Recently I shared with all of you that obedience comes from faith, according to Romans 1: 5. Obedience doesn't come from trying harder...it comes from believing right. As you hear and believe the message concerning Christ, which is the gospel, faith cometh forth from within you, and then from that faith comes the power to obey.

This is the scriptural equation:

Romans 10: 17 + Romans 1: 5 = Obedience

Faith cometh from hearing the message concerning Christ and obedience comes from faith. Again not from trying harder, but from believing right.

So let's go forward and believe right about God's love for us; His provision for our forgiveness and righteousness; and the fact that we can be in a covenant of peace with Him today.

The Bible says in Daniel 9:24 that when Jesus came He would bring in everlasting righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says 'He who knew no sin (Jesus) became sin for us, so that in Him (Jesus) we could become the righteousness of God.'

And how did we become the righteousness of God? By believing, truly believing in Jesus. So much so that we confessed Him as our Lord. When that happened we received the gift of His Righteousness. And remember as it says in Romans 5:17 it is a gift. We don't earn it. We believe and we receive. We, in essence, gave Him our sin, and received His righteousness.

Now, when we received the gift of His righteousness, at that very moment we also became holy in the Lord's eyes...we were no longer common man. Now we were set apart to God, consecrated to Him, holy. The Bible says in Hebrews 10 that by the sacrifice of Jesus we have been made holy.

So here is the progression---Jesus was obedient to the cross and was raised from the dead; we believed, truly believed; we received the gift of righteousness; we became holy in the Lord's eyes. (By the way, in the New Testament, when righteousness and holiness are mentioned in the same passage, it is always righteousness first and then holiness.)

Why is all this so important? Because right believing produces right living. As we believe that thru Jesus we are righteous and holy we find ourselves beginning to be who we believe we are thru Jesus---righteous, holy, and obedient. Remember Romans 1:5---Obedience comes from faith. We believe what the Bible says about Jesus and the Gospel and who we are in Him because we have believed and we find ourselves being more obedient by accident than we ever were able to be on purpose.

So I challenge you over the next few weeks, study everything you can on the Gospel---the love of the Lord, His forgivensss, His making you righteous and holy thru Jesus....and as you believe you will be empowered to obey....One more time... obedience comes from faith...obedience comes from belieiving right.