Rijiltlay) December 16
Your Faith and Your Obedience
OPINION
Key Text: Rom. 3:22
The idea that faith and obedience work together seems at first contradictory. We
equate faith with a release from the emphasis on works and obedience to the law.
The concept of obedience, on the other hand, brings images of parental authority
and conformity as a result of fear of consequences. For those brought up in religious
families, many of the rules were biblically based. This only reinforces the im-
pression of obedience as something to be accomplished to avoid the consequences.
The connection between faith and obedience is not immediately obvious. My
faith tells me that Christ will accomplish what He has said He would in my life.
Thus, I may, in faith, surrender my will to Him and believe that He will accomplish
what He has said He would.
In reality, faith is the only way to practice obedience. Many times our humanity
seems incapable of doing anything good. Evidence points to a lack of willingness
In reality, faith is the only way to practice
obedience.
to obey God’s commands. Yet John states, “We know that we have come to know
him if we obey his commands” (1 John 2:3, NIV).
Thus, the faith-and-obedience relationship becomes a question of how to con-
duct one’s daily life. A seventeenth-century monk named Brother Lawrence wrote
a book entitled The Practice of the Presence of God. The book describes how
Brother Lawrence achieved his blissful relationship with God. Summarizing
Brother Lawrence’s life, his friend writes of him, “Brother Lawrence’s principal
virtue was his faith. As the just man lives by faith, so it was the life and nourishment
of his soul. His spiritual life progressed visibly because of the way his faith
quickened his soul.” * Brother Lawrence writes of the joy of being constantly in
contact with God. His belief in, and his love for, God were enhanced as he practiced
the art of maintaining constant contact with God. His life became ever more filled
with joy, and ever more Christlike as he maintained his faith and his contact with
God.
Faith is the crucial point in the Christian experience. “Who is he that over-
cometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. . . . And this
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:5, 4, KJV).
This explains the direct connection between faith, obedience, and our salvation.
To become Christians, we must accept and believe in Christ. We must then have
faith that He will do as He has promised in our lives.
* Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (Pittsburgh: Whitaker House, 1982),
p- 87.
By Amy Willsey, technical assistant, planning, Adventist Development and Relief
Agency, Silver Spring, Maryland.
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