Our Lord never insists on having authority over us. He never says, “You will
submit to me.” No, He leaves us perfectly free to choose— so free, in
fact, that we can spit in His face or we can put Him to death, as others
have done; and yet He will never say a word. But once His life has been
created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right
to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective
domination, in which I acknowledge that “You are worthy, O Lord . . .” (Revelation 4:11).
It is simply the unworthiness within me that refuses to bow down or to
submit to one who is worthy. When I meet someone who is more holy than
myself, and I don’t recognize his worthiness, nor obey his instructions
for me, it is a sign of my own unworthiness being revealed. God teaches
us by using these people who are a little better than we are; not better
intellectually, but more holy. And He continues to do so until we
willingly submit. Then the whole attitude of our life is one of
obedience to Him.
If our Lord insisted on our obedience, He would simply become a
taskmaster and cease to have any real authority. He never insists on
obedience, but when we truly see Him we will instantly obey Him. Then He
is easily Lord of our life, and we live in adoration of Him from
morning till night. The level of my growth in grace is revealed by the
way I look at obedience. We should have a much higher view of the word obedience,
rescuing it from the mire of the world. Obedience is only possible
between people who are equals in their relationship to each other; like
the relationship between father and son, not that between master and
servant. Jesus showed this relationship by saying, “I and My Father are
one” (John 10:30). “. . . though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The Son was obedient as our Redeemer, because He was the Son, not in order to become God’s Son.
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