The Freedom of Obedience

For so long I couldn't see the freedom in obedience. God's commands were rules and restrictions--rules and restrictions that I followed because I was supposed to. Because I wanted to be a good Christian. But viewing obedience in this lens leads to a legalistic faith or one which sees God as cruel, controlling, or egotistical.

And how can we claim that God's love is unconditional if He requires us to follow these rules?

Or why does it matter if we don't follow them if He unconditionally forgives us?

How are we saved by faith and not by works, and yet salvation requires us to obey?

It doesn't make sense. 

But the reason it doesn't make sense is not because the logic is inconsistent, but because we carry the wrong framework for obedience.

If Jesus is a ticket to salvation, obedience is either the payment for that ticket or a list of best practices for the journey. If Jesus is a ticket to salvation, we are the lord of our own lives. We either have to rely on ourselves to make the necessary payment or we can ignore the rules in favor of our own impulses. 

But the basis of Christianity has never been a way out of hell or a way into heaven but an adoption into the living God's family. As such, Jesus is not a means to an end but the source of a relationship built off of mutuality. And if we really resonate with that, our sin starts to matter in a different way. It doesn't only separate us from God, it hurts Him. 

When we think of God as distant, the weight of our sin is taken out of proportion. Either it is unable to be covered by His grace or it isn't so bad as to even need His grace to cover it. But when we imagine God as close--as Father, as Friend, as loved one--our motivation changes. We are not looking primarily to ourselves. 

Every relationship has rules: don't cheat on, don't lie to, don't hit; be honest, be respectful, communicate. Yet we don't look at these as a vice unless the relationship is broken. If we're insecure in the relationship, these rules are fueled by fear, trying to preserve what we can through our own efforts. If we're selfish in the relationship, these principles of care become a burden that we don't want to carry. Both of these lead to an unsustainable relationship.

But when we genuinely love someone, we don't want to hurt them. Because we are broken people in imperfect relationships, we will cause those we love--a friend, a parent, a child, a sibling, a mentor, a spouse--pain, but that is not the position of our hearts. And it's in this relational context that obedience makes sense.

We obey God because we love Him. We want to make Him feel happy and cared for. We don't want to do anything to create distance in our relationship. And as in any relationship, we will fail, but that is where His unconditional love shines. He sustains our relationships even when we act in unsustainable ways. He forgives us whether we hurt Him intentionally or not. He makes our relationship more than our failures. He restores us. Where our earthly relationships may break beyond the point of mending, our relationship with God is always secure in the covenant that He carries. The covenant that is more impossible to break than that of the covenant between the sun and the moon (Jeremiah 33:20-21a).

God will never deny us closeness to Him. He won't lash out at us. He will always forgive us, love us, want us. And it's in that place of security that we can strive in His power to be worthy of the relationship, and where we fail, Jesus has already succeeded. 

When we love someone, we desire to do what will bring them joy above what will bring us joy. In fact, their joy causes us greater joy than anything else can.

When we trust someone, we know that their actions are meant to bring us freedom, life, and protection. Like the rule not to touch the stove is meant to bring freedom from pain, the rules God gives us are meant to protect us in a world that seeks our destruction.

A healthy relationship is about seeking your loved one's health and joy and knowing your loved one is doing the same for you. And in the context of Scripture, that's what obedience is. It's not the logic of rules and obligations, which we feed to both Christians and non-Christians, but an act of love. It's not something cold and hollow, rules for the sake of obedience, but guidelines on how to cultivate warmth and intimacy, drawing closer to the God who loves us. Something we pursue to bring God joy and something God created to lead us to joy and His best for us. 

If rules are the starting point, they lead us into a cold relationship based off right and wrong and not intimacy. God becomes only authority and judge and nothing else. And so we are either buried under the weight of an unfeeling God or we flee from Him. But when we start with a relationship--the most beautiful relationship we can experience-- obedience flows out of that naturally.

Instead of looking at God's commandments as a list of expectations, we can see them as practices for relational flourishing. And instead of looking at God as a tyrant, we can see His kindness in writing them all down. In not leaving us to fend for ourselves and wonder but in making things clear so that we never have to wonder why we feel distant. He gives us freedom in boundaries that we can never find searching the world outside of them. 

Righteousness and sin are real, but they are not the point. They can't be center. It's all about a relationship with Jesus, and when we draw into Him, we receive His forgiveness from our sins and to His righteousness. Part of any relationship is sacrifice because the point of a relationship is not to seek our own satisfaction but to find it in pouring out love, but we can always be assured that the love we pour into our relationship with God will be a pinprick compared to the love He pours into His relationship with us. 

Obedience isn't meant to trap us but to free us to know His love more deeply. Not because we've earned more of it, but because we've drawn closer to Him.

Every command God gives is meant to bring freedom and life, and if we're not seeing that, we're missing something. Now like any relationship we won't always feel that freedom and life when our hearts our torn between love and selfishness, but love will always be the choice that leads us into deep joy. And that's where our obedience always leads us. Into God, into His love, and into His best for us.