Threefold Cord of Obedience
Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Do you understand that living your life as a Christian, in it’s simplest form, is living a life of obedience? Living a life in honor to the One who gave you eternal life? Obeying the things He places on your heart? It is not following a set of rules and regulations; obeying a lawbook becomes legalism, and legalism moves to a point that you feel you obtain salvation on your ability to follow the laws on your own merit. A truly transformed heart is one that is led to obey out of the love that it has for the One who came to live there. There is an eternal difference is the heart that obeys out of duty, rather than the heart that obeys out of love. A heart of duty becomes a hard heart that stiffens at those calls of obedience; it has the “okay, if I must” attitude towards the call. The loving heart is humbled and in awe of the tugs the Spirit leads them to; it is honored to express it’s love in obedience to those calls.
A week ago I responded to one of those such calls. I knew I must obey, but I did not move in that duty of obedience, I moved in the awe of it. God lays these big things before us, all to draw us closer to Him thru our obedience. Satan creeps in the thoughts and shadows of it, and begins his work. These are the tribulations that Paul speaks of; Satan means them for evil, God means them for good. I am in the midst of these tribulations; I expected these tribulations, and I prayed and knew that God could be glorified through them. James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Over and over again you will hear testimony of how God did his greatest work in a believers life when they faced their greatest trials of life. These trials may not be the life changers, but the seemingly endless barrage of enemy fire that comes daily. In all of them, look to God for strength in them.
A friend of mine told me the other day of how the devil was riding his back. In the next sentence he said of how Satan must still not realize that Christ has risen. He is risen indeed; Satan and sin were eternally defeated at the cross; Paul speaks above of how you stand justified before a holy God that will declare eternal judgement one day. But as a child of His, you can rest in the faith, hope, and peace as Paul speaks of. The trials of life are the cords that twist you tighter to Him. That hope cannot be taken away by the world once you grasp the certainty of it. Those tugs of obedience, the loving heart that responds, the twists of the tribulations, all tighten and strengthen your cord of life found in Him.
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