God Expects Our Obedience

Disobedience is not necessarily a sin if one refuses the command of a supervisor to do that which is not moral. If we are disobedient to God or the Holy Spirit’s command or God’s ways, we sin. God’s Word tells us what is sinful and what the consequence of sin was.

To understand how disobedience to the Holy Spirit is; man’s sin starts in the Garden of Eden. God created Adam and Eve with a ‘free will’ to be either obedient or disobedient. Disobedience is a form of rebellion.

The first to rebel was Lucifer who was created holy and pure. His pride made him want to be like God. His sin separated him from God and he was placed on earth.

Genesis 2:15 – 17 – “The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

They were warned of death but Satan deceived them into believing they would not die but they would become like God and know the difference between good and evil. God was not stating immediate physical death but immediate spiritual death. Adam lived more than 900 years. However, he and Eve died spiritually and immediately. The resulting consequence was guilt, fear and separation from God. They were no longer holy and innocent because of their rebellion and they received their sinful nature. From then on their conscience knew the difference between good and evil. From these two, everyone born received their sinful nature guaranteed to be forever separated from God, once they received the age of accountability, unless they accepted Christ as their Savior.

Ephesians 2:1 – 5 – “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)”

As Gentiles we were full of ourselves and disobedient to God. Our sins made us dead men as we lived as the world lives. We were controlled by Satan as everyone is who is not a believer in Christ and we were under the control of Satan’s evil ways. As a result, we would not only die physically and lost but be dead spiritually. Being spiritually dead meant separated from God forever.

The air is filled with demons and evil spirits and they are at work in those who are disobedient to God. The Bible says we are sons of Satan and have his nature and his character that prompts us to rebel and disobey God unless we have been forgiven and accepted into God’s family.

As born sinners, we were disobedient and had to be taught to have self-control and obedience. God provided a way that we could overcome this disobedient spirit that we had inherited. His plan was for everyone who would accept Christ as His Son and Savior for all mankind, could learn, by copying the life that Christ lived, we could become obedient. That does not mean we would no longer have a desire to be rebellious and a tendency to be willing to allow the devil to deceive us in ways and be tempted to accept and sin. We do not lose our natural desires and lusts. We learn to practice that self-control and refuse to be tempted.

It has been sin that has kept us from knowing and understanding God. We had no idea how angry God was of disobedient sins. Before salvation we were without God, the Holy Spirit, Christ and hope. But thanks for God’s grace and mercy. We are told that God’s great love was able to forgive us of sins of the flesh, body impurities and excess in things such as envy, uncontrolled rage, pride and selfish ambitions.

As God raised Christ from the dead, He will raise us from the death that resulted from sin and will bring us into His family and we will live with them through eternity.