“You have no idea the freedom that is waiting for you on the other side of obedience.”
I actually said this spiritual gem of a sentence to my dog other day. See, our new buddy Jethro hasn’t learned to consistently come when we call his name yet. Laurie and I just can’t wait to let him race around the dog park and explore creeks and meadows and mountains with us. But since he sometimes runs the other way when we call him, he’s relegated to play in the back yard and walk on the leash. He has to be obedient to the the fence and the nylon until he learns to be obedient to my voice.
It’s an interesting analogy for believers isn’t it? There’s the leash-and-fence obedience to the rules, then there is a higher relational obedience of hearing the Master’s voice and responding. As my friend David is fond of saying, “God gives a very long leash to the man whose heart is fully His.”
See how Jesus came to, ahem, unleash us from the rules and regulations of the law and into the higher obedience?
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. -Galatians 3:23-25 NIV
Don’t be satisfied with a rule-based Christianity that creates a new law for you instead of expecting you to walk by faith in relationship with the Living God, responding to his voice.