Key point #1: Faith and Obedience
Today, given that the Holy Spirit is available to those who have been born of Him, the law of God written by Him on our hearts individually is the standard by which we are measured. And so, the Law which was written on physical objects in the natural realm in the Old Testament times has been transformed to the Law that is continually being written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit if and when we listen to what He says and then do it.
Accordingly, God still wants us to obey His commandments (1 John 2:3-6), only that this time, His commandments are not written in Law books but on our hearts, if and when we listen to what He commands us and we do it. It is for this reason that the writer of Hebrews gives a stern warning to those who do not listen and to those who do listen but do not obey: do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (Hebrews 3:15). To not obey the commandments of God given directly to your heart is called “rebellion”, and it is called “an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God”.
Today, those who are led by the written down Law of Moses need the Law of Moses for a want (a loss) of hearing His Spirit for themselves. These are the ones who do not yet recognise Jesus as the Son of God. And, these are the ones who do know of Him as the Son of God but who are yet to be born of His Spirit (John 3:6, 1 Peter 1:3, 1 John 5:1).
Those who are born of His Spirit have literally received a totally regenerated, new spirit within them (John 3:6) and can now hear Him clearly speak to them directly and personally, if only they would choose to obey Him. Then, those who are led by the Spirit of God, these “are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
Where obedience to the Law of Moses brought about right standing in the Old Testament, it is obedience to the Law of the Spirit that now brings about right standing with God in the New Testament (Romans 8:1-4).
“Wait a minute!”, I hear some say, “It is faith alone, not ‘faith plus’ anything else that brings right standing with God”. Indeed, faith = obedience. That is exactly what the writer of Hebrews is saying.
Without obedience to God’s commandsments (His Spirit’s promptings) there is no faith. And, without faith there is no obedience to God’s word (James 2:18, 1 John 2:3). Faith = obedience to God’s word. In Hebrews He says, ‘not obeying what God is (continually) speaking to your heart is as good as the disobedience of the Israelites in the desert who were rewarded for their lack of faith by being denied entrance to God’s rest – the Promised Land’ (Hebrews 3:7-18). To the believer who is genuinely born of God the Bible says, when you hear His voice do not harden you heart. That is a clear warning because such behaviour has a clear consequence – the consequence of the unbelieving Israelites in the desert. In other words, ‘listen to what He is saying to you (not what He is saying to someone else) and do as He has commanded you’. (Top)