“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me<\/em>” (John 5:30).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Doing the will of His Father was the ultimate, overriding priority for Jesus. To Him, nothing mattered more. On one occasion, when His disciples were surprised that He was not hungry, He said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work<\/em>” (John 4:34). Even in Gethsemane, His prayer was simple: “Not My will, but Yours, be done<\/em>” (Luke 22:42).<\/p>\n
Today, I fear we are reluctant even to speak of obedience without making “yes but” apologies for it: “Well, yes, obedience is important, but . . .” It’s as if we’d feel better if passages emphasizing obedience weren’t even in the Scriptures. In making the Father’s will paramount, did Jesus get the emphasis wrong? Like it or not, His example is clear – and if obedience to the Father is not a passion and a priority with us, we shouldn’t claim to be following Jesus’ example.<\/p>\n
Obedience is not only essential; it’s vital in a fundamental<\/strong>\u00a0way: doing the best we can to obey God is the key to discerning what is true about Christ and what is not. Understanding is promised not to the scholarly but to the obedient. Jesus said, “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine<\/em> . . .” (John 7:17).<\/p>\n
In this life, our obedience will fall short. But why should that be a source of paranoia, discouragement, or insecurity about our salvation? Can we not see the pursuit of perfect obedience to our Father as a thrilling, joyful odyssey, a process in which we delight to make daily progress? I believe this is an area where our perspective on God’s will needs a makeover. No one knows “imperfection” more than I, but my outlook has changed for the better. No longer does grace mean the fiction of Christ’s “imputed” righteousness – grace means God is helping me become righteous myself, really and truly<\/strong>. So, I get back up every time I fall, and I am fueled by the excitement of one day being just as obedient to the Father as my Older Brother is. He said, “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect<\/em>” (Matthew 5:48). Discipleship to Him means working on that. Today.<\/p>\n
“[Christ] knows that you can try, and that in your trying and failing he will be able to help you, until at length you will do the will of God even as he does it himself” (George MacDonald).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Garry Henry WordPoints.com “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Doing the will of His Father was the ultimate, overriding priority for Jesus. To Him, nothing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[54,416],"class_list":["post-91877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-obedience","tag-submission"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9761,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-obey-god-even-though-i-dont-want-to-is-that-proof-that-i-love-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":91877,"position":0},"title":"If I obey God even though I don’t want to, is that proof that I love God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, When I do something because it's a commandment from God, and even if I don't want to, is that not proof that I love God? So there are things I don't like to do but because I love God I do it anyway. And on the other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-soul-of-obedience\/","url_meta":{"origin":91877,"position":1},"title":"The Soul of Obedience","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Turner via Gospel Power, Vol. 14, No. 14, April 8, 2007. Remember the old story about the man who was going on a journey, and asked his son to lay out the farm according to his instructions? \u00a0Corn was to be planted in this field, beans in that, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3929,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-jesus-always-have-all-authority\/","url_meta":{"origin":91877,"position":2},"title":"Did Jesus always have all authority?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Matthew's 28:18, why was all authority given to Jesus? Did he not have all authority already? And in I Corinthians it says that He will give all authority back to his Father. Please explain this to me. Answer: \"And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, \"All\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51692,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/to-me-love-proves-there-is-free-will\/","url_meta":{"origin":91877,"position":3},"title":"To me, love proves there is free will","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Mr. Hamilton, Thank you for your lessons in reference to the determinist or Calvinist's point of view vs. the view of choice or free will: There Is No Partiality With God The Role of Obedience in Salvation Is Our Fate Predetermined? If one takes the Calvinist's view that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46100,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-did-jesus-mean-by-i-can-do-nothing-on-my-own\/","url_meta":{"origin":91877,"position":4},"title":"What did Jesus mean by “I can do nothing on my own?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Doesn't John 5:30 resemble Mohammed's role which was listening and writing and being sent? Here Jesus says that he is nothing without God. Answer: \"For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7788,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-the-son-be-called-the-everlasting-father\/","url_meta":{"origin":91877,"position":5},"title":"How can the Son be called the Everlasting Father?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do you harmonize the reference to the Son as \"the Everlasting Father\" in Isaiah 9:6? Answer: \"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}