"... Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations," Romans 1:4b-5
I have been reading through Romans this summer. Each time I read through the book I concentrate on a specific word or set of words. The current theme, begun this morning, is obey/obedience, so this phrase, obedience of faith, struck me. Actually, it was on my first summer trip through Romans, as I looked for the word 'faith' that I was initially struck by this phrase. But it hit me again as I read through it this morning. The overpowering sense that I get from the phrase is that faith produces obedience. And also, that obedience produces faith.
Many years ago our pastor, Ron Mehl (who has since moved to Heaven), said, "You can never fully trust God until you are fully obedient to God." I did not truly comprehend his statement at the time, but it stuck with me. As I grew in my understanding of God and His will, I began to comprehend what Pastor Ron meant. God has promised that when we are obedient to Him all of His many blessings are poured out on us. Thus we see the fulfillment of His promise and we trust Him to be true to His word. However, God has also promised that when we choose to be disobedient then those blessings are not available. Unfortunately, when we choose disobedience, and thus a lack of God's blessing, we rarely ever see the result as part of God's promise. Rather, we tend to blame God because our lives are difficult. So obedience brings trust, or faith in God. But the crux of the issue is not what I do or don't do. Rather, it is the direction of my heart.
"the obedience of faith"
Not the obedience of the law.
There is a real difference. The two are not interchangeable.
The obedience of the law is either doing or not doing a thing because it is required by law that I do or not do that thing. I stop at a red light because the law says that I must. Even if it is six a.m. on a Sunday morning and there are no other cars in sight, if the light is red I stop and wait until the light turns green. I do not do this because I believe it is unsafe to do otherwise, or because of love for the officials of my city, county, state or country. I do this because the law requires it. Personally, I would much rather go through the red light. If no other car is in sight, and I can see for a hundred yards or more in every direction, it is reasonable, and safe, for me to proceed through the intersection. Yet I do not. Why? Because the law requires that I wait until the light turns green before proceeding. I am doing what the law requires, not because I believe in the law for that particular circumstance, but because obedience is required.
Obedience of faith, however, is much different. Obedience of faith is an obedience that flows out of a belief in the goodness and rightness of God. Because I believe that God's purposes for me are motivated by His overwhelming, all-consuming love, I choose to obey Him. I read the Bible because I want to know more about Him and His desires. I do my best to be obedient to those desires, not because I am required to do so, but because I believe they are given with my best interests in mind.
God is Creator of all that exists, including me. If He created me, designed me, shaped every intricacy about me, then He should know how it is that I will best perform, how it is that I will best be suited to be who He created me to be.
If a person were to design a computer program for cooks, it might include features such as storing recipes, adjusting recipes according to the number of servings required, pairing compatible foods for nutritious and appetizing meals, providing a shopping list of ingredients for chosen recipes, etc. The designer of the program would also, one would hope, prepare a user's manual for the program which would explain each of the features and how best to use them. While there might be a feature called, "NOTES" in the program, in which one would make personal notes for a given recipe, one could not reasonably expect to be able to use that feature for Biology 101 class notes. The program is not designed for taking notes, per se. It is designed for storing recipes and creating menus and shopping lists.
We are God's creation, His design. He designed us to work best under certain circumstances and within a specific set of parameters. Our first ancestors rebelled at the thought of being created and wanted to be Creator, or at least to be like the Creator.
And so it is with us today. We do not like the idea that we are created. Nor that God created us to work best when living as He describes in His user manual. We want to make the rules. Maybe God created me with good communication skills and very little or no fear of standing in front of crowds, with the intent that I teach people about Him and who He is. Maybe I don't like the idea of being a created, designed entity and I want to make my own choices regarding how I use the features God designed into me. So, instead of inspiring people to know their Creator better, I spend my time inspiring people to know themselves better, to look at their strengths and choose for themselves what it is they want to do with those strengths, those things God has programmed into them as part of His design for how they should work. I would be using the features God designed into me, but I would not be using them as intended. It might work, just as one might be able to enter biology notes into a recipe program. But will it work best? Will I be being the best me that I can be?
I don't think so. I think rather that I would be a lesser me, because I would be obedient to the law of my programming, communicating well to people, but my heart would be focused on me rather than on my Creator. I would be doing a thing because there is a 'law' built into the fabric of who I am that says, "Do this." However, because my heart would be, as the prophets said so well, far from God, all the doing would have no lasting value, no real meaning.
If, however, I choose to keep my heart focused on my Creator/Designer, if I work within the parameters of His user manual - not because I am required, but because I believe Him to be good and kind and loving - then I am working at top performance. I am working as I was designed to work. I am being the best me that I can be.
So, how does this play out in real life? It sounds good on paper or a computer screen, but what does it look like at work, or in the grocery store, or when a friend or acquaintance is more than a little annoying? What about injustice and wrong-doing? How do I respond to those things in life that make me want to act in a way that is not the best way for me to act? What do I do when the virus of sin, that I can not seem to completely eradicate from my system, wants to take over my programming?
I am human, after all.
This is where the user's manual is so important. Every time I read it, I learn new things, acquire new skills that I did not have before.
For instance, I have been in a situation for several years where I think it is fair to say that there is a certain amount of injustice that happens on a regular basis. Certain people are allowed to disregard protocol, and the resulting issues create extraneous work for others who are already overloaded. For several years, I tried to "help" the person in charge see the problem so it could be fixed. To no avail. In fact, I began to realize that every time I brought something to this person's attention, rather than address the ones responsible for the problem, more burden was added to another's plate. I quit bringing things to the PIC's attention, but I was still very frustrated by what I saw. Then one day as I read Psalm 37 words interspersed through the first few verses leapt off the page at me, "Fret not yourself because of evildoers... trust in the Lord and do good... fret not yourself... Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil." Suddenly I realized that I was fretting, almost daily, over evildoers -- those who did wrong and those who had the power to stop them, but refused to do so. And yes, it did tend toward evil. I was constantly in a state of inner turmoil because I was fretting over wrongdoing that I wanted to fix but could not. However, God's User Manual tells me not to fret over wrongdoing. Rather, I am to trust in Him.
So the question became one of trust. Did I believe that God is sovereign and that He will, at the right time, act to bring about right? I had to make a choice.
I came away from that reading with three thoughts:
Don't fret about what others are doing
You trust God and do good yourself
God will take care of the rest
I cease to fret (most of the time!) about the 'evil' that happens in this place because I have faith in God's sovereignty. I believe in His goodness, and will trust in His timing to bring about justice. Or mercy. Because He, in His infinite wisdom, may choose mercy to change hearts rather than justice to change only circumstances.
The obedience of faith. It is an obedience that flows out of faith in God's sovereignty, faith in His goodness, His love, His rightness. It is not an obedience that is given because of requirement, like sitting at a red light. It is an obedience that is given in return for the faithfulness of a never-changing God who always keeps His word. A God who knows how we best work, because He is, after all, the One who designed us.
