THOMAS: This is a great question and it's one, I think, that most Christians struggle with from
the beginning of their awareness of their sonship to the Pearly Gates, I think.
And it's an issue of law and gospel for sure. What is the motivation for obedience?
And I think that the necessity for me to try and get that right is to
try and preach the gospel to myself every day to remind myself even though I have a duty
and I'm not afraid of the word "duty," there are commands, there are obligations on me as
a Christian. But what is the motive of duty and what is the motive of obedience?
And the motive is that I am the Lord's, that I am forgiven, that I have been adopted,
that I am in Christ, that I am a new creation in Jesus Christ, but it's a perennial struggle,
I think, for most Christians to turn obedience into some form of legalism.
GODFREY: And I think some of the traditional disciplines of the Christian life that were
commended in our forebearers, and maybe not so practiced today, I mean, just the practice
of daily Bible reading and prayer to keep us close to the Word of God, keep us close to
that influence of the Word of God. In the grand old days in the Dutch Reformed world, the Bible
was read after every meal, and there was prayer. And that could descend into a kind of legalism
whether every child at the table listened to every word that was read. There was a discipline for
that too. You could slap the table and look at a child and say, "Last word." And they'd
better know the last word read. Whether that actually developed a love for the Word of God may
be debatable, but I think if the Word of God isn't present with us,
then a love for God is less likely to be developed. And I would, you know,
in that regard particularly commend to you the Psalms as really hearts engaged with God.
NICHOLS: And it's a duty-delight issue that we're talking about here, and I think the
mistake is if I do the duty without the delight I'm being insincere or inauthentic. And that's
almost the worst sin you can commit in our current climate to not be authentic,
but we have the obligation to the duty and I think we commit to the duty, and the delight follows.
But as you read the psalmist, it's actually, (well, this is a Jonathan Edwards' word) "relish"
is the word. You know Calvin speaks of a redeemed person as having a sense of the sweetness
of God, and I think that's the psalmist. And I would throw into the mix also "gratitude." So,
we go back to your beloved Heidelberg Catechism. And so, out of gratitude for what God has done for
us flows the duty, but the delight is not always there, and I think we still need to put ourselves
under the Word in prayer in church, and the delight comes.