Indicatives and Imperatives

In communication, we distinguish between indicatives and imperatives. Indicatives are statements of fact; describing what is. Imperatives are commands; describing what must be done. The gospel is an indicative; it reveals the historical fact of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and it reveals God’s purpose in Christ; saving the elect from their sin through no work of their own. The gospel could not be clearer in its insistence that we are saved by grace apart from works. There is nothing we must do in order to be saved; even faith is a gift from God. But along with the indicative of the gospel, the New Testament contains a number of imperatives that reveal how Christians must live. A critical question is this – How do the New Testament imperatives fit together with the indicative of the gospel? Are we saved by grace and sustained by works? In answering this question we must be careful to rightly consider and apply these New Testament imperatives. Failure to do this will result in a gospel of salvation by grace, sustained by works and the church will be guilty of an ecclesiastical bait and switch; drawing people with a message of grace that then becomes a list of works that must be done to sustain grace. I believe that we must see that the imperatives of the New Testament are in reality “gospel imperatives.” They reveal to the church the fullness of the gospel’s transformative power. They declare to us what we are in Christ and explain what He is making us. The imperatives of the New Testament are a part of the gospel of grace. We obey because of Christ and we do good works because God has prepared them for us that we might walk in them. Certainly Christians must be concerned about growing in maturity, putting away sin and embracing righteousness. But how is this to be done? Do we need a steady diet of imperative preaching? I believe that the answer is no! What we need is more of the gospel – the indicative message of what God has done in Christ Jesus. We are not made holy by dedicating ourselves to holiness but by being immersed and transformed by the gospel. The new life we have in Christ does not come naturally to us; we are like an inmate leaving prison after a lengthy confinement finding it hard to assimilate to life on the outside. The gospel imperatives reveal to us the new life the gospel is producing within us. I believe that the best illustration of this is found in Romans 7:14-8:8:4.

In 7:15 Paul laments his condition:

“For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

Paul was apparently not very good at obeying the imperatives of the New Testament. He had been saved by grace but he was not very good at obeying God’s commands; does this sound familiar? What if Paul found himself in the modern American church; how would his lament be addressed? I imagine that he would be told the steps he needed to follow in order to have his best life. He would be told to pray more, fast more, meditate more and get an accountability partner. He would be told to find his purpose and get serious about his quiet time. In short, he would be given more imperatives – new laws. Is law the answer to our inability to obey? No! The answer to our failure to obey the law is the gospel. The gospel is not something Christians grow out of, it is the warp and woof of our very existence. When we go back to Romans we see that Paul provides the answer to his own dilemma, in 8:1-4 he says:

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

In response to his lamentable condition Paul does not look for a better strategy of obedience. He instead returns to the gospel. What then is the answer to our rebellion and inability to put away the sin that so easily entangles us? It is the gospel! Our problem is that we have underestimated the power of the gospel and overestimated our own ability to obey.