Obedience is better than sacrifice

(Hebrews 5:8) “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”

Obedience is better than sacrifice; it’s only when we find tractability to the call of God in our lives that we will truly benefit.

Not to say that sacrifice does not have its place in God’s economy, it obviously does, but obedience out shines sacrifice. When we look to unearth any truth from God’s Word we must always land upon the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the pivot of all things; He is the Rock, the Christians Rock! Sacrifice was introduce into the Torah (the five books of Moses) and in fact, later we learn that sacrifice was a teacher which ultimately leads us to Christ, the law teaches us that we are rotten to the core and that we need a Saviour. It reveals how far we have fallen when we mirror ourselves against the Lord Jesus Christ. My comparison does not look at a Sovereign God per say, but rather it guises at Christ the man. He kept the law in its entirety, he walked a perfect sinless life, and we haven’t! Nevertheless as he hung upon the cross charged for an offence he never committed, these were some of his dying words; And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) – Even in the final stages of his painful death his thoughts were about forgiveness and mercy; you can look as far as you like through the pages of history and you will not find another like him, God in the flesh, God became a man and lived amongst mankind and paid the price for their sin, WOW!

We on the other hand look to find justification by sacrifice rather than through obedience, it is a natural tendency with society with mankind looking to establish “good works”, which in fact in God’s economy is dead. It is so far removed from His righteousness that those types of works are classified as “filthy rags”; bandages used in binding diseased leapers. God has made a way for us to find His favour and that is in and through His beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ; He is the only “way” we will find God and build a relationship with Him; He is the only “truth” and anyone who tells you that there is another way to heaven, is A LIAR! And although we may feel that we live, we shall all taste death as we know it but to avoid the second death and to find “life” we must be born again; simply put, we must turn to Christ by owning our own sin and repenting of our unbelief whilst asking the Lord Jesus to open our eyes to His truth and when that happens, that is the greatest gift of all. You cannot fake belief!

We must stop trying to earn our own salvation and turn to Christ as we seek out His forgiveness by placing Him first in our lives. The Christian faces a danger which is this; we sometimes fall into one of the fleshes traps and think we can manage our account with God by keeping the law, His law! That is an impossible request because we are sinners by nature. We stray from this truth; we are saved by grace through faith which is a gift from God. It’s not the keeping of the law which saves us, but once we have been saved by the finished work of the cross we can revert back to our own abilities as we look for self justification in doing what is right in accordance with the law. In other words salvation begins with the Spirit (Christ) and it must end with Him as our head. We must never lose our dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The unbeliever does not believe this and trusts that if they are good enough they will gain entry into heaven, they are wrong! Here are two impossible verses and a hard to swallow, but impossible to overlook until we have been regenerated by the Spirit of God; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)   

We need to asks ourselves why and then find the reasons for this truth so that we may benefit from our findings. Once again we could dig deep and unearth the truth behind this as we study the Greek words originally penned on this topic, and there is much to-do on it.  However the point I look to unearth when writing this blog is to find an answer to a thought that the Holy Spirit has placed upon my mind. If what I pen leaves you wanting more, remember to look deeper into the scriptures, confirming the answers with your own study. The thoughts I am given are not contrived, but positioned into my mind and this normally happens when I stir in the mornings. I then look for confirmation in unpacking that though with God leading and the Bible as my guide. There is nothing cultish about it, it is just a guy looking for answers concerning his well-being and if I can help others along the way, then I am content…    

Although Christianity is a collective religion, it most certainly stems from an individuals encounter with Christ. It is imperative that we all realise that regardless of the predicaments we find ourselves in, we must all come to a place of obedience. Some areas in our lives remain alive and well even through we know that they should have died a long time ago. If we do not embrace this truth we will not grow in grace and truth the way we should. The real test is this, will we remain true to our heavenly Father without the frills of this world engulfing our ecospheres? What about our health and the times when we never seem to get through the gnawing results of fatigue due to some ailment holding us back, which we can never seem to put our finger on. Whatever our circumstances they have been tailor made to teach us to learn obedience to our heavenly Father. We may find some discipline when it comes to sacrifice as we learn to apply certain remedies to our walks which turns out to be helps. But as good as some of those disciplines may be, they will never keep us from the ultimate test, facing death as a Christian or when a believer is required to bury their child. This world as we know it has its purpose and when we strip it down it is a vessel that through suffering teaches us to cry out to God seeking out His grace and this will only truly happen when we are in need. Without necessity we have no reason to call out, we are self-sufficient and endeavour to prove that we can handle life by ourselves. 

Many things are beyond our control, it is those things that drive us in understanding our need for a Saviour, and it’s those very things that teach us obedience. There is an undisputable truth which when overlooked robs us of our peace. As a man, if the Lord Jesus had to learn obedience through suffering, what chance do we have in shirking that reality? It is obvious, the higher the calling, the greater the suffering. It is our suffering which glorifies our great God, in spite of the hardships people witness if and when they witness the obedience of the saints it’s these actions that silences the gainsayer.

Suffering is the enemy of the flesh, but a brother of the Spirit. Let me leave you with this encouragement “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” This life is only preparation for the live to come, let us never loose sight of that truth. Some will be resurrected to eternal life whilst other will spend eternity in hell. This is a truth that cannot be overlooked if we are honest with the information gleaned from the Bible.

Signing off

Tyrone