Where does Faith in God come into this matter of keeping Feast days?
OBEDIENCE, on the other hand, is faith in action. Obedience is the fruit of faith. Obedience is practical righteousness. It is speaking the truth and doing good works. Obedience is following in the footsteps of the Almighty and His Son. Obedience is the visible expression of our love for the Most High. Obedience is the best and, perhaps, the only tangible evidence that our faith is alive. Obedience is living faith! Without obedience all professions of faith are nothing but self-deluding presumption; because where there is no obedience there really is no faith.
The Bible says:
James 2:26 | For as the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead also. |
The Saviour doesn't only save us from the consequences of our past sins; he also annihilates from within us the tendency to sin in the future. That is the Saviour's ultimate objective, to save us from our sins - past, present and future; to annihilate within us the tendency to sin in the future. In other words, he came to make us obedient.
Rom.8:3 | For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. |
Believers accept the Saviour by faith. Countless millions of Gospel tracts echo this basic truth about salvation. But having accepted salvation through faith doesn't mean we can thereafter blatantly disobey God, by breaking the very commandments that define sin and classify us as sinners in the first place. That would make a mockery of salvation. That would make Yahweh's people the laughing stock of every evil angel in the universe. It would prove how ineffective the Saviour's efforts have been to save his people from their tendency to sin. Instead we believers should express our faith by keeping the Almighty's commandments, by being obedient, by not sinning in the future.
The Bible says:
1 John 2:3: | And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4: He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. |
Put another way, we may say that faith and obedience are two sides of the same spiritual coin. If either is missing the coin is worthless. Consequently to the two most important questions ever asked:
these two vital answers are given; each spelling out the same eternal truth in two different ways. Here are the two answers:
PAUL said:
Acts 16:30: | And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31: And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. |
Matt.19:16: | And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good
Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17: And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none
good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. |
As you can see there really is no conflict between Paul and
Jesus, between faith and obedience; any more than there are
two roads to salvation or eternal life. Both Paul and Jesus
are saying the same thing in different ways. Paul speaks of
faith, that invisible action of the mind. Jesus speaks of obedience,
the visible actions that reflect what is in the mind. The Apostle James says the same thing in yet another way.
He wrote
James 2:20 | But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? |
In short, Obedience is faith in action, living faith!
You cannot have one without the other. Both are absolutely
essential if you want to please God. That is what the Bible
teaches. Dare we say anything different!