The Divine Intersection

04.24.09

J.A. Matteson

"Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." Hebrews 5:8

Obedience is the outworking of faith forged in the furnace of testing which is fueled by perfect love supplied by God. Causal relationships require an antecedent, and the antecedent to obedience is preference whereby faith directs the will to action. The antithesis of obedience is rebellion, and as the latter is repugnant to God the former upholds His glory as Abraham, the man of faith, demonstrated, “with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Rom. 4:20). Suffering in the form of testing is engineered for good to provide opportunity for the pilgrim to exercise faith—the just shall live by faith—bringing substance to his confession; faith apart from suffering is academic, faith without works to the glory of God is dead, “show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (Jas. 2:18).

In order for faith to be strengthened it must be exercised and stressed as a muscle; a lack of stress and it atrophies. Jesus Christ confronted suffering with a constitution of steel, grounded in an unshakable bedrock assurance in the promises and goodness of His Father, culminating with a triumphal declaration to Satan on the cross at Calvary, “It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30). At Calvary Jesus Christ hung at the divine intersection of obedience and suffering. It was obedience to the Father which prompted His suffering at the hands of wicked men; it was adherence to the Gospel of His Father which was met with scorn, hatred, and physical pain, even death; it was the life and light from heaven which fully reflected the glory of the Father which darkened minds and hearts rejected and sought to silence; and it was at this intersection wherein the Son of God purposed to remain resolute to the Father who sent Him, and the message He was sent to proclaim. To become an obedient ambassador of the cross is, therefore, to resign oneself to suffering, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).

Obedience is divinely evaluated through testing which produces suffering as a result of rejection by the world system. Have you settled in your mind and spirit the relationship between obedience and suffering, are you prepared to abide in Christ regardless of the cost? Or have you left a way of escape, a plan of retreat, in the event opposition to your message becomes intense? Why is it that you have been emotionally startled when the world rejected your message, what where you expecting, and on what basis where you expecting it? Have you not read what the Lord Jesus Christ said regarding Himself, the Gospel, and His disciples who testify of Him? Have you seriously counted the cost of His words?, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil” (Jn. 7:7)—the world loves its own, but since the Holy Spirit indwells believers the world will hate them because His seed is in them; “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you” (Jn. 15:18)—the pilgrim generates opposition from the world just as Christ did, for what fellowship do light and darkness share?; “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn. 17:14). Why are you expecting the world to welcome your message? How did the world receive the prophets of old?, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:12).

To learn obedience from suffering is to have been put to the test of gaining the approval of fallen men or of that of God, and remaining true to the Savior and the redemptive mission He has called you to. In this regard the Apostle brings testimony to the grace of Jesus Christ that, “while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23). Usefulness to Jesus Christ is directly proportional to obedience, and obedience guarantees suffering on behalf of the King and His kingdom. Pilgrims rejoice knowing that it is through their obedience and suffering that the Gospel is advanced and that by the will of God it effectually calls forth the lost from every corner of the world. Reject demonic temptations to alter the Gospel—to soften its demands—in order to appeal to the flesh of fallen men so that you may avoid rejection and suffering. You cannot be obedient to Christ and be loved by the world; the battlefield to which you have been called has no pathway of retreat.

Copyright 2009 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8)