Obedience unto Righteousness

Rom 6:16 - Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

When we come to faith in Christ, He forgives us, redeems us and then clothes us in His righteousness by His blood and sacrifice, he paid the debt that we could never repay. From there, the Lord then leads His children in the paths of righteousness for His namesake (Ps 23), as the title verse states, we have a new master now, and we no longer serve our old master of sin. With this new master, we now forsake our sin by crucifying the deeds of the flesh and putting them to death. We practice walking in the Spirit every day by yielding to and obeying its promptings, this is what is meant by “obedience UNTO righteousness”. In doing that, we progressively grow in practical, outward righteousness as a fruit. That is why Jesus said: “For I say unto you, That except YOUR righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20). This is not referring to the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, but to the practical righteousness that comes forth as a fruit and result of that imputation and our ongoing faith and obedience, which is why Jesus phrased it: YOUR righteousness. That is the context of this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was referring specifically to those who would think it’s ok now to break the commandments or teach others that it was ok to do so, it is not. 

One of the great errors in modern day teaching in the Church is the idea that once we come to Christ, our obedience to, and practice of righteousness is somehow irrelevant or optional, it is not. Not only is it what we are called to, it shows who our true master is, either of sin unto death or of obedience unto life, and you can’t serve two masters. In fact, the Apostle Paul ties in not just “rewards” for our practice of obedience and righteousness, but everlasting life itself: But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and *the end*, EVERLASTING LIFE (Rom 6:22). If a person claiming Christianity does not bear fruit unto holiness, they will not have *the end*, namely, everlasting life. We cannot decouple salvation from discipleship and ongoing faith and obedience, though many try to. Jesus said: By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples (Jn 15:8). Contrary to the notion that focusing on our discipleship and obedience somehow “takes the glory for ourselves” It actually glorifies the Father when His children walk in discipleship and bear much fruit. That is the work that Christ does in us as we follow Him, It states in Luke 9:62: And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. So, our fitness to enter the kingdom of God is inextricably linked to our ongoing faith and the fruit of obedience unto righteousness that it bears.

Now, some will argue that this can’t be true because then it would contradict the teaching of salvation being a free gift as outlined in Eph 2:8-9 - For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. But that deduction is driven by a common misunderstanding and misapplication of that passage. No amount of our own obedience could have ever purchased our redemption, only Christ could do that and Eph 2:8-9 simply states that salvation cannot be *obtained* through the works of the law, or the practice of good deeds apart from faith in Christ. It was NEVER meant to imply that once we obtain the gift, we can then just live however we please and are not required to abide in Christ, continue in the faith and bear fruit, because we are. Jesus makes it very clear that any branch that does not abide in Him and bear fruit is cut off and cast into the fire (Jn 15:2-6). The Apostle John emphasizes this by saying that the practice of righteousness is the mark of being a true child of God in 1 Jn 3:10 - By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

True, saving faith is so much more than just mere mental assent or some detached, nebulous form of “belief” that doesn’t radically impact our life and change its course, because it will. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, ALL things are become new (2 Cor 5:17). And as an integral part of being a new creation in Christ, we under the new master: But God be thanked, that ye *were* the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants (slaves) of righteousness (Rom 6:17-18).