Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces
us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him.
That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it
with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to
do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . .” (Luke 9:23).
In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to
himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but
about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why
He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.
The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very
clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says
without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have
placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not
force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill
my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty
happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the
seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through
which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I
will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When
God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it
always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow
through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience
is the reality of Almighty God.
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