Obedience-Not the First Word I’d Think of if Someone Asked What Makes Me Happy.

²who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood:  May grace and peace be yours in abundance.   3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

So, in order for Peter’s audience to be obedient to Jesus Christ, first, they must be chosen and destined by God, then sanctified by the Spirit.  But isn’t obedience to Jesus Christ a choice?  When I give my life to Jesus, am I not bending my will to that of God’s Only Son?  I mean, after I have made the choice, then certainly the power of God is invited in to help, but isn’t it up to me to make the first move?

Praise the Lord it is not!  Peter is being very clear to lay out for the exile community that coming to Christ is a journey that starts with God, sanctified by God’s Spirit, before obedience comes.

What is obedience to Jesus Christ?  It is obeying that which Jesus taught us.  It is learning from the example of his life and love and sacrifice how we ought to model our lives and behavior.  It is obeying the commands Jesus gave to us, like the Great Commission-going out to make disciples of all the world, like the Great Commandment-love God and love neighbor.  That part is easily defined (BUT it is NOT the easy part).

But there is a journey to coming to obedience.  God begins to work on the heart long before someone commits their life to Christ.  The sanctification of the Spirit, the process of becoming holy, of molding life as something worthy for God, can come before a decision to give one’s life to Christ ever comes. 

It comes as a frustration with what is, a basic disappointment with the way the world functions around us.  It is a desire for a better, more ethical, more loving, more joyful way of being than the world provides.  It is in obedience to Jesus Christ that the frustration is overcome, that the disappointment is turned back, that the desire is fulfilled.