August 15th, 2007

Freed in Obedience

Read Luke 1:57-66

"And at once his mouth was opened and tongue loosed,

and he began to speak in praise of God." vs. 64

Lest I be considered an Antinomian, we pause today to consider the necessity of obedience in the life of God's followers. Antinomianism was a heresy within the early church that basically made moral behavior and obedience to God's direction of no particular consideration. According to its adherents, grace was such a free gift that any attempt at justifying ourselves through our behavior was a mere act of futility and of little consequence. Therefore, as you might guess...grace became a license for sin.

However, this movement within the church was readily rejected by church leadership because it failed to recognize the fullness of the regenerative and redemptive process of God. Yes "we are saved by grace through faith," however, within our salvation we come to recognize that we are saved "as God's workmanship to do the good works for which we have been purposed." Ok, enough big church word mumbo jumbo and formal language...Boiled down, only as we come to understand James who says "faith without deeds is dead" can we understand the complete package of salvation.

Now allow me to tie this in with where we have been over the last few days. God is a gift-giver. In fact, He is so much so that the consistent posture of God throughout the sciptural story is that of extension, extending gift to his creation. That gift is free. As I stated earlier this week, our posture is that of receipt, we are ever reliant and completely dependant upon the faithful giving of the father. But our posture dances between receipt and the response of obedience. As a result of God's faithfulness we are called to be faithful. We are called to orient our lives to the direction of God's Word and Spirit in fulfilling the Father's will.

In the above passage, we see this dynamic manifest itself in a powerful way. Zechariah receives a vision which by faith he is unable to accept. Therefore, through his muteness, he is bound by disbelief. However, as his wife obviously carries the child to term, the gift of God's child amidst barrenness becomes evident. Zechariah could do nothing more than to accept the reality that faced him each day. But Zechariah was still bound.

Only on the day in which the receipt bore the fruit of obedience did the chains fall off and he was set free. On that day, Zechariah heeded the word of God's messenger and obeyed the command to name the child John. Resistance had given way to receipt and doubt gave way to obedience. Zechariah's freedom was the working together of acceptance of God's gift and his faithful response to God's direction.

The challenge for us is to alway live within the delicate balance of the economy of salvation. To view grace as license without necessity of obedience is to make grace cheap and impotent. To make grace dependant on our actions first and foremost is to accept legalism and works righteousness as a pathway to God. Therefore, the balance is found in the recognition that God's gift of grace is free, to be received with utter amazement and joy. However, the freedom in accepting the gift only comes as we surrender our lives in obedience to the will of God...following Him wherever he shall lead. Salvation is a holistic response to God's inexpressible mercy and grace. That response bears the fruit of obedient living in a world bent on doubt and disbelief. Those who hear the voice of the shepherd and follow his commands are those that by the grace of God live freely and abundantly.