Are you obeying Jesus alone as the Lord of your life? Are you trusting in the ways of God more than your own ways? In this video, Pastor David Platt exhorts Christians to obey the teachings of Christ not as a condition to knowing him but as a sign that we know him. The Bible is clear that we can do nothing to earn our salvation. Nevertheless, Pastor Platt makes a biblical case that obedience flows out of the believer who follows Christ. When we are truly trusting and following Christ as Lord of our lives, we will confess and turn away from our sins and turn to Christ.
- Jesus as Lord of Life
- Trusting in Jesus Alone
- Obeying Jesus’s Commands
Watch full message of True Assurance of Eternal Life
Are You Obeying Jesus as the Lord of Your life?
Are you obeying Jesus alone as Lord of your life? Are you obeying Jesus alone as Lord of your life? Ask that question. Examine your heart right now. Hear the word of God. This is where we finished in First John 2 last week. Verse 3, “Hear God’s word. This is not me speaking, this is God saying, “By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. By this we know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.'”
Those verses could not be any more clear or more critical. So first realize, this is not saying that we need to obey God in order to be saved from our sin. That would contradict everything we’ve already seen in the Bible. We see it over and over again in the Bible. We are saved from our sin by trusting in Jesus alone as Son of God and our savior. And then, this is how we know that trust is real, we do what Jesus says.
When Trust in Jesus Leads to Following Him
If we trust Him, then we follow Him. We keep His commandments. We obey His word. We walk in His way. Why? So that we can be saved? No. We keep His commandments because we have been saved. This is how we know we have been saved by Jesus, we live like Jesus. We trust Him, so we obey Him as the Lord of our lives. Obeying Jesus is not a condition for knowing Jesus. Obeying Jesus is a sign that we know Jesus. Which makes sense, doesn’t it?
A Christian is a Christ Follow
Like what is a Christian? Just go with common sense here. A Christian is a follower of Christ. So are you following Christ? And if the answer to that question is no, then it really doesn’t make sense to call yourself like Christian. It’s a sad commentary on Christianity in our day, when so many people profess to be Christians, yet their lives show so little to no fruit of following Christ, beyond maybe church attendance, and moral decency. But again, you can have, do those things and not be a Christian. The question is, are you obeying Jesus alone as the Lord of your life?
Now, I want to be careful here, much like I mentioned last week, the picture here is definitely not holy perfection. It’s not that Christian never sins. If you do sin, then you should doubt your salvation? No. The whole point of the end of First John 1, beginning of First John 2, is that, if when you sin, you confess your sin. That’s just it. For the Christian, when he or she sins, there is confession, repentance, there’s sorrow over sin. There’s a turning from sin, a desire for change, a working by God’s grace to obey Jesus as the Lord of your life. That’s the word here. It’s a great word. In the original language, the New Testament here, when it’s talking about obeying, it means desiring obedience. It’s not you have to, it’s you desire. You want to follow Jesus. You’re working in your life to obey Him, because you trust Him, and His word and His ways.
So when I talk to the couple who is living together outside of marriage, and they say, “We are Christians.” Living together, outside of marriage, the reality is they are deceived. God has spoken clearly about this, so it’s legitimate at that point to ask, okay, are they followers of Jesus? Because it sure looks like they’re deliberately disobeying Jesus.
And if, when I say that in love, and show in God’s word, they say, “Oh, we see that in God’s word now. Yes, yes. We need to trust His ways. So we confess our sins. One of us is going to move out. We want to obey Jesus.” Then walk away thinking, that sure looks like they’re followers of Christ.
But if on the other hand, when seeing this in God’s word, they say, “Yeah, we’re still going to live together anyway.” That’s going to show it’s doubtful that they’re followers of Jesus. And that may sound strong, but even as I say that, I realize, I’m not using language as strong as the Bible is. The Bible says clearly in this situation, “If you say you know him, but you don’t keep his commandments,”, you don’t even desire or want to work to keep his commandments, “You’re a liar. The truth is not in you.” John does not say to that couple, “Well, as long as you said some words in a moment in the past, you’re okay.”
Are You Obeying Jesus?
So I ask you, the Bible asks you, are you obeying Jesus alone as the Lord of your life? Is the posture of your heart toward Jesus, I want to follow you? I trust that your word is better than my way. So I want to do whatever you want me to do. And I know I’m not sinless in that. I know I still sin, but I sure want sin less, and less, and less. And I want to know you more, and more, and more. I want to obey you more, and more, and more. This is how you know you have eternal life. Are you obeying Jesus as the Lord of your life?
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
