Imagine a young couple standing at the front of a beautifully decorated church building. The groom is wearing a magnificent tuxedo, the bride is a vision in white lace. Their friends and families are gathered there, squinting in the candlelight, straining to hear them exchange their whispered promises.
Now imagine the young man turning to his bride. He’s written
his own vows. He looks at her tenderly and says, “I want you to be my wife, but
first I have to make sure you’re serious about this. So, after much thought and
prayer and consulting people who I believe to be wise, I have come up with the
following vow, which I make to you today in the presence of God and everyone. If
you will faithfully wash my clothes, cook my meals, clean my house, share my
bed and bear my children, then I will marry you.”
Any young woman who would go for such a deal ought to have
her head examined! The minister ought to call the whole thing off right there.
The father of the bride ought to demand his money back. The best man ought to
have a word with his friend. It’s preposterous.
A marriage is built first on a commitment to relationship
and trust. Acts of service are done with that as a backdrop. It’s not safe to
marry someone without the context of a secure relationship built on mutual
submission.
It’s the same in our relationship with God (the part about
secure relationship, not the part about mutual submission). God does not give
us the Law as a condition for relationship, the Law is a confirmation of a
relationship. We don’t obey in order to become His children, we obey because we
are His children. You cannot obey your way into salvation because only perfect
obedience would be enough.
You obey God because you are saved. Obedience is your
response to His grace.
The ironic thing is, once you begin living a life of
obedience, you find your life actually works better. God has set things up to
run a certain way, disobedience amounts to sawing against the grain of the
universe, it’s unnecessarily difficult.
Then a really fascinating thing begins to happen. The more
you obey God, the more you trust Him. The more you trust Him, the more you want
to do what He says. Ultimately, you find yourself thinking the way He thinks,
seeing things from His perspective. You find within yourself a desire to live
out the will of God, and you no more think of breaking His law than you think
it a good idea to break the law of gravity.
A life of obedience begins to be the only sane way to live, it
is, in fact, a life of true freedom. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, real
freedom comes only as we submit to God’s laws.
Lord God, You have revealed Your perfect character and will
in Scripture. Your Word teaches the way that leads to fullness of life and
provides the wisdom I need to make the right decisions and to value the right
things. You have revealed Your Law not to imprison me but to liberate me from
the prison of self. You have set my feet on a high place and now You call me to
submit to Your will and obey Your commands. And I know that the more I do this,
the more I am liberated from the bondage of the world, the flesh and the devil.
Thank You for the grace to make me become the person You always intended me to
be. Everything You ask me to do is in my best interest, and everything You ask
me to avoid is destructive. May I learn more clearly the freedom of submission
as I trust in Your character and obey Your precepts.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
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