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Over this past year, our women’s discipleship has been studying the different names of God. The studies have truly been a blessing. Although giving someone a name these days is more about sounding abstract and unique, God’s names actually mean something! (You don’t find God calling Himself, “Apple” , “Cosima” , “Fifi” or “Lime” - I have a son and know that these are real names given to kids these days!)

The study that I completed was on the name Adonai, and I want to share a short excerpt with you.

Adonai is translated as either “owner” or “master” and at times translated “my master”. God is sovereign and rules over all things. As the righteous and holy Creator, He is the rightful owner of all things created, and He can rightly require our worship and obedience. He is the “Lord of lords…” (Deut. 10:17) An example of God’s required obedience can be found in Malachi 1:6.

“’A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name?’

There can only be one sovereign owner and we must understand that it is not us. For we own nothing – not the car we use, not the house we live in, not the children we bore, not the money we have …we are all just stewards of God’s ownership and should count it a joy that He would grant us the grace and faith required to maintain what has been provided by Him.

Obedience is not optional. It is essential for assurance of salvation (Matt. 7:21-23). The apostles taught this in James 1:23-25.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

How Can We Be Obedient to Adonai?
Obedience to Christ is impossible without faith. Hebrews 11:3-6:

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Faith is impossible without regeneration, for not all have faith (2 Thess. 3:2). Christ is the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Why would we not serve our Master who freed us from the bondage of sin? For He tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). Romans 6:20-23 states:

For when you were slave of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we go to work, we expect to be paid. After all, we have an agreement and when you fulfill the duties of our job description, there is a contract that is due to you for the work that we have completed. The “wages” of our work is money. We earned it; someone else did not earn it for us and it was not provided for free. After all, we didn’t get to sit on a beach in Hawaii sipping a piña colada to get that paycheck!

Same thing applies to this passage. The “wages” of our sin is death. We earned it through and through.

But, we did not earn eternal life. The passage is clear; it is a free gift. It was decided before the foundation of the world. We were predestined unto salvation and we do not deserve it. Romans 8:28-30 states:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren, and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Although our spirit has been freed from slavery to sin, our flesh still sins after we are born from above. Romans 8:5-10 states:

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

So, in our sinful flesh, how can we be obedient to Adonai?
1. We must look to the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16)
2. We must not look to our own feelings (1 Peter 1:14)
3. Obey in faith (Romans 14:22-23)
4. By the grace of God (2 Thess. 23-24)