Is There Only One Motivation for Obedience?

For Christians who know they are saved by grace and not by works, there is always a fundamental question that arises: Why should I obey God?  This question is not about whether Christians should obey God (all agree on that), but about the proper motivation for obeying God.  What should drive our sanctification?

Some have answered this question by suggesting that there is only one proper motivation for our obedience, namely our justification.  We should look back at the finished work of Christ with gratitude and appreciation, and this will drive us to follow and obey him.

Now, there is much that is commendable about this motivation.  Indeed, I would argue that the finished work of Christ, and his great mercy and grace toward us, is the core motivation for our obedience.

But, what is interesting is that the Bible does not offer just this single motivation. God’s word offers a multiplicity of reasons for our obedience that touch different aspects of our life and that motivate us from a variety of angles.  In this way, God creates an argument for our obedience that is broader and wider and more difficult for us to escape or ignore.   Continue at  Michael J. Kruger

The Difference Between Original Autographs and Original Texts

If you're looking for a way to critique the authority of Scripture, there are seemingly endless options. There are historical critiques (e.g., many of these books are forgeries). There are logical critiques (e.g., the Gospels contradict themselves). There are moral critiques (e.g., God is immoral to order the slaughter of entire cities). And there are hermeneutical critiques (e.g., no one can agree on what the Bible means).

In recent years, however, a more foundational challenge has arisen. All of the above critiques are essentially the same; they all argue the words of the Bible are not true. But this newer and more foundational challenge is not about whether the words of the Bible are true, but whether we have the words of the Bible at all.    

At the core of this challenge is the fact that we only have handwritten copies of these books we treasure. And, in reality, we only have copies of copies of copies. And given that scribes made mistakes, and that the transmission process was imperfect, how can we be sure that these texts have been preserved? How can we be sure we actually have the words of Scripture?

Bart Ehrman's best-selling book Misquoting Jesus focuses on this issue as it pertains to the New Testament text: 

What good is it to say that the autographs (i.e., the originals) were inspired? We don't have the originals! We have only error-ridden copies, and the vast majority of these are centuries removed from the originals and different from them . . . in thousands of ways.    Continue at Michael J. Kruger