At some time, you may have asked, “What does God really want, what does He require of me?” The Bible gives an answer to this question in Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
There are three broad areas of conduct identified here in Micah, and each of them pertains to a man’s relationship with others. First, to do justice means a man is not to cheat others, and he must ensure others receive fair treatment. Second, to love kindness describes a gentle and caring demeanor in relationship with others. And third, to walk humbly with your God captures the nature of a man’s posture in relationship with God, and describes it as a dynamic, continuous progression, as in walking together.
Consider this scene of God walking in the garden with Adam, after creation and before the fall into sin. The Creator and His creation walk side by side, in relationship. Adam has no energy or power of his own making. God formed him from the dust! Adam does not and cannot generate life from within himself. God breathed the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils so that he became a living being, and God also provides the sustaining life by which Adam lives and breathes every moment. This absolute and entire dependence upon the Creator for life is truth, and Adam’s recognition and rest in that truth is his proper status, or posture of humility toward God. Adam is humbly walking with God in the garden of Eden.
Mankind turned away from humility in the garden of Eden when the woman made the choice to embrace her Self-assessment of the tree and its fruit instead of trusting and obeying God’s instruction. When man abandoned his humility toward God, that void was filled with the poison of pride and the rule of Self. There is always only one authority on the throne of a man’s heart, and who rules is clear by the fruit of his actions. Fallen man lives with Self on the throne and is a willing slave to fulfill Self’s demands. This is original sin – where God is displaced by Self as the authority for man’s life. Self is a brutal dictator, and mankind is powerless to dethrone Self.
So how can one be saved and restored to the right relationship with God? Self cannot achieve, attain, or contribute in any manner to true redemption. In fact, Self has no interest in redemption. It is the rule of Self from which man is redeemed! The good news of redemption through Jesus taking our place in death on the cross is God’s plan to restore man’s relationship with God and man’s rightful posture of humility toward God. To be clear, there is only one narrow way of redemption. It is through Jesus! We are helpless to move ourselves toward redemption – we are utterly and entirely dependent on God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
When God, by His grace, grants faith to a man to believe in Jesus Christ for redemption, He also grants the power in Christ’s name to deny and dethrone Self from the place of authority in one’s life. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone is the narrow and difficult way to salvation that Jesus speaks of in Matthew. He invites us, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
