The God we serve is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  That means that He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere in presence.  A being like that is beyond our ability to completely comprehend, but it does tell us that when He speaks, we better listen, when He commands, we better obey, and when He instructs, we better follow.  One thing that God has always required from His people is obedience.

Has this changed now that we are under a law of grace, that is, the gospel of Christ?  The answer is no.  God still demands that we obey His Word.

Matthew 7:21 (ESV)
²¹  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Is this true when it comes to being saved?  Yes!  Some teach that obedience is required to maintain our salvation, but justification is something that comes apart from anything that we do.  That is false.  While we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), God has still set forth instructions that must be followed.

Mark 16:16 (ESV)
¹⁶  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

While this passage does not reveal everything that must be done to be saved, it does, in simple fashion, demonstrate that man must do something to receive justification.  No one will be made just in the eyes of God without believing and being baptized because this is what God commands, and there is no substitute for obedience.  Someone says, “what about prayer?”  No, not even prayer can take the place of obedience.

After Saul saw the glorified Christ on the road to Damascus, our Lord told Him to go into the city and he would be told what to do (Acts 9:1-6).  He then told a man named Ananias to go to Damascus, to a street called Straight, and to the house of Judas, to find a man named Saul who was praying.  Notice that Saul was praying, and he probably did so for most of the three days that passed before Ananias came to him.  Did all that praying save him?  No! Listen to what Ananias said when he got to Saul.

Acts 22:16 (ESV)
¹⁶  And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

It is clear that Saul already believed in Jesus by the time Ananias got to him, but faith alone did not take away his sins.  Clearly, the prayers of Saul did not save him either.  The necessary inference of the passage is that Saul’s sins were washed away when he did what Ananias told him to do, that is, when he arose and was baptized.  Why?  Because baptism is a part of God’s plan of salvation.  God commands man to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

Acts 2:37-38 (ESV)
³⁷  Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” ³⁸  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is justification, and to receive it, one must repent and be baptized.  That is the obvious meaning of Acts 2:38, and nothing can substitute doing what God commands.

Obedience is essential not just to be saved, but to stay saved.  As Jesus said, no one will enter the kingdom of heaven without doing the will of God.  The Hebrews writer affirmed this as well when he wrote about Jesus, “And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).  Let’s never forget that there is no substitute for obedience.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.