Harmonizing Profession with Obedience

03.17.09

J.A. Matteson

"He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Philippians 2:8

The work of Providence is to test the Christian’s heart, harmonizing profession with obedience, bringing into alignment the academic with the actual. The academic precedes the actual and the actual validates the academic as wrought in Christ. Lost in the Garden of Eden was obedience, being replaced by rebellion. The Lord cleanly stripes away all pretense by revealing the genuine fruit of the academic, “If you love Me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Love is manifest at the divine intersection of humility and obedience. The end of Providence is obedience; the means is humility; the pathway is death. By Providence the Christian sojourns to the base of difficult hills at which point the academic and actual are juxtaposed, he will at that place continue on the pathway of Providence which leads up or elect to become his own providence and traverse around the base of the hill. Spiritual immaturity seeks to be its own providence. The outworking of maturity is humility unto obedience and the tutor unto humility is Providence. Spiritual immaturity isolates circumstances as separate from Providence; it artificially fabricates a distinction between what it perceives as ordinary and the divine. Humility willingly accepts God’s providential appointed ends and His means toward that end, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).

The Providential pathway towards obedience leads directly through the Valley of the Shadow of Death where humiliation and worldly-loss remain constant companions. To these things the Lord assures the pilgrim, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30). What has Providence required of you that you squirmed under, choosing rather to become your own providence? At what intersection have the academic and the actual caused you to pull back? At what point has the outworking of the academic and actual proved incongruent—a startling disconnect, tempting you to become your own providence rather than ascend the hill which Providence assigned to you? Watch out, Jonah was such a man and he soon found himself inside the slimy reeking belly of a fish. Saul was such a man and the kingdom was stripped out of his hands and given to one younger. The foundation of obedience is love and perfect love casts out fear, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). It is through obedience that the Christian demonstrates that his love for the Lord is genuine, that the relationship between the academic and actual in his life is progressing as he imitates the Lord’s obedience to His Father, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29).

The Providential pathway for individual Christians differ but their destination is the same—glory. In this regard two errors ought to be avoided: firstly, the inordinate pondering of the Providences of other pilgrims, this merely distracts and retards your own progress along the path the Lord has set for you—resist the temptation, “Lord, and what about this man?...what is that to you? You follow Me!" (John 21:21-22); secondly, becoming a hindrance to other pilgrims as a result of ignorance as to their own paths of Providence, “…we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, 'What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.'” (Acts 21:12-13). Jesus Christ maintained a sharp focus on his mission as the Lamb of God, “But for this purpose I came to this hour” (John 12:27), and motivated by love for His Father He humbled Himself to obediently remain on the Providential pathway set before Him. As with King David the pathway of God for each pilgrim is revealed through Providence, and it is each Christians obligation to follow that pathway with humility and obedience, for in so doing he fulfills the Lord’s plan for his life, “For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers.” (Acts 13:36).

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