Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The Impossibility Of Obedience - Apart From Jesus

My Utmost For His Highest
 
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. —John 13:13
 
“Our Lord never insists on having authority over us. […] He leaves us perfectly free to choose […] But once His life has been created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective domination, in which I acknowledge that “You are worthy, O Lord…” (Revelation 4:11). It is simply the unworthiness within me that refuses to bow down or to submit to one who is worthy […] The level of my growth in grace is revealed by the way I look at obedience. We should have a much higher view of the word obedience, rescuing it from the mire of the world. Obedience is only possible between people who are equals in their relationship to each other; like the relationship between father and son, not that between master and servant. Jesus showed this relationship by saying, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). “…though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The Son was obedient as our Redeemer, because He was the Son, not in order to become God’s Son.” CHAMBERS
 
“My life is not my own, I have been bought with a price”  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  To understand the condition of our salvation.  To understand the underlying spiritual truths of our salvation is to understand the motivation to live in obedience to the Father.  Our desire to live in such a manner should not be a faint notion, but it should be very context of every minute of every day.  A constant awareness of who we are and whose we are.  We were once independent of God, but the day we placed our faith in Jesus we laid our independence down at the foot of the cross.  We should not endeavor to pick it back up, and yet we do, don’t we? Do the things of this world hold an attraction to you?  Are you drawn to walk in the manner in which you formerly did?  Perhaps you already are.  We are all prone to wander.  Prone to leave the God we love.  I am certain that you have heard the saying “If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.”  We all or at least most of us have these little bastions of independence, of going our own way, doing our own thing, in our lives.  Do not convince yourself that it is “OK”.  It’s not.  It’s nothing more and nothing less than your old nature wanting its independence back.  It’s not just knowing what the Word says about how we are to live, but actually living that way.   Such a life requires honesty .. confessing when we sin .. and determination … keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. It’s a grand life that we have been called to live … but we can live it only if Jesus is Lord.  CHARLEY

No comments: