Only Two Steps

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Ja1.22 NKJV

My daughter Sarah and I trade quotes. Every week I write a new one on her bathroom mirror, and she leaves her favorites on my laptop written on 3X5 cards. One which has passed between us is taken from Rick Warrens best seller, Purpose Driven Life. ''Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a life time of Bible discussions.” I can still hear one of my college profs echoing the same message, “To know and not do, is not to know.”
In the final analysis, obedience will be the measure of our lives before God. Those who protest by saying that this is a works based approach need only to remember the commandment, of Jesus. “Repent, and believe in the gospel." Mk.1.15
Once the gospel is heard, there are really only two steps we ever learn as a Christian. The first is to repent and the second is to believe. The essence of repentance is relinquishing our will to His. The essence of faith is transferring our trust to Him. The first is necessary to take the second and the second completes the first. One without the other is no step at all. In our initial obedience we confess our inability to reform and we repent of any attempt to stand on our flawed record. We then transfer our trust to the finished work of Christ and stand on His record. Two steps; repent and believe. Scripture refers to them as the “obedience of faith.”
The Christian journey does not end, but in truth, begins here. And, the same two steps are repeated over and over again, and, their applications many. I repent of living under my lordship and express my faith in obedience to His. Every transformation expresses them both; Not my will, but thine. To know this and not to do it, is not to know it. 8/2/07 ts