“The
idea of a situation in which faith is possible is only a way of stating the
facts of a case in which the following two propositions hold good and are
equally true: only he who believes is
obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.
"It
is quite unbiblical to hold the first proposition without the second. We think
we understand when we hear that obedience is possible only where there is
faith. Does not obedience follow faith as good fruit grows on a good tree?
First faith, then obedience. If by that we mean that it is faith which
justifies, and not the act of obedience, all well and good, for that is the
essential and unexceptionable presupposition of all that follows. If, however,
we make a chronological distinction between faith and obedience, and make
obedience subsequent to faith, we are divorcing the one from the other – and
then we get the practical question, when must obedience begin?...From the point
of view of justification it is necessary to separate them, but we must never
lose sight of their essential unity. For faith is only real when there is
obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of
obedience.” [The Cost of Discipleship,
Bonhoeffer, page 69.]
Jesus
says (John 14:23 – 24), “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word…He who does
not love Me does not keep My words.”
The
Apostle John writes, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep
His commandments,” (1 John 2:3). “For this is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of
God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world –
our faith,” (1 John 5:3-4).
Belief
that is not married to obedience is abstract and unconsummated; obedience is
the child of faith as faith is the child of obedience. Put another way, when
faith and obedience are married their offspring is a new person in Jesus
Christ. The object of faith is Christ, the object of obedience is Christ –
Christ and Christ alone must be the object, the center, the initiator and the
consummator…He is the Alpha and Omega, the Author and Finisher.
Do
we insist on obedience as we insist on faith? Or do we insist on faith while
overlooking disobedience? Why is it that
we often look the other way when it comes to disobedience?
Preaching
faith without obedience is disobedience to the Great Commission in which Jesus
tells us to make disciples and to teach those disciples to obey all that He has
commanded. A church that does not emphasize obedience to Jesus Christ is a
church that typically looks like the world, it is indistinguishable from its
surroundings.
Jesus
calls us to know the fellowship of His obedience to the Father. This obedience
is not limited to individual obedience, that is, it is not something that is
limited to me personally; it is also something that I can experience in concert
with my brothers and sisters and with the saints who have gone before me. This
communal obedience echoes the Lord’s Table and resounds with the music of
Hebrews Chapters 11 and 12 – it is an obedience anchored both in time (present
circumstances) and in eternity. It is an obedience that is rooted and grounded
in Golgotha, that finds its power on Easter
morning, its assurance at the right hand of God, and its present reality in the
Holy Spirit and the living Word of God.
Obedience
to Jesus Christ is an invitation to know Him and to know others. I can only
know the sweet fellowship of obedient saints as obedience becomes a way of life
to me – it is a fellowship rooted in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of
Christ – only those who live in the Cross can know others who live in the
Cross, for they recognize a life that is not their own, they recognize the life
of Another. The New Testament teaches us that those who don’t know Jesus don’t
know His disciples, and His disciples are not those who form an abstract
belief, but those who have the marriage of faith and obedience animating their
lives in Christ.
We
may talk about what we believe, but do we talk about how we live? Church
websites may have a page describing beliefs (though these pages are becoming
more and more simple and indefinite), but do they have a page describing how
congregations live? Those who join churches are often asked to simply give
assent to beliefs, they are not required to make a commitment to how they will
live.
Have
we lost the vision and joy of obedient fellowship with Jesus and others? Jesus
calls us to obedience because He calls us to Himself. He calls us to obedience
because He desires that we know Him and our Father and experience the power and
intimacy of the Holy Spirit. Consider the place “obedience” has in Jesus’ Upper
Room teaching which He gave the night He was betrayed – the Upper Room is an invitation
into the Holy of Holies, and that invitation includes the way of obedience.
Jesus was obedient to the Father, He calls us to that very same obedience…our
obedience should be no less than His as He lives within us.
Will
today be a day of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ?
.
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