Jesus Was/Is Obedient

Jesus Was/Is Obedient

John 5:30
"I [Jesus] 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."

Luke 4:43
"but He said to them, I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent."

Romans 5:19
"For as by one man's [Adam's] disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's [Jesus'] obedience many will be made righteous."

Examples of the correct way to practice obedience to His commands

Matthew 4:18-22
"And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him."

Examples of the incorrect way to practice obedience to His commands

Exodus 3:10
[God speaking from the burning bush] "Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

Exodus 3:11

"But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?'"

To make a long story short, Moses spends the rest of Chapter 3 arguing with God, and the Lord has an answer for every one of Moses' excuses to get out of the job. Finally, in Chapter 4 verse 13, Moses asks God to send someone else. God's reaction is in the next verse:

Exodus 4:14
"So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses."

OUCH! I don't know about you, but the absolute last thing I would ever want is to have the Lord angry with me.

In Matthew 19:16-23, we are told of a man who wanted to come and follow Jesus, but he was not willing to follow Jesus' command to sell everything. Actually, he might have done it if he had taken the time to think about it, but the Lord wanted him to do it immediately, just as Simon, Andrew, James and John had dropped their fishing equipment without hesitation to dedicate their lives to the Lord.

The story of this man, often referred to as the Rich Young Ruler in modern discussions, is applicable to us for that very reason: he was expected to obey God immediately, without worrying about his possession or other worldly concerns. Sadly, this man is not alone. He lost a chance at salvation. You and I may have salvation, but we are still called to immediate obedience, and the thing that will keep us from this is the worries of the world, and possessions, both of which are temporary anyway. This is why Matthew 6:21 says that where your treasure is, there is your heart also.

One final point here can be made if we will remember what was said earlier about the definition of obedience. The Greek and Hebrew words translated into "obedience" both are centered around the concept of trust. If you don't obey God when He speaks to you, you are essentially saying, "God, I don't trust Your will for my life. I don't think You have my best interests at heart. I know better than You, so I will handle this one myself." As you can imagine, this sort of attitude can upset the Lord greatly. Which leads us to His anger being kindled against us and I'm sure none of us want that, now do we?