“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.”
— Deuteronomy 7:9

Somewhere along the way, we decided that “obedience” was a dirty word. In much of modern evangelical discourse, any serious talk of God’s commands is met with suspicion. If you suggest that Christians are called not only to believe but to obey, someone will inevitably cry, “Legalism!” And so, slowly and subtly, a generation of well-meaning believers has learned to recoil from the language of covenant loyalty—as if obedience were a threat to grace, rather than the fruit of it. But Scripture doesn’t share our hesitation. Especially not in Deuteronomy.

Covenant Love Demands Covenant Loyalty

Deuteronomy is a book of covenant—a re-preaching of God’s law at the edge of the Promised Land. But it’s not cold legislation. It’s a call to relational faithfulness. It is a document of catechesis, hoping to convince Israel that everything has moral applications–there is no neutral. Over and over, Moses pleads with Israel to love the Lord their God by walking in His ways, keeping His commandments, and living in the land under His blessing (Deut 10:12–13; 30:15–20).

This is not legalism. It’s covenant logic.

“Because you are His, therefore walk in His ways.”
“Because He brought you out of Egypt, therefore obey His voice.”
“Because He loves you, therefore love Him with all your heart.”

Deuteronomy teaches that obedience flows out of prior redemption. This is why there is so much historical background packed into the book. The law doesn’t earn Israel’s place in the covenant; it expresses it. It is how a people redeemed from the bondage of Egypt live with their Redeemer in a land that belongs to Him.

Grace Is Not Passivity

There’s a dangerous modern reflex to pit grace and effort against each other, as if they were theological enemies. But the Bible doesn’t hesitate to call redeemed people to strive (Heb 12:14), to make every effort (2 Pet 1:5–10), and to work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12).

That’s not works-righteousness. That’s grace-empowered obedience.

And if the law is written on our hearts (Jer 31:33), if God’s Spirit causes us to walk in His statutes (Ezek 36:27), then obeying God is not opposed to grace—it’s grace in motion. We don’t keep commandments to get into the covenant; we keep them because we are in it. To refuse obedience is not freedom—it’s infidelity.

The Rhetoric of Faithfulness

My own research in Deuteronomy focuses on how Moses uses rhetoric—not just commands—to shape Israel’s heart. The commands are liturgical, embodied, communal. They’re not just rules to follow; they’re rhythms to form a people.

Deuteronomy 27–30, for example, is not merely law—it is liturgy. It frames obedience as worship, as covenant renewal, as a public enactment of loyalty before God and one another. There’s no cold morality here—there’s persuasive covenantal love. And that makes obedience not only possible, but beautiful.

When we flatten obedience into a checklist or reject it as legalism, we miss the whole heart of the covenant.

The Real Enemy of Grace

Here’s the irony: the church’s fear of legalism has often led it into the arms of a subtler and deadlier enemy—antinomianism. The refusal to name sin, the unwillingness to call people to holy living, the rebranding of worldliness as authenticity—all of this is not grace. It’s neglect.

It’s not loving to tell someone Jesus is Savior and never call them to follow Him as Lord.

Legalism says, “Obey and God will love you.”
Antinomianism says, “God loves you, so obedience doesn’t matter.”
But the gospel says, “God loves you in Christ, therefore walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received.”

Pastoral Plea

As a pastor, I want people to know the God who saves freely—and who calls us to follow Him wholly. I want to be a people that treasures grace so deeply that we gladly obey the One who gave it. Not to earn love, but because we already have it.

So let’s stop calling covenant obedience “legalism.” Let’s stop apologizing for holiness.

Let’s stop confusing freedom with autonomy.

Instead, let’s rediscover the grace-fueled joy of living as a people who belong to God, in every moment and every motive.