It’s very hard to put truths into words without upsetting someone. If I do upset someone, it is not intentional.
According to Hebrews 5:8, obedience is learned through suffering. According to Proverbs 22:6, parents are to train up their children in the way they should go, and when they are old they won’t depart from it.
Adam was created a mature man and placed in a garden of pleasure and he knew no suffering. He was also not trained up in the way he should go. When given a command Adam was found to be in disobedience, so God sent the Last Adam, Jesus, as an infant child whose parents trained up in the way He should go and He learned obedience from the things which He suffered from His birth to His death, Hebrews 5:8, and Jesus lived a life of total obedience to God.
He then became a life-giving spirit, giving new life to all who call upon His name. This new life is called the born-again life, which is life in the Holy Spirit. God has made a new creation in the Holy Spirit, the spiritual body of Christ, the church. And the Father is now guiding the church in the way it should go, teaching it obedience, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
So because of disobedience that brought sin into the world the first creation could not enter into the holy presence of God. The new creation, the church, has been born anew and since its infancy is being trained up in the way it should go, and can enter the presence of God.
The first creation was disobedient; the second creation is either obedient or learning obedience. The first creation walks by the flesh; the second creation walks by the Spirit, abiding in Jesus, in whom there is no sin. Flesh and blood will not enter the kingdom of heaven, only the spirits of those who walk by the Spirit. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, Romans 8:5-14; 1 Corinthians 15:50; Romans 8:14.
Many believe our obedience has nothing to do with our salvation. They think the obedience of Jesus alone gives them salvation. But the word of God says that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him, Hebrews 5:9.
The word of God says we are under obligation to live according to the Spirit:
Romans 8:12-17,
12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him, Romans 8:12-17.
Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
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