Out of Devotion, not Obligation

And Hezekiah did according to this throughout all Judah. And he did what is good and what is right and what is faithful before Yahweh his God. –  2 Chronicles 31.20, LEB

A good summary of the reforms under Hezekiah.  He did not carry them out in order to make himself look better,  or because he wanted to be dictator of the people,  or just because he could because,  hey,  he was the king of everything.  He carried out his reforms because he loved God and wanted to do what pleased him.

I was listening to a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones yesterday in which he said essentially the same thing.  He was preaching on Rom 8.15-16,  where Paul says that we have not been given a spirit of fear leading to slavery,  but a spirit of adoption by which we cry out,  Abba,  Father. When we come to faith we do not have to follow God’s law out of fear that he will crush us if we do not.  We are his adopted children,  we follow him (as Hezekiah did) because he is our father and we love him.

We do what is good and what is right and what is faithful because we belong to God and want to please our Abba,  our Papa. This is not out of obligation,  but out of devotion.

“The Stumbling Block of the Cross”

“But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.” (Galatians 5:11, NASB95)

Martin Lloyd-Jones says it better than I could.

“But God…”

“We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us,made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!” (Ephesians 2:3–5 HCSB)

I love this passage.  Paul paints a bleak picture of our life before Christ in Eph 2.1-4.  We were dead in our trespasses and sins (vs. 1); we were children of wrath (vs. 3); we were firmly enslaved to our desires and our flesh (vs. 3).

“But God…”

Paul links our time before coming to faith with our time after coming to faith by these two little words which are so important.  We were lost.  We were children of wrath.  We deserved punishment for sins.  We were in a hopeless situation.  “But God.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones did a whole sermon on these two words and it is fantastic!  Take the time to listen to it.