Immediate, Simple Obedience

For the sake of justification, we need to separate faith and obedience: we are justified by faith alone, not through anything we do. This aside, however, the two are really inseparable. We tend to put off acting until all our questions are answered, our doubts assuaged—but if you read the gospels, the acting and the believing are one and the same thing. Jesus calls the disciples from their nets: what follows is not a confession of faith, but an act of obedience.

Bonhoeffer writes “only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes. … In the one case faith is the condition of obedience, and in the other obedience is the condition of faith. In exactly the same way in which obedience is called the consequence of faith, it must also be called the presupposition of faith. Only the obedient believe.”

And so Peter leaves his nets, and later steps out of the boat into the water. The young man leaves his riches. The disciples distribute loaves and fishes. The paralytic takes up his mat. The servants at the wedding fill the jars with water. Jesus asks for participation because in the doing is believing.

In one way, this is encouraging: our belief doesn’t have to be perfect before we act, and in fact our actions inform our beliefs. The more we sacrifice our sleep and sanity to feed, change, and clothe our newborns, the more we find the wrinkly, wailing things actually quite lovable. The more we act loving towards others, the more we find in them to love. As my friend said, "Human nature feels its way into acting.  Christian nature acts its way into feeling.”

In another way, this is challenging: if I say I have faith, but I don’t immediately obey, then I don’t really have faith. Or more accurately, my faith isn’t in Jesus, but in myself, my circumstances, or my logic—and what matters is not so much the strength as the object of our faith. Tim Keller describes an imaginary scenario where we are falling off a sheer cliff and must grab hold of a branch: better to have a weak grip upon a firm branch, than a firm grip upon a weak branch. “It is not the strength of your faith,” he says, “but the object of your faith that actually saves you.” Once we see who Jesus really is, we see that even a small step of obedience to him is safer and more worthy of trust than an easier obedience to anything else.

What would immediate, unquestioning obedience today be? What would it be like if I contemplated less and acted more? Good questions to ask as I look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).