Obedient Trust

Another (see yesterday) excerpt from Ed Stetzer post: Book Interview:  Jon Walker on Costly Grace

ES: You say that following Jesus requires an "obedient trust." That is such a specific phrase. What do you mean by it? Can you give a biblical illustration?

JW: In many ways, the word "faith" has lost its meaning. We speak of faith, but often what we mean is something abstract and fanciful. In writing Costly Grace, I wanted the reader to understand the biblical essence of the word. Faith is not only trusting Jesus, it also means we are obedient to Jesus. We line up with the will of God and that shows we love God. We do what Jesus tells us to do and that shows we trust him. It is a loving, obedient trust.

Bonhoeffer says this means our faith must be concrete. We show Jesus we trust him by being obedient to what he tells us to do. And by being obedient, we learn that we can trust him more.

When Jesus walked on the water, Peter verbally expressed faith that Jesus could empower him to walk on the water also. But his faith didn't become real until he stepped out of the boat. That's when it became a concrete faith, when he climbed out of the boat in obedience to the call of Jesus. When he put his foot on the water and it didn't sink, he learned he could trust Jesus. That made it easier to be obedient with the next step, where he, again, learned Jesus was good for his promises.

ES: Peter learned to trust Jesus by being obedient to Jesus. His faith, in essence, was 'obedient trust.' Jesus always brings us to a choice - do you believe me or not? Will you trust me in this circumstance or not?

JW: Of course, Peter eventually sank beneath the waves, but that is because he let fear overtake his faith. Another choice we often have is, will you submit to your fear or to your faith in Jesus? Many of us are still sitting in the boat saying we have faith, but that means we will never learn we can trust Jesus. We only learn to trust him by being obedient to him.

ES: Why are grace and truth inseparable? How can we tell if we're trying to separate one from the other?

JW: The apostle John tells us that Jesus is full of grace and truth and, now that we have the life of Christ present in our lives, we are full of grace and truth (John 1:14-16). Jesus holds them together in us just as they are held together in him.

Legalists try to separate truth from grace and so they begin to see grace as a license to sin. Grace sounds like heresy to them.

On the other hand, those who are unrestrained by grace (licentious) try to separate grace from truth and so they begin to see truth a 'law'. Truth sounds like legalism if we are abusing grace.

In Jesus, grace is always truthful and truth is forever gracious. There is no way to have the fullness of grace and truth apart from Him. He didn't come to show us ways of grace and truth or give us definitions of grace and truth. He came to be all the grace and all the truth we will ever need and to freely offer both to us in the gift of Himself.

If I am full of grace, there is no excuse for legalism in my life (Matthew 23:4; Matthew 11:28-30). If I am full of truth, there is no excuse for 'cheap grace' (unrestraint, licentiousness) in my life (Matthew 5:17-20; John 8:11).

The only reason to live as a legalist or to abuse grace is unbelief in the adequacy of Jesus. Legalism and 'cheap grace' both show a lack of faith. We live faithlessly because we do not trust Jesus.

ES: Why must we bear the sins of others? Doesn't Christ do that for us?

JW: The way we become like Jesus is through suffering and rejection. Jesus became the Christ because he was rejected and suffered, and for us to become his disciples - to become like Christ - we must share in his rejection, suffering, and crucifixion.

Bonhoeffer says, "God is a God who bears." The Son of God wrapped himself in our flesh and then carried the cross, even as he carried our sins, straight up a hill called Golgotha. Because we are his disciples, we are called to bear the burdens of others, including their sins.

This doesn't mean we create righteousness in others - although our witness may ignite a desire for righteousness, which will lead them to Jesus. Rather it means we must bear a cost for someone else's sin.

For instance, if a father is caught up in pornography, his sin will cost others. It will cost his wife, it will cost his children, it will cost his friendships, it will cost the women he meets because he will no longer see them as daughters of God, and it costs those who are part of the pornographic images, essentially encouraging them in their sin. It can cost physically, monetarily, relationally, but there is a huge price spiritually.

We must bear his sin and that means we don't blame or become bitter, but rather we invest in his life. We help him to get out of his bondage and into an obedient trust of Jesus. Bonhoeffer says this is "precisely what it means to be a Christian."

This is how God brings out the life of Christ planted in us by the Holy Spirit and it enables us to take the deep regrets and loss in our lives, those past and present, and view them as God's way of acquainting us with the grief, heartache, and sorrow Jesus experienced on his way to the cross. In this way, Paul says, the death of Christ is at work in us so that the life of Christ can be at work in others (2 Corinthians 4:12).