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 Obedient Unto Death By M. B.


[b]Obedient Unto Death[/b]
[i]by M. B.[/i]

"Friend, [do] that for which thou art come" (Matt. 26:50, ASV).

This verse gives us one of the little glimpses into Christ’s life while on earth, which, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, teaches us valuable lessons and shows us the motive power of all our blessed Lord’s sayings: the will of His Father.

For Jesus there were no second causes; every detail of His daily life, every action on the part of others, every bit of work that came to Him in the daily walk – were to Him from His Father. He delighted to do that will, and therefore rejoiced in all things that came before Him, from the going down to be subject to His earthly parents, to the going up to the cross in obedience to His heavenly Father. "Yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered" (Heb. 5:8). He "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:8-9).

So the Lord Jesus could say to Judas, "friend." In the eyes of our Lord, anything or anyone that brought to Him the will of the Father was a friend. We may reverently think that the Father was again "well pleased" with His beloved Son, who was so humble in spirit and so obedient, even requesting Judas to do what he had come for. The traitorous kiss did not deceive Jesus; the betrayal did not surprise Him. His hour had come. He calmly and unflinchingly met it, accepted all that it brought to Him in perfect submission.

How the Father is longing for those who will see in the details of daily life His will, His plan for them. What a blessed peace comes to those who, doing their daily duty faithfully, meet all the little annoyances, all the details of a very trying day, as coming from the Father to prove them. How this attitude of mind and will transforms even the most trying circumstances, the most trying person, into a "friend." Let us allow the trial of patience or faith or whatever it may be, to do that for which it has come. Our God knows just what we need to discipline us.

It is remarkable that God allowed many of His saints of old to wait some time in patient daily toil after He had called them to any special work. During that time of waiting they seem to have passed through many trials of faith and patience, but God made the way before them very plain, and they kept step with Him. Thus He could entrust them to do mighty things when His time came.

We are often tempted to forget that "the heavens do rule" (Dan. 4:26), and in our eagerness overlook the fact that God Himