Not as I will, but as you will.

Last month we looked at taking a step of faith and “Can we continue living in sin”, and were about to conclude no, I promised we would continue this by digging a bit deeper into Romans 6:2. Whilst looking at this God has been taking me through some related teaching on “Obedience” which I would like to look at this month instead, but next month we will look back at freedom from sin.

In my personal bible reading I am about 2/3rds of the way through the book of Numbers, having read Exodus and Leviticus, because “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16). Amongst other things, these three chapters chronicle Israel’s disobedience to God, and the consequences of that. Such as death by plague, death by being swallowed by the ground, disbarment from the promised land, a 40 year trip through the wilderness to name but a few. But for those that were faithful God kept his promise to Abraham, his descendants filled The Promised Land like the stars in the night sky (Genesis 15:5). Those who had faith, those that did not turn there back on God, those who held onto the vision God had given them and their ancestors, they received the the reward of “A land flowing with Milk and Honey”.

Moving on to the New Testament, to summarise the whole of the Gospel and most of the New Testament in a few sentences (perhaps not too good an idea!). It was through one man’s obedience to God “Yet not as I will, but as you will”, despite his “Soul being overwhelmed with sorrow”; we have received what we DO NOT deserve, that being eternal life with Jesus at the right hand of God; forgiveness of sins – redemption! The consequence of Jesus disobeying God is unthinkable, we would all be doomed to die and be eternally separated from God, we would not know what love was, we COULD ONLY live in the sin of a fallen world, there would be NO HOPE, only hate and fear and eternal torment. There would be no point what so ever to life. Can you even begin to imagine the horror of that.

The Good News (Gospel) is Jesus was truly and lovingly obedient to God, so those of us that believe in Jesus, have redemption and are covered in His righteousness and, therefore, we do have hope, do know love and have a God given purpose. Best of all we get to be with Jesus for all eternity. Can we loose this! Well that is a debate for people with far greater scholarship than me, but my personal opinion is probably not. We have discovered what love is and we truly love Him, therefore we will not want to disobey Him, and thereby build treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:20). The consequence of disobedience is at least lack of treasure in heaven, but also, as with the Israelites, our journey to God’s promised land may leave us wandering in the desert for 40 years first.

So why make things hard for ourselves by being hard hearted and disobeying God, God’s plans will go on with or without us. To obey God is the easiest and best option for us, and the rewards are so wonderful. So to conclude, how can we continue living in “Pride” and “Disobedience”. Which leads us nicely back to Romans 6:2 next month.