God does not love you based on your obedience, but his love for you will lead you to obedience… It is only after accepting that you are accepted despite yourself — despite your inherent inability to please God, despite your incurably sick heart, despite your disobedience, sin, and so on — it is only then that earnest, Spirit-enabled obedience may spontaneously arise within your heart. In that sense “obedience” is like falling in love with someone. It is your love that moves you to act and to express your heart, and were you prevented from doing so, you would undoubtedly grieve over your loss… Therefore the “law of the Spirit of Life in Messiah” is first of all empowered by God’s grace and love. We walk by faith, hope, and love – these three. And this explains why the very first step of teshuvah (repentance) is to love God: Shema! Ve’ahavta et Adonai… The first work of faith is to believe in the miracle that God’s love is “for-you-love…”
If you still find yourself operating from a sense of God’s conditional acceptance, you will undoubtedly need to repeat the same sins over and over until your heart is finally convinced of its incurably wretched state. You must first be utterly sick of yourself to believe in the miracle of God’s deliverance. Only after this does the good news of the gospel find its opportunity to speak…
