[AI translation] Dear brothers and sisters! In this Word that we are reading, which is one of the lesser known Word, there is twice a word that most troubles the Christian man. This word is obedience. I would like to talk about obedience, the secret of obedience, its possibilities and difficulties. If somebody were to tell me to sum up the essence of the Christian life in one word, I would undoubtedly say: obedience. Because to be a Christian is not to do this or that good, even the best one can do, but to be a Christian is to obey.All that one does in this obedience to God in all kinds of situations, in all kinds of situations in life, when one tries to conform oneself to God's will and to carry it out in life as one lives, walks, thinks, speaks, acts or listens, that is, one obeys. This is how the Apostle Paul, in the Word he reads, describes the life of a man already renewed by Christ, and he too emphasises obedience. In fact, on one occasion in a letter to the Corinthians, he even says that even our thoughts should be so disciplined, so made prisoners, that even they should obey Christ, even in thought, that obedience to Christ should permeate the whole being of the Christian man. I could go on and on quoting the various Scriptures, but that is enough. We know the immense importance in the faith life of each one of us of bowing before and under the will of God, that is, of obedience. In fact, this is what we ask in the prayer that Jesus puts into our mouths when we say, "Thy will be done." I.e. may it be done in my life as the angels obey in heaven, "as in heaven, so here on earth". Here again, Jesus asks us to obey in this prayer. I have said it many times before, but let me say it again, that Christianity is not a set of certain moral rules, the Bible is not a code of ethics that one can recite like the alphabetical psalm, one can find out how a believer should behave in different situations. No. But rather: the Christian man tries to conform himself to God's will as far as possible, to put into practice what he has learned in the Word. Thus he is under the guidance of a guidance from above and wants to live, walk and do all kinds of things according to it. The Christian man tries to stand before God with that perfect peace of mind which is expressed in this great prayer of the young Samuel: "What wilt thou have me to do, O Lord?" Do we ask this very sincerely? Or what is expressed by a very well-known, trite, old but very good book title: "What would Jesus do?" Because in a way, the Christian life is like trying to do what Jesus would do in my place, then and where I am.
For example, suppose I have been slandered, outrageous lies told against me. It would be very good in such a situation to ask the question: what would Jesus do now? Surely I would not be outraged, I would not despair, I would not be bitter, but I would do something else. What would he do? Or if, for example, a storm has broken out in the family, harsh, heavy words are flying around, nervous tension fills the air... Well, the Christian person is very good at asking the question, "In this situation, what would Jesus do in my place?" Surely he would not fuel the fire of anger with even harsher words, but something else... I know very well, it's a trite line of thought, but very useful. For example, try for one day to ask God very seriously this question, "What do you want me to do, Lord?" And try to really ask yourself this question, "What would Jesus do in my place?" Then you will see what stubborn, disobedient children of God you and I are. Because that is the essence of sin: disobedience. Sin does not mean that I do this or that wrong, but the essence of it is that I am disobedient to God, not living in a state of obedience. I think every person who has ever tried to take seriously the law of God, the following of Christ, has experienced how difficult it is to obey. It was when I looked into the depths of this Word that I have just read that I realized the true depth of this problem.
It is written of Jesus that, though a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. Is it not astonishing that even Jesus needed to suffer, to learn obedience through suffering? How is this possible? The same Jesus who, at the age of 12, already said to Mary and Joseph, "Do you not know that I must mind my Father's business?" And in the wilderness He rebuked the tempter with this, "It is written, 'You shall worship your Lord your God and serve Him only.'" He also taught His disciples to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Did even this Jesus need to suffer to learn the depth and reality of obedience? We all feel, don't we, that "learned" here is not to be understood in the sense in which one acquires theoretical knowledge by learning a lesson. For in this sense - that is, in theory - Jesus must have learned obedience to God at home, from his mother, from his foster-father, must have heard a great deal about it. He had heard about obedience in the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and from the example of David, and Jeremiah, and Moses, from the book of Psalms, from Proverbs.
