously imparts to me that I am overcoming this fallen, sinful flesh that still encumbers me, even as, through perfect faith, He overcame that self-same fallen sinful nature when He assumed it because of His unspeakable love for me and made the ultimate and eternal sacrifice of Himself in order to save me.”

Interestingly Galatians 2.21 says, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

So to conclude the matter, it is evident that we cannot produce the righteousness that is required for salvation by keeping the law.  Only by obedience to the gospel will true law obedience be produced as the fruit of the gospel, indicating that Christ and His righteousness is now manifested in us through faith by grace.  Thus both God and His Holy Law are honored to His glory.  Let us therefore keep the horse, “obedience to the gospel,” before the cart, “obedience to the law.”

Michael Delaney writes from Orlando FL,
E-mail: mdelaney6@cfl.rr.com