Learning Obedience

A child shares a unique relationship with their parents, having been conceived by them and born subject to them.  Infants and young children are completely reliant upon their parents for survival, and as they develop they learn to understand communication by tone, facial expressions and words.  Parents train their children to do basic tasks themselves, and often children learn to obey by trial and error, failing again and again until they finally succeed.  It takes a lot of effort and coordination for a child to learn to walk, to tie their shoes or dress themselves.

When it comes to obedience, to young children their parent is the authority.  While there are likely exceptions to this, should there be a conflict between what a pre-school teacher or friend says and what mum or dad says, the child will tend to side with their parents.  In that tender age they have no reason to think their parents, who have provided for them and helped them through every season of life, would deliberately mislead them.  It is when they grow older and more independent they question, doubt and even oppose what their parents said, buoyed by the pride and passion of youth.  A combination of faithful training, loving discipline, life experiences that include negative consequences, and exposure to biblical truth help guide people of all ages to mature.

The writer of Hebrews used the relationship Jesus (as the Son of God) had with His heavenly Father to instruct and encourage those who have been born-again to learn obedience.  Hebrews 5:7-10 says of Jesus, "...who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, ⁸ though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, ¹⁰ called by God as High Priest "according to the order of Melchizedek..."  Small children in trouble instinctively run to their parents for protection, and Jesus cried out to God His Father Who heard Him.  Jesus did not learn obedience by making mistakes that required correction but by the things He suffered.  Jesus learned obedience to His Father in a relationship with God, and as born-again children of God by faith in Jesus we learn to obey Him.

Salvation is not earned by obedience, but genuine faith that saves is marked by obedience.  As Jesus learned obedience, so we also are called to learn to obey God our Father.  The payment Jesus has made for our sin inspires us to walk righteously, and the negative consequences experienced for our sin provides valuable lessons that work to sanctify.  Since the righteousness of God has been imputed to us by faith in Jesus, the loving relationship we share fosters our desire is to please Him by obedience.  Our obedience to Jesus Christ is an indication we have a genuine relationship with God even as a child has with their loving parents.  We too can learn obedience by the things which we suffer, and God provides consolation for our suffering.  Obedience is not always binary but by degrees, for even our best efforts to obey often fall short of God's perfection.

If Jesus Who was without sin needed to learn obedience, it follows we need to learn to obey God as well, to learn to keep our vessels in honour.  Obedience to God may lead to temporary suffering, yet consider the eternal benefits of Christ's obedience to go to the cross to atone for lost sinners!  Death was swallowed up in victory; pain and shame was dissolved with eternal joy and perfect peace.  The benefits of obedience are glorious rewards the wise desire, and to identify with Christ through joyful obedience to God is evidence of our eternal salvation.  Because Jesus is our Saviour, we delight to learn to obey Him.  One day we will be perfected even as Jesus is, and we thus presently offer up prayers and supplications to Him who is able to save us from death and provide eternal salvation.