I have written on the previous post that faith and knowledge always coexist proportionally as long as we remain in the same category. But this symmetrical coexistence is not exclusive to faith and knowledge; it exists also between such entities as faith and obedience, or faith and love. This should not surprise us. After all, spiritual growth—as physical growth—expresses a proportional development, that is, when one leg grows the other follows commensurably. The head, as the rest of the body, follows the same correspondence. That is why disproportionate bodies are quite rare.
The new man is no exception. Jesus didn’t excel in faith while lacking in love or obedience. The same is to be applied to our Christian progress, which actually consists of Christ being formed in us (Galatians 4:19), and surely He is not lopsided or asymmetrical.
Growing up in all things
The notion that a person can have great faith while living a life of disobedience is a contradiction in terms. It is based on a confusion of categories. For while it is true a person can subscribe intellectually to the Christian Creed without having experienced a thing of the Christian life, it is false to assert that a true follower of Christ—a person having the unfeigned faith of God’s elect (1 Tim. 1:5 Titus 1:1)—can live a life of disobedience.
The proportionate growth I am writing about is precisely what Paul refers to in Ephesians chapter four: “But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). Here Paul is not exhorting us to grow in all things as if we could grow otherwise; he is simply asserting that if we grow at all we will grow in all things. If it would not be so Christians would be often deformed and unpredictable, experimenting great faith while living a loveless or disobedient life. This sort of disparity would not only be absurd but also ugly.
Obedience: the heartbeat of faith
When I say faith is always associated with obedience I am not stating something very revolutionary. It is simply the way we experience life and reality on a daily basis. For instance, if a mechanic—whom we trust—tells us that if we drive our car without oil we will destroy the motor, what will we do if we don’t want to destroy it? We will obey him of course. In fact we might experience that obedience can become quite easy. Likewise, if our tennis coach—whom we trust—tells us that jumping from a seventh floor will be decidedly detrimental for us, and we want to remain physically fit, what will we do? Take a guess. You got it. A person doesn’t need to be a prophet to figure it out. But somehow when it comes to spiritual reality we are often tempted to depart from logic and associate ourselves with inane conclusions.
Obedience to the faith
Actually a true believer could be defined as a person obeying the Christian faith, or to put differently, a person who lives according to the faith of God’s elect. Consequently the faith that doesn’t give birth to obedience cannot be genuine.
We have all read that faith without works is dead (James 2:20), and the most genuine work faith can produce is called obedience. This is the reason why we have such verses as Acts 6:7 which says: “Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.” Or Romans 1:5, “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name.”
A few scriptural confirmations
We know, for instance, that Abraham believed God. But how do we know it? We know it because he obeyed God. The Apostle Paul infers the principle when he writes in Romans 10:16, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” We see how Paul associates obedience with faith, and faith with obedience as coexisting entities. Therefore we can say that the degree of our obedience equals the degree of our faith. And since faith cannot exceed knowledge we can judge for ourselves how much we really know.
The same principle is seen in the way Peter introduces some quotes in his first epistle: “Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient …” (1 Peter 2:7). Here Peter equals ‘disobedience’ with ‘unbelief’. He actually interchanges the words as if they would be nearly synonymous.
Conclusion
Only the faith reaching the heart can produce an obedience coming from the heart. This is precisely what Paul affirms in Romans 10:9 & 6:17. A mere intellectual knowledge, as a mere intellectual faith, won’t be able to prompt the heart to obedience. This is why we need the knowledge and faith resulting from divine revelation, a knowledge and faith that will flood the heart with motivation and inspiration, producing—as overflow—the obedience of faith.
This was the experience of Saul of Tarsus, the man who persecuted Jesus (Acts 9:4), the Pharisee breathing threats and murder against His disciples (Acts 9:1). Before he had repented and believed in Jesus, it pleased God to reveal His Son to him on the road to Damascus (Gal. 1:15,16). There and then was born an obedient heart. “Lord, what do you want me to do?” (Acts 9:6) was his first question. Here we have it, the glorious fruit of divine revelation. This is revival. It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
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