Faith and Obedience

1/2/2010

Last night Matt said something about how it’s not enough just to recognize that “we can’t do it” (though that is totally True) and we have to rely on God (which could not be more True), but that we also need to repent of things that He shows us (Acts 3:19, Luke 13:3, Acts 2:36-47), the things that JESUS said would “choke out the Seeds” of His Life, or things that undermine or devalue our love for Him and His. “Unless you take up YOUR cross you can’t be a Christian.” (Luke 14:26-27, Acts 11:26)

Then this light bulb kind of clicked in my mind based on what Matt had said that sort of put the whole issue of faith and works and God’s sovereignty and man’s free will and the book of James and baptism and all kinds of stuff into a much clearer perspective for me, which I shared with everyone for a couple of minutes.

What I said basically was that when Jesus healed the blind man in John 4 and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, MOST modern “evangelicals” would have been prevented by their “theology” from obeying what Jesus said.

“I’m not going to go wash in the pool of Siloam! No way! I can’t “add” to the finished work of Jesus! I’m just going to sit here and believe that He’s already healed me. Yep, he’s healed me and I just have to believe. I can’t do anything myself or that would be a “works” mentality…legalism. No, I’m just going to wait here until He changes me.”

And of course, that would be stupid. And the man wouldn’t have been healed.

And this is why “theology” (approaching Father as a text book, or a recipe book, or a magic incantation book, or a rule book) in WHATEVER flavor, however “true” or not, is totally worthless. Because it really is as simple as this: We just need to trust and obey our Master. Don’t overcomplicate things! OF COURSE the blind man didn’t heal himself by washing in the pool. Jesus healed him and was 100% responsible for the healing. The man added nothing to the process by washing the mud off. BUT IF HE DIDN’T OBEY WHAT JESUS SAID, HE NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN HEALED.

And so as we ask Jesus to change us and heal us, we must listen for His voice and obey what we hear. If we want to be saved in the first place, or want to be made more holy and changed into His likeness, we must be willing, like that blind man, to DO WHAT HE SAYS. There’s no reason to even think about the “theological implications” of “God’s Sovereignty” and “faith versus works” and all that other stuff. Be a child! Believe that He CAN transform your life and DO what He asks you to do!

…it gives me tracks to run on in my life, personally, and it really is exciting in its simplicity. Just be a lover of Jesus and others and listen for His voice (and since He and His Body are one, His voice can and will come through His people) and do what He says!

As the song says, I guess BOTH are God’s Heart since they are throughout the New Testament…Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus…but to Trust and Obey!

—Tim