Obedience Is Not Optional

I must be frank in my feeling that a notable heresy has come into being throughout our evangelical Christian circles—the widely accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need Him as Savior and we have the right to postpone our obedience to Him as Lord as long as we want to!

This concept has sprung naturally from a misunderstanding of what the Bible actually says about Christian discipleship and obedience. It is now found in nearly all of our full gospel literature. I confess that I was among those who preached it before I began to pray earnestly, to study diligently and meditate with anguish over the whole matter.

The truth is that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred Scriptures. Peter makes it plain that we are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience” (1 Peter 1:2).

It seems most important to me that Peter speaks of his fellow Christians as “obedient children” (1 Peter 1:14). He was not giving them a command or exhortation to be obedient. In effect, he said, “Assuming that you are believers, I therefore gather that you are also obedient. So now, as obedient children, do so and so.”

Excerpted from Discipleship (p. 61-63).