Salvation | Hi, I'm Jonathan 'J5' Harris.

Obedience is better than sacrifice

In Philippians 2:14, the apostle Paul says, “Do all things without murmuring and reasoning.” This is a very small verse that many of us pass over…maybe even take for granted. But in today’s life-study from the book of Philippians, we’re going to focus on how it affects our obedience…to work out our salvation…to live Christ…to express Christ and to hold forth Christ.

These are two little annoying things (murmuring and reasoning)…always troubling us in our daily life to undermine the real experience and enjoyment of the Lord.

In verse 12 is to work out the salvation. Then in verse 13, it is God who operates in us that we may work out the salvation. Now in verse 14, the apostles writing is very practical. He only mentions 2 things in a negative way. Murmurings is something always out of our emotions; and reasonings is something out of our mind. So Paul says do all things without murmurings and reasonings.

By the context, you could see that if we murmur or we reason this surely means we do not obey. Obedience to God kills all the murmurings and reasonings. And these two things could only be transformed by obeying the God who operates in us. Salvation is God, and the working out of the salvation is our obeying. Obeying what? Obeying whom? Obey the very operating God. God is our salvation, and our obeying of God is working out of salvation.

If we do obey God, this obeying will kill ALL murmurings and ALL reasonings. When you sisters murmur, you do realize that you are disobedient to the inner working God. And with us, the brothers, we also have the full realization whenever we reason with the brothers, we have the deep conviction that we are just rebellious. Not rebellious to the brothers to whom (or with whom) we reason. But rebellious to the inner working God.

So just by one thing, we kill these two gophers…and this one thing is just obedience to God. By this you can see, Paul…his consideration is altogether not doctrinal. His consideration is altogether experiential. Because murmurings and reasonings are too crucial in our Christian life.

The satanic life which we received by the fall really expresses itself by murmuring and reasoning. Somebody who’s really enjoying Christ and really experiencing Christ…you never hear murmuring and reasoning. For sure, those murmurings and reasonings are the expression of the satanic rebellious life and nature. But there is one life…that is the life which is Christ Himself…which in this chapter it is presented as the inner operating God. That life has no murmurings and no reasonings in it.

When we go along with that life, even our murmurings and reasonings get killed. Our obedience to the Lord is really the poison to these two gophers of murmuring and reasoning. On one hand, God Himself is our salvation. Philippians is really a book of salvation; almost every chapter, salvation is brought out.

But the working out of the salvation (as is mentioned here in Phil 2) is by obeying the inner operating God. This is the key…and this is the secret to really living a life apart from murmurings and reasonings. And even putting murmurings and reasonings to death…that is to the death of the cross. We really see Christ as our pattern earlier in this chapter, and now that pattern is in us.

As we go along with that pattern, we live out a life that doesn’t display murmurings and reasonings…but rather glorifies and expresses God. And even…as we shall see…shines forth God and holds forth God as life…expressing Him.

Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is a big secret to enjoying the inner operating God and to be a person who lives Christ and expresses Christ and magnifies Christ. So the real need is for us to obey the inner operating God. Even as we would just open to Him and turn to Him and be one with Him, we can even partake of His perfect and complete obedience. Then we really enjoy a life that doesn’t murmur or reason but expresses God under all circumstances.

Hallelujah for such a life!

the salvation of Zacchaeus

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Perhaps we’ve all heard of the city Jerico. Actually, it was a city of curse in the time of the Lord Jesus. One of its inhabitants was a man of curse. His name was Zacchaeus, a tax collector. Actually, the chief tax collector and in reality an extortioner who had gotten rich by taking advantage of the inhabitants of the area.

One day as Jesus was passing through, Zacchaeus climbed into a tree hoping to get a look at the Savior. And as He came to the place, Jesus looking up He said to him, Zacchaeus hurry and come down for today I must stay in your house. And he hurried and came down and received Him…rejoicing. It was a marvelous day as salvation came to the house of Zacchaeus.

But the pharisees, the religious ones who watched it…who knew Zacchaeus and his past…did not share in the rejoicing. We’ll discover more about this marvelous story of salvation in the gospel of Luke in chapter 19.

The Lord cared more the relief of the suffering than He did the ritual of religion

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

By the time Jesus was ready to begin His earthly ministry, a well established God-ordained religious system was firmly entrenched in the land of Palestine. But as the very God Himself who was the fulfillment and reality of all of the components of that established religion, you would think that He would have taken great care to approach the leaders of that religion and to bring them into His ministry. But the record of the New Testament reveals quite the opposite. The gospels, and particularly the gospel of Mark, reveal that Jesus showed no interest in maintaining the old religion with its traditions and rituals…even those that were among the ones that God had originally instituted such as the Sabbath.

Rather Jesus offended the religious community to the uttermost by breaking the Sabbath regulations repeatedly. It is apparent that the Lord cared more the relief of the suffering than He did the ritual of religion.

What a beautiful picture of the kind of salvation He is here to provide.

In New Testament terms to have an exodus is to get out of the world

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

In New Testament terms to have an exodus is to get out of the world. However without the graphic picture in the book of Exodus, it is difficult to say just how we are to get out of the world…We need to realize that experientially many MANY believers today have experienced Christ as their passover. God has passed over them. The blood of the Lamb has redeemed them from the righteous judgement of God…But they remain in Egypt still needing to make an exodus so that God’s purpose to have a dwelling place can be fulfilled.

If we care only for the benefits that come to us through salvation, we may be content to remain in Egypt with Christ as our passover lamb. But if we care for God’s economy, not only will WE make our exodus from Egypt, we will be burdened that ALL of Gods people be released from Egypt and to serve God and be one with Him for the building up of the Church as His body to consummate the New Jerusalem.