Give Nothing Less Than Loving Obedience to God, March 11

Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist. 1 John 2:4, NRSV. I have been reported as saying you could not be saved unless you kept the Sabbath. Does it indeed seem meaningless, the requirement of the fourth commandment? Does not the habitual subjection to our heavenly Master's will lead the obedient to ask constantly and earnestly, not “What is pleasing?” not “What is the most convenient or agreeable to self or those around us?” but “What does my Lord require? What is the will of God concerning me?” Is it anything strange that one should do this or that under the conviction of the Spirit of God, under a sense of the fact that a refusal or neglect to do so would endanger the soul's salvation? Is this a matter hard to comprehend, that obedience on our part to all God's law is absolutely essential to eternal life? Is this an unfathomable mystery to the Christian—to secure the soul's salvation at any cost to self or selfish interest? Does the Word of God give us any assurance that we can get to heaven just as well transgressing the law as obeying it? If so, the whole requirement of God as a condition of salvation is an entire mistake. Were the inhabitants of the old world who perished in the Flood punished for their disobedience of God's requirements? Or were they washed by the waters of the deluge straight into glory because our merciful God is too good to execute the final penalty of transgressing His law? Were the Sodomites punished for their disobedience and only Lot saved? Or were the inhabitants of Sodom winged by the fire that fell from heaven straight into glory? Has God commanded? Then we must obey—without hesitating and seeking to find some way to be saved without obedience; this would be climbing up some other way. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “I have kept my Father's commandments,” says the Majesty of heaven.... We should not obey the commandments merely to secure heaven, but to please Him who died to save sinners from the penalty of the transgression of the Father's law. The sinner's salvation depends upon ... ceasing to transgress and obedience to that transgressed law. No one should venture or presume upon the mercy of God, feeling at liberty to sin as much as they dare.... It is a sad resolve to follow Christ as far off as possible, venturing as near the verge of perdition as possible without falling in.—Letter 35b, 1877.