What is Obedience? It is an Act of Worship; thus, not a 'work', for the work has been done in us!
While the Bible places strong emphasis on obedience, it's important to remember that believers are not justified (made righteous) by our obedience; because then our obedience would be work. Salvation is a free gift of God, and we can do nothing to merit it. For obedience not to be a work, it must flow from a heart of gratitude for the grace we have received from the Lord in which there is no work!
Obedience to God's will is not about waiting for a specific direction about 'what to do' for that would be work. Both the waiting and then the doing especially if thought the call was to act on a specific direction given. Yes, that was purpose of the Old Testament. It was a necessary illustration of work to prepare us for a greater understanding of the needful coming of Christ and His purpose to set us free from such work.
The Old Testament beginning with Abraham's calling set the stage for salvation in this fallen world. In reading both the Old and New Testaments, we come to a full understanding of what it means to be called... to hear the voice of God and rise up in obedience to it. In our rising up, the body is filled with the Spirit and for that we give thanks and praise and in that there is no work. In the New Testament, this was/is best illustrated in the story of Lazarus.
He was called from the dead (dead in sin/dead in the past);... in fact it was needful for Jesus to arrive late to show that there is no timely ordered work/place to be done by anyone. Timely work/place was illustrated by the sisters who were 'working' to have their brother saved by sending pleading messages as for them time and place mattered... time and place in this world of the flesh. Yet, the Lord's time and place are not of this world.
That is why Lazarus rose up to the call of Christ the Lord for it is He who takes away the sin of the world, the sin of death. There is no specific time and place in that. His time and place are always and forever and everywhere. Our mission field works the same and there is no one particular person, no one particular place as all are worth salvation.
Praise the Lord!
We in our obedience are always in a time and place of joy. Our only work is to obey His call which is to rise up from our transgression! There is no work in that, there is freedom... for in Christ we are free indeed! "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed...I know that you are Abraham's descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.…John 8:36.
No comments:
Post a Comment