But it is different here, just as it is one thing to learn something in theory and another to learn it, to acquire the same thing in practice, to live it in life. This is what is at stake here: the knowledge Jesus has already acquired in theory is now lived out in practice in everyday life. It is about trying to apply the knowledge he has acquired to practical life. We all know how different it is from what we think, how much more complicated, how much harder it is to live the truth we have received in theory in practice. Because look, for example, through one's upbringing, one's environment, one's studies, one can acquire knowledge that is beautiful, true, correct. Inwardly, spiritually, he embraces the truth he has thus acquired, he confesses it with one hundred per cent conviction, he feels that the truth he has thus acquired has become his heart and soul, his blood. For example, I think we all believe that honesty, neighbourliness, the need for forgiveness, moral purity, etc. are true and right. We all think it is right and just, but then life comes along with its incredibly complicated problems, people come along with their very special needs and perceptions, and you find yourself realising how difficult it is in practice to put into practice the honesty and moral purity, humility and forgiveness that you have so wholeheartedly advocated, and how differently it happens in practice from what you had imagined. So then one experiences how unheard of a struggle it is to keep to the way of the law of Christ, and therefore how difficult it is to obey it!
The Apostle Paul is very familiar with this problem. For example, he certainly knew very well what it means to submit to God's will concerning one's destiny. He must have preached about it in his younger days to all kinds of people. Then there were deprivations, sufferings, many threatening situations in his life, and it was then that the apostle Paul experienced that it was much more difficult to live in the peace of God's will than to preach and preach it. In fact, it is life that really teaches a man a truth when he has to put that truth into practice in life. And then, later, in his old age, he could write to the Philippians, "I have learned to be content in the things in which I am." He knew the state of being rich or poor, well fed or starving. I have experienced all these things, says the Apostle Paul, and now I know what it means to be content with what I have, life has taught me. In a way, it is in this sense that Jesus learned the true reality of obedience, in fact, through suffering, because at first - as we think well of Jesus' life, as the Gospel is before us - obedience to God's will was easy for him, self-evident at first. It grew almost from his heart, like a beautiful flower. Even then he was surrounded by temptations, but he had no particular problem obeying God. It was natural for him...
[two pages missing from the sermon book]
...having become the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." So One has already walked this path. There is only One Who has proven Himself stronger than all forces of disobedience. Once it was found that there is a way of obedience after all, a way through all kinds of temptations, through sin, through obstacles, in obedience to God - It has been done once, it is what was done there on Calvary. Now Satan can never say again, no temptation, "It is useless to obey God, because we cannot obey God, we will fail anyway. The wall of the prison of disobedience has been broken down, and that this is so, others can come after him, you can come after him, I can come after him, we can be given new strength, we can begin to hope again, we can proclaim again, "Yes, Lord, what do you want me to do?" Yes, what would Jesus do in my place? We can really ask with hope, because from the One who has already gone through this, not only does desire arise in our hearts, but strength radiates from Him. We can follow Him on the same path, because we can continue on the path of obedience. This is what it means that "Having attained perfection, He became the author of eternal salvation to those who obey Him."
For if one has already gone this way, gone beyond, then from there, from the beyond, a helping hand, a hand of blessing, reaches out to us, to those who stumble along the path of obedience. From there, from the other side, an encouraging voice calls, calls, guides, helps, strengthens us, and then we know that this Someone on the other side knows very well, is the one who knows best how difficult it is to obey, how much of a struggle it is to continue on this path, or to stay on it at all. But then you can also know that you are not alone afterwards, because you are surrounded by help, by grace, by understanding, because you are surrounded by forgiveness!
Brothers and sisters! It is true that many times we walk the path of obedience with a very heavy heart, and that sometimes we meet with terrible resistance, and we have to fight very hard, and sometimes we even feel that we can go no further, and then the voice from the other side cries out, "It is finished!" And then we know once again that with his strength and his help, even if we sigh, even if we fall down, but we can get up again, we can go on, because we will be done and we know that we will reach the other side. Let us ask again and again, with renewed hope and full assurance, "What would Jesus do in my place?" And ask again and again with full assurance, "What Lord, what would you have me do?" And let us pray with all our hearts:
Speak, speak to me Lord,
For your servant hears your voice,
So say I, for I myself
I have long felt so.
Let me walk in your path,
Let me wait for the yodeling of the sky
With faithful heart unceasing,
With faithful heart unceasingly.
(Canto 512, verse 1)
Date: 19 September 1965.