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Christian Network

We are told that our friendship with Jesus Christ depends on our obedience to Him. It is difficult to be obedient to someone we do not trust. The distance many believers feel between themselves and God is often a function of their lack of trust in the His ultimate goodness. Martin Luther once said that the darkest nights of his soul came during the times when he lost faith that "God is good and that He is good to me". In this world obedience to men may be possible purely on the basis of the fear of consequences. We obey the speed limit because we know the state is ready and willing to revoke our driving privileges if we do not. But the obedience that Jesus had in mind was obedience that was freely given Him by the disciples because they had come to trust both in His goodness and His goodness to them. This trust was the fruit of knowing and receiving their Master’s love.

The term "obedience" is a dirty word in our culture today. Rebellion has never been more fashionable in Western society. Since the tumultuous cultural revolution of the 1960’s the idea of submission to legitimate authority has often been ridiculed. Even the idea that any authority is legitimate has been questioned. The idea of the self-sovereignty of human beings has been a problem since the Garden but it arguably has never met so little resistance as it does today. It is not too much of an overstatement to describe ours as a "culture of rebellion". Whether it be in regards to parents, the government, or our superiors in the working world, we tend to reject direction that runs counter to our own desires.

Of course there are some reasons for this increased spirit of mutiny against human authority. It is difficult, for instance, for children to obey abusive parents. Since Vietnam and Watergate our government has come to be seen as hypocritical, corrupt and overbearing and this has at times been at least partially true. As for our bosses on the job we cannot help but notice that some are motivated only by the opportunity to make the most money possible, often with the least ethical restrictions.

Unfortunately we have too often used the truth that flaws in human authority exist as an excuse for our rebellious overreaction. The bottom line is that we could have relative moral paragons over us at home, in the government, and at work and we would still have trouble living lives marked by obedience. The hearts of the governed are no less corrupt than the hearts of those that govern them. Our problem in being obedient to those God Himself has put over us is, at its core, the problem of our sin.

True obedience can only become possible when we come to the place where we realize that we are lost if we continue following our own heart, our own will. It is then we become willing, in our desperation, to consider giving ourselves over to Someone who we come to believe is able to save us. But even after we make the decision to follow the Savior God has sent us actually becoming obedient to that Savior remains problematic, as Luther’s words make plain.

Perhaps we need to remember that we love because God first loved us. It is this divine initiative that makes it possible to love Him at all. We sometimes let our circumstances paint a picture for us of a "reality" that make us wonder if we are really in relationship with a good God. We lose the confidence that He is bigger than those circumstances. This is when it becomes difficult for us to be submissive; to be the friend the Scripture tells us we need to be to Him. What ultimately enables us to live in true, if not perfect, obedience to Jesus Christ is our remembrance of what He did for us on the cross and the renewed trust that remembrance engenders. A God who loved us so perfectly that He was willing to die for us is a God we can truly desire to be obedient to. In the deepest sense it was His willing obedience to His Father, in seeking and saving us, that makes us willing to give Jesus that same kind of obedience.