Sunday 17^th August 2025

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance,
obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
Hebrews 11:8 (NIV)

The obedience of faith
It sounds to me like a perfect description of navigating by sat nav: ‘I obeyed and went, even though I did not know where I was going.’  How many journeys have I made, dutifully following every direction of that computer-generated voice, as if it belongs to an all-seeing, all-knowing and all-wise being?

If only my obedience to the Lord was as prompt, as thorough, as trusting, as constant and as persevering as is my obedience to that voice.  Because, along with faith, obedience is the essence of the Christian life.  They’re too sides of the same coin: faith and obedience.  Each is an appropriate response to what God says.  If God makes a promise, the appropriate response is to believe him; if it’s a command, then it’s obedience that’s appropriate.

The two are so closely entwined that the apostle Paul can speak of “the obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5, 16:26, NIV).  The phrase is literally “the obedience of faith.”  Is that the faith that leads toobedience, as NIV understands it?  Is it the obedience that consists of faith, so that we obey God by putting our faith in him?  It’s hard to say.  It does mean I can’t claim to have faith in God if I’m not committed to obeying him.

It has been said that obeying God can bring trouble, but that disobeying him brings nothing but trouble.  That’s certainly true of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden, exposed by God when he asks him, “Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”   (Genesis 3:11).  That act of disobedience brought nothing but trouble, even death.

And if disobedience lies at the heart of our sin, then obedience lies at the heart of our salvation, as Paul so simply puts it: “For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Christ] the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:20).

It is of course correct to say that we are saved by faith alone, apart from works.  And yet we are commanded by God to have faith in Christ, hence the phrase “the obedience of faith.”  As Paul says elsewhere, unbelievers are those who “do not obey the gospel” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).  We can be so wary of undermining the truth that we are justified by faith that we are scared of speaking of obedience.  That clearly didn’t trouble the apostle Paul!

Prayer
Lord, thank you that you were obedient to your Father, even to death on a cross, and that your obedience is my salvation.  Let it be my joy and privilege to obey you in everything – promptly, thoroughly, constantly – and to know the grace of your forgiveness when I fail.  Amen.

Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)