Originally posted: 07/28/2019
Case: “the actual state of things.”
Conformity: “compliance or acquiescence; obedience.”
God in His grace has given all that is needed to walk in obedience.
He does not expect compliance from strangers; He addresses His children, laying out His Case for Conformity based on the actual state of things: the relationship He sovereignly chose to establish.
“You are the sons of the Lord your God… 2 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth,” (14:1-2).
Consider His Case for Conformity
- His Case for Conformity… you are the sons of the Lord
- You are the sons of the Lord
- His Case for Conformity… He is your God
- … the Lord your God
- His Case for Conformity… you are set apart as holy
- For you are a holy people to the Lord your God
- His Case for Conformity… you are chosen
- the Lord has chosen you
- His Case for Conformity… you are His own possession
- to be a people for His own possession
How do we respond to His Case for Conformity?
Throughout all of human history the Lord God has made clear the actual state of things, His Case for Conformity, and His gracious provision for obedience: we love, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). It is His loving work in us that enables and empowers obedient surrender to Him Who so loved us.
He does not ask us to fulfill His commands in our own efforts. It is by faith in what He alone has and can do that moves us to reverent awe and desire to work out what He has worked within.
… work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, (Philippians 2:12-13).
He does not ask us to do; His Case for Conformity is a call to be. The actual state of things is found in what He alone has determined to do, to conform us to the image of His Son.
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, (Romans 8:29).
As He lovingly conforms us to the image of His Son, our life will grow more and more to resemble His Life.
Let us continually renew our minds in His truth: We are His children; He is our God; we are to be set apart as holy for we are chosen to be His own possession, to be conformed to the image of His Son.
As we continually trust in His Truth, in what He alone can and will do, depending on His Holy Spirit as we seek Him in His Word, and daily place our faith in His Case for Conformity, we will grow in our surrendered obedience.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me, (Galatians 2:20).