On one hand, we are children of God hence we possess immense privileges by virtue of that relationship. On the other hand, we must be constantly reminded that we have definite responsibilities as God’s children. Here is an unequivocal stance to smugness and arrogance that implies superiority over non-Christians: it is in our conduct that we make our claims to be God’s children believable. The outward manifestation of our walk exhibits an inward spiritual integrity.
God in a box?
In this age of unprecedented wealth, consumerism mars our culture. In many developed societies, life is so good that “give us our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer is just a pious uttering. We get to pick and choose what we want, and discard what we don’t. We are spoilt for choices. The sentiment is so strong that there is a new breed of Christians - McChristians. We open the bible, pick and choose the principles that fancy us and ignore the ones that don’t; and then carry on living life our way. Many Christians want to share Christ’s glory, but not his sufferings.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German martyr during the Nazi Occupation, penned this: “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate”. Cheap grace is living as though God ignores or condones our sins. But forgiveness means that sin is real, and must be dealt with. We cannot ignore it, because God does not ignore it. The denial of sin is not grace: it is a lie. Cheap grace means living without the demand of obedience upon us.
The Call to Obedience
If I were to summarize the Christian lifestyle into just one word, it would be obedience. The Bible is full of examples expounding obedient and disobedient characters. The underpinning principle is simple: God blesses the obedient, while the disobedient runs into problems.
Obedience is the conscientious efforts to live out God’s commands and principles, regardless of whether surrounding circumstances are favourable or not. It is a consistency of our discipleship that matters, and not individual acts taken in isolation.
Obedience is not a checklist of rules. Such hollow, legalistic approach saps the essence out of the life of faith and the pilgrimage loses its character. You know the difference between the cheerful obedience of an affectionate daughter or a dutiful son, and the forced obedience of a wretched drudge. One is spontaneous, hearty, affectionate, free, and is accepted as such; the other is extorted by fear, or given with an eye to the wages. We obey, not that it is a test to gain access to God, but rather it is the manifestation of our access to God.
No two-ways around it
There is not such thing as “I love God, but” in the Christian pilgrimage. And there is also no such thing as good intentions. Someone once commented that the road to hell is full of good intentions. Eugene Peterson once remarked that we don’t become whole persons by merely wanting to become whole, by consulting the right prophets, by reading the right books. Intentions must mature into commitments if we are to become persons with definition, character and substance.
Scriptures is blunt to state that if a person claims to know Christ but does not do as Jesus commands, he is a liar (1John 2:4). There are good reasons why God does not tolerate disobedience. Firstly, the psychology behind a disobedient act undermines faith. We know that without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Secondly, as God commands to be holy because He is holy (Leviticus 19:2), disobedience implies a sub-standard spiritual stance. Thirdly, it taints our declaration of love for God - only those who truly love Him will do as He says (John 14:23-24).
The call to obedience may seem like a lofty, unattainable perfection. However, as children of God, we can be sure that His grace is enough for us. If we love Him, we obey him - that is our part of the deal (1 John 5:2). God’s part of the deal is that when we obey Him, we are empowered to overcome (v3-5).
