Christian Obedience

“If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” (Isa. 48:18, NIV)

Obedience to God, can only come from two sources, the love and fear of God!  And this life of the Christian is that in the kingdom, for the kingdom has come and is pressing its way into the world. But how?  It is the Church: a “continuing incarnation” – offering our hearts and minds to the will of God, weaving together both the inner and outer life of the Spirit/spirit. Union with Christ by faith, is nothing else, but a life “soaked” by a sense of the Triune God’s reality and the claim upon the redeemed soul. It is more, much more, than the mind and intellect moving about for God!  It is also the soul and spirit alive and under the development of obedience of discipline and the theocentric and christocentic reality of all this mystery at work in us, it is grace & glory!  Biblically, it is God In Christ, (2 Cor. 5:19). For this alone we exist, and nothing else!  And only here we become “effective” servants and “lives” of Christ – Himself!  All else is nothing, as St. Paul said, “dung” – “loss for the sake of Christ.” (Phil. 3:7-8)

Only when the Church lives out it’s life and union with Christ – Crucified, Risen, Ascended – will it have power to move, challenge, and even change the culture around her!  Only here, will we find God’s real “decree”!