When does God despise obedience? Why would God command us to do things in specific ways with full knowledge of our depravity? These are not simple questions, and it will take many layers to work toward understanding the beauty, mercy, glory, and goodness of God in our obedience and motivation. Despite the seeming complexity, the through line is the simplicity of Christ crucified and risen to become our righteousness in deeds and desires of omission and commission.
Right Sacrifices and Wrong Obedience
God instituted the sacrificial system, so why was He displeased by the obedience of His people to follow it? Amos 5:22 identifies the issue. Psalm 51:16-17 identifies the problem as well and also points toward the answer. God despises obedience when our actions become mere rituals disconnected from His character and devoid of His steadfast love.
Hebrews 9 outlines God’s perfect plan foreshadowed and embodied in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Sacrifices rightly offered were always more than ritualistic obedience. They were copies of heavenly things that pointed toward Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice, not in handmade representations, but in the eternal reality of redemption in Heaven itself. Sacrifices rightly offered are those done in complete obedience, with pure motivation, and in connection with the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
The Sermon that Exposes Us
As Jesus “went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23), He went up the mountain to sit down and teach. Love my friends? I’m not great at maintaining even those most precious relationships. Love my enemies? That is an impossible command. Jesus’ sermon on the mount intensifies the reality of our depravity by highlighting the necessity of pure inner motivation rather than mere outward compliance.
The sermon on the mount is, in part, the great equalizer of anyone under the mistaken impression that they might scrape by in personal adherence to the law. Behavioral modification isn’t enough. The notion of innocent, law-abiding Christians is an illusion. We are all sinners in word, deed, and desire. Matthew 5:48 reminds us of what God requires, and Romans 3:21-28 explains how the justification of sinners takes place.
Out of Nothing, Outside Ourselves
But if the sermon on the mount exposes our inability, how then is faithful obedience even possible? Latin is a dead language, but two terms help us understand our natural status and how God supernaturally works. Ex nihilo means “out of nothing” and typically refers to creation. God created “ex nihilo.” Extra nos means “outside of ourselves” and usually refers to salvation. Salvation is “extra nos.”
Out of nothing, God creates faith outside ourselves. God works through the means of grace by His promises. He promised that baptism kills and resurrects (Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12). He promised that His body and blood in the supper were for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). Faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17)! He will do what He promises, won’t He? In the emptiness of our incapable depravity, He gives grace upon grace. We cannot bridge the gap between our obedience, motivation, and God’s expectation of righteousness in word, will, and deed. Out of that deadness and outside of ourselves, Christ’s death and resurrection deliver life just as God promised. Yet, we must be vigilant to rightly understand and live in light of these glorious, gracious realities.
Legalism and Antinomianism
Legalism is the elevation of the law to the level of Christ’s sufficient work on the cross. In contrast, antinomianism is the relegation of the law to a level beneath God’s righteous and required commands. Both of these are a constant danger to the church. If you need to strike the balance, read the book of Romans. The oracles of God are a blessing. The law of God is holy, righteous, and good! Yet, it is insufficient to justify.
The law of God is good. Psalm 119 is a powerhouse testimony to this indisputable fact. Across 176 verses, this acrostic Psalm celebrates the blessedness of God’s statutes, promises, testimonies, laws, precepts, and righteous rules. “Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness” (Psalm 119:137-138). But the law in all its goodness (Romans 7:12) could not satisfy the righteous demands of God within us (Romans 8:3-4). Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. We constantly struggle to understand that the law of God must not be “relaxed” while simultaneously understanding that only Christ has fulfilled it in word, will, and deed on our behalf. How can we best remember that Christ has lived it while we can only live in light of it?
Law and Gospel
Finding the middle ground between these two extremes through a proper distinction between law and gospel is what we see in scripture. Muddle the two, and you strike at the very heart of justification by faith alone. What distinguishes the law from the gospel? The law says that you must do while the gospel says it is done. The law threatens while the gospel promises. The law proclaims condemnation, while the gospel announces justification.
Read through the book of Galatians, and you’ll see this distinction. Paul adamantly emphasizes that a person is not justified by works of the law (Galatians 2:15-16). Is the law contrary to God’s promises? Certainly not! (Galatians 3:21). Yet, look at the way that Paul describes believers’ relationship to the law in his confrontation with Peter: “But when I saw their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.” It’s relying on the works of the law that brings the curse (Galatians 3:10). We are justified by faith, and as believers, we are called to live our lives in alignment with the truth of the gospel. However, our faithfulness to living in such alignment is not what justifies. Christ does that (Romans 7:21-25 and Romans 8:1-4)!
Go and Learn
In two instances in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 and points the Pharisees to the importance of contemplating mercy. The first is after Matthew’s call, and Jesus is reclining at the table with sinners. The second is after the disciples eat heads of grain on the Sabbath. The Pharisees cannot see past their righteousness enough to discern the nature of God’s disposition toward humanity nor His purpose in sending His only begotten Son. Knowing the law full well, they missed the incarnate word standing in front of them! His words to them on both occasions? Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” We must not deceive ourselves that it’s others who must go and learn. We need to go and learn what this means.
When it comes to obedience and motivation, we tend to think in terms of carrots and sticks. Heaven is a carrot. Hell is a stick. The law is a stick. The gospel is a carrot. But our God is doing something greater than pushing or prodding us along to jump through behavioral hoops. We are not lab rats in His cosmic maze. He supernaturally creates faith where there was none and then faithfully sustains it through His promises. The paradox of obedience and motivation is that, on the one hand, God requires perfection, and on the other hand, He embodies it and applies it to all who believe in Christ by faith.
Why does God despise heartless obedience? God despises heartless obedience because we can do it on our own. It bypasses Christ. God despises heartless obedience because it is merely transactional in nature. He is a relational God.
What does obedience require? Obedience requires an alignment of actions with scripture as well as a posture of the heart attuned with Christ by faith. Obedience necessitates not only our deeds but also our wills to operate in alignment with God’s truth. In other words, obedience requires supernatural intervention. In the final analysis, the paradox of obedience and motivation is no paradox at all. Obedience doesn’t earn righteousness—it reflects the righteousness already given by grace through faith.
