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How Can We Not Obey?

Last time, I asked, Who Told You That You Cannot Obey God? With that question, the excuse has been killed and buried.

Scripture records real men and women who feared God, walked with Him, obeyed His voice, and were called just, upright, blameless, and perfect. And they did so before the New Covenant, before grace was revealed in its fullness in Christ, and before the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the people of God. If they walked with God in dawnlight, the question that now presses upon every believer standing on this side of Pentecost is not whether obedience is possible.

The question is now: how can we not obey?

God Has Left Nothing Out

The reason obedience is not merely possible but inexcusable to neglect is what God has actually supplied.

The Apostle Peter does not say we have been given good advice for life and godliness. He says:

"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." — 2 Peter 1:3

All things. Not most things. Not a head start and a good attitude. All things that pertain to life and godliness have been given.

Paul tells Titus that Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). And he makes the purpose of grace explicit:

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." — Titus 2:11–12

Grace does not merely pardon the past. It trains the present. It teaches us to deny what once mastered us. It produces the very life it commands in this present world.

And then there is Romans 6, perhaps the most direct statement in all of Scripture on this question:

"Ye have obeyed from the heart... being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." — Romans 6:17–18

Free from sin's dominion. Not merely forgiven while still comfortably enslaved. Not merely tolerating sin under a banner of grace. The gospel breaks mastery and creates servants of righteousness.

The believer is not a man standing at the foot of a wall, admiring its height and mourning his inability to climb it. He is a man who has been given everything necessary to walk through the door that has been opened.

The resources are not lacking. The question is whether he will use them.

Obedience Is Not Flawlessness — But It Is Real

There is a lie about obedience that must be named, because it does as much damage as the excuse of inability. That lie is: nobody is perfect, obedience is not really the standard, and any genuine effort is close enough.

Scripture does not speak that way.

The pattern Scripture consistently holds up is not sinless perfection — but it is not half-hearted compliance either. It is a wholehearted direction. It is a life oriented toward God, quick to repent when reproved, and refusing to make peace with known rebellion.

David is the clearest model. His sin in the matter of Uriah was real, hideous, and inexcusable; and Scripture does not excuse it. But when Nathan the prophet confronted him, David did not defend himself. He did not retreat into theology. He said, "I have sinned against the LORD" (2 Samuel 12:13). And God, who saw the whole shape of that life, could say of him that he turned not aside from any of His commandments, save only in that matter.

That is the pattern. Not a man who never fell. A man who never stopped returning.

The mark of genuine obedience is not a flawless record. It is a life that repents quickly, obeys increasingly, and refuses to negotiate with what Christ calls sin. Christians stumble. But stumbling is not settling. The question is not whether you have ever failed. The question is whether failure drives you back to God or into the arms of an excuse.

The Real Issue Is Willingness

If God has supplied all things that pertain to life and godliness, if grace teaches and empowers obedience, if the Spirit dwells within the believer, then the honest question is no longer "Can I obey?"

It is "Will I?"

The real issue is rarely a bare inability. It is unwillingness—rooted sometimes in pride, sometimes in fear, sometimes in love of the sin itself, sometimes in the comfort of an excuse that has been dressed up in theological language for so long it no longer feels like an excuse.

Here is the deadly logic many slip into:

"No one can really keep God's commandments."
"Therefore, obedience is impossible."
"Therefore, grace covers ongoing disobedience."
"Therefore, I can disobey and still have Life."

That chain does not come from Scripture. It functions like Eden—questioning what God said, lowering His standard, and making disobedience appear reasonable. It concludes with the serpent, "Ye shall not surely die."

Human frailty is real. Temptation is real. The flesh resists. But resistance is not the same as impossibility. And God does not command in order to mock obedience as though it were impossible. He commands, He supplies, He empowers—and then He holds us to what He has made possible.

The question He is pressing is not whether you have struggled. It is whether you have surrendered—not to Him, but to the excuse.

How Can We Not Obey?

Stand back and take in what has been given.

You have the completed work of Christ: redemption from all iniquity, not some of it.
You have the indwelling Holy Spirit: the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwelling in you.
You have the Word of God: a lamp, a sword, living and active, correcting and training.
You have the throne of grace: where you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
You have the promises: exceeding great and precious, by which you are made a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
You have the examples of those who walked before you: men and women who feared God, kept His commandments, and were called blameless before these gifts were poured out in their fullness.

And knowing all of this—having received all of this—how can we not obey?

Not as a demand made from a distance, but as a question that ought to rise from within every believer who has understood what grace is, what the Spirit is, and what Christ has done.

The commands of Christ are not suggestions offered to a helpless people who can only admire them from afar. They are the words of a King to a people He has redeemed, equipped, and indwelt. He does not command us to climb the wall. He has opened the gate and given us legs. And when we stumble, He does not disown us; He restores us and calls us forward again.

This is not a call to sinless perfection. It is a call to sincerity.

Stop making peace with disobedience.
Stop calling inability what is actually unwillingness.
Stop confusing the pardon of grace with permission to continue in what grace came to deliver you from.

Walk with God. Fear Him. Keep His commandments. Repent when you fall, and fall less as you go.

The resources are not lacking.
The power is not absent.
The gate is open.

How can we not obey?

For Further Study