Chapell's motives for obedience

In his book on expository preaching(Chapell, Bryan. Christ-centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005. Print.), Bryan Chapell differentiates between grace-based motives for change and obedience over and against those which are grace-less. He lists these positive reasons for change and obedience:

• A response to the love shown us by Christ
• A response through adulation of the mercy of God in Christ
• A response of love to others loved by God
• A response through a proper love for self in Christ

Previous to these points, Chapell writes, "Guilt for sin drives us to the cross, but love for God that is the fruit of his grace should propel us from it ... Obedience naturally follows as loving service to our faithful God becomes our delight ... When explanation of God's full provision and unfailing love does not accompany exhortations for corrected behavior and right conduct, then spiritual damage must occur." (318)

Though Chapell is writing to preachers, consider this as someone who preaches to yourself. Regularly and unceasingly remind yourself of God's great mercy, love, and grace extended to you in Christ. The gospel, which you should daily preach to yourself, is evidence of this. But, do not omit exhorting yourself to obedience and right behavior which are actions fueled by the motives listed above. For me, obedience stemming from desire and delight in my crucified and glorified Savior is the goal I am aiming at.

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Reading the Classics with Challies - Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Chapter 2

John Murray's second chapter in Redemption Accomplished and Applied is rich and deep. It is a chapter one could spend a long time investigating, understanding and applying to one's life.

I particularly liked the section dealing with Christ and His learning obedience:

Hebrews 5:8 - Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

I guess I have sometimes found the concept of a perfect man needing to learn obedience difficult. I did not doubt Christ's perfection, however I couldn't articulate or even solve the dilemna in my mind. Murray provides some very helpful insight. Murray states:

When we examine the passages the following lessons become apparent. (1) It was not through mere incarnation that Christ wrought our salvation and secured our redemption. (2) It was not through mere death that satisfaction was secured. (3) It was not simply through the death on the cross that Jesus became the author of salvation. (4) The death upon the cross, as the climactic requirement of the price of redemption, was discharged as the supreme act of obedience; it was not death resistlessly inflicted but death upon the cross willingly and obediently wrought. (22)

Murray goes on to explain and summarize how a sinless man, indeed perfect, could be perfected:

It was not, of course, a perfecting that required the sanctification from sin to holiness. He was always holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. But there was the perfecting of development and growth in the course and path of his obedience-he learned obedience. The heart and mind and will of our Lord had been moulded-shall we say forged?-in the furnace of temptation and suffering. And it was in virtue of what he had learned in that experience of temptation and suffering that he was able, at the climactic point fixed by the arrangements of infallible wisdom and everlasting love, to be obedient unto death, , even the death of the cross. It was only as having learned obedience in the path of innerrant and sinless discharge of the Father's will that his heart and mind and will were framed to the point of being able freely and voluntarily to yield up his life in death upon the accursed tree. (23)

Murray goes on to say that Christ's learning obedience was a 'becoming equipped' with resources necessarry to meet the requirements he would face.

I'll conclude with one more quote from Murray:

It is obedience learned through suffering, perfected through suffering, and consummated in the suffering death upon the cross that defines his work and accomplishment as the author of salvation. It was by obedience he secured our salvation because it was by obedience he wrought the work that secured it. (24)

The Conception of Indwelling Sin

From the fifth chapter of Triumph Over Temptation by John Owen entitled The Conception of Indwelling Sin:

Four aspects of this conception for consideration.

1. The will is the cause of obedience or disobedience. "The will actualizes sin or disobedience." (105)
2. The will consents to sin. "The will does this in two ways. Sometimes...the will becomes wholly convinced, weakened, or conquered...On the other hand, someone's will to sin may come in conflict with his other desires." (105-6)
3. The will may not completely consent to sin. "No Christian will absolutely and fully consent to sin, because within his will resides the principle to do good...The principle of grace within a Christian inclines him to do good. Grace rules, not sin, in the believer. (106)
4. The will may be conditioned by tendencies. "Repeated acts of the will to sin often produce a disposition and inclination toward sin. This proneness leads to easy consent." (106)

How does the deceit of sin lead to the consent of the will?

1. The will consents to sin as a result of sin's deception. "The conception of sin always occurs as the result of some deception. Sin seeks to mix up the emotions, or mislead the reasoning, or weaken the will in some way." (107)
2. The will chooses the good and consents to nothing unless it has the appearance of good. "This may be an immediate good, or a temporary good, or the appearance of goodness, or the circumstances of what is good...But when sin deceives the mind, it paints what is absolutely evil as having as apparently good appearance." (108)
3. The will operates as a rationale appetite. "Rationally, it is guided by the mind. As an appetite, it is also excited by the emotions. It is influenced in its exercise by both of these faculties." (109)

Ways God prevents the fruition of sin.

1. God's providence in outward acts obstructs the power of sin.
2. God's grace in inward changes diverts the will to sin.