obedience

   As I have been wrestling with Romans 6 the last couple of weeks and as I have posted earlier about the issues of kingship and authority.  Obedience or disobedience is how one responds or doesn't respond to the authority figure  Whether it is God's authority, or human authority, it is still authority.  (The idea of whether to and when to obey and when to disobey human authority is a different posting)  Whether it is being obedient to ourselves or to God.  As I have wrestled with this issue of obedience, it is more than just doing something or not doing something for someone.  When one obeys, there is some level of respect for either the person or the authority that the person has giving the directions.  I often do or don't do things because its the right thing to do and there are times that I do the right things for the right reason, or the right thing for the wrong reason and vice versa.  There are times where I throw a tantrum while doing it or and that usually leads to nothing getting done.  When we are being obedient, especially to God and His authority or even earthly authority the intentions of the heart do matter.  I often thing of when I was made to apologize to my siblings for doing something wrong.  I may have apologized, but on the inside I was still kicking and screaming and calling them poopy heads.  So my question to us all is how do we match up this idea of obedience as action, and obedience of the heart.  It is a daily struggle for doing or not doing things for the right reason.  In the end, true obedience is knowing where one stands with others and living out of that which I hope is a position not of ruling but of serving. 

  One of the verses that has kept coming up for me is Malachi 6:8 of loving justice, mercy and walking humbly with God.  With this in mind, when one is walking humbly with God, it is a realization what are place is and living in it.  Its not taking a number and just being a member of the masses.  It is this idea that we are living as a child of God and we are coming under Gods authority.  God does not rule with an iron fist and a septor and kills off anyone who does wrong.  God is a God of mercy and not only does He come along side us and helps us put things back in order but He also bestows His holiness upon us.  To use a Dr Mulholland quote (professor at Asbury Seminary and thanks David Pritchard for sharing me of this quote):

               Unholiness is its own torment ... God enters into the torment to offer redemption and restoration                   To holiness.

   If we are truly walking in obedience, its more than doing the right thing because that gets us no where with God.  It is holy living, is allowing God to Impute His holiness and righteousness on us.  Imputing is God doing for us, what we can not do for ourselves.  Imputing is the act of being made righteous and holy before God through what Christ on the cross.  The other part of holy obedience is this idea of impartation, or what God does through us.  It is being obedient to the work of the Holy Spirit and following that leading.  It is taking part in what God is doing and doing it.  It is being conformed to God's character and holiness.  In closing, I think it is a movement from just bringing the sacrifices and gifts to the alter to moving into a right relationship with God and each other.  What I mean by this is that we are called to bring our gifts and sacrifices to the altar, but if we are not living in right relationship with God or our fellow man or woman, we are instructed to leave the gift and go make that relationship right.  I think the key component to loving justice and mercy is how are we at keeping up our relationship with God, but with others.  One definition of justice is being in right relationship with someone, whether it is with God or people.  Being in right relationship with God and others takes a lot of work, grace, mercy and God.  So maybe being obedient has to deal with being in right relationship and living out that right relationship.  Just some food for thought

Kingship and Authority

            In the American culture, when one dubs themselves as king, or someone else does for them, it often means that they are the best at what they do.  In the past fifty years, we have had the king of rock n roll (Elvis), the king of pop (Michael Jackson), or King James (basketball player).  These people are either considered the best at what they do, or have the most potential to be the best at what they do.  Being king often comes with the expectation of that they are not only the best at what they do, and they have authority, whether self ascribed or ascribed by others.  This type of kingship and authority often leads down a very destructive and painful road.  Having this type of authority, makes us want to be like Eric Cartman and yell respect my authority and when we say this, things never end well.  Looking back on the lives of Michael Jackson and Elvis, the end of their lives were nothing to be followed or desired and lead to their untimely and unfortunate deaths.  We all have someone(s) or something(s) that rule over us and act as authority in our lives, it is just a matter of is it constructive or destructive to our current lifestyle and our eternal one.

            Romans 6 talks about this idea of kingship and authority in our lives and who or what has this authority.  It is more than who serves as our elected leaders on a local, state, and a national level, which is an important discussion for a later time, but it is who rules our heart, action and lives.  In this chapter Paul is sharing with the Roman church the two authorities that are not only trying to grab our attention, but are trying to grab our hearts and our allegiances and these authorities are in contrast with each other.  One authority is sin and sin is anything that takes us out of a right relationship with God.  Sin often manifest itself in being self centered, hedonistic, or self destructive patterns.  I think that Frank Sinatra has a pretty good definition of sin and that’s doing things my way.  Doing things my way often leads us down a self destructive path that if we are responsible for getting ourselves out of, we can’t.  It’s because we have let sin rule over us and we are under its authority and we become servants of this destructive lifestyle.  But here is the good news, we do not have to be under the authority of sin and live this self destructive lifestyle.   

            Paul touches on this idea of should I keep on sinning so that grace may expound.  Essentially Paul is asking the question of, should I keep dishonoring Him to gain His mercy and favor.  Paul emphatically says no way.  To sum it up, we are turning God’s gift into a cheap perfume that doesn’t smell good.  God’s gift to us, which is Jesus death and resurrection, gives us the ability to have power over sin and not to continue in it.  Paul contrast of sinning all the time to get Gods grace with being an instrument of God’s grace to the world we live in.  Being an instrument for God, takes on many forms, but the main constant is this; it is sharing and doing for others what God has done for us.  The question is, are we going to be obedient to Gods grace and work within us and through us, to be instruments of peace and reconciliation to a hurting and broken world.  Or are we going to go and be obedient to our hedonistic selves and be destructive.  We are kind of like bulldozers, they can be useful in building roads and buildings, but also can be very destructive in ripping things apart and causing mayhem.  So what kind of instruments are we going to be today and how are we going to let God use us for His glory.  In the end, it is not about respecting my authority or kingship that I might have, but it is point to the One who has authority over all and is the Creator of the Universe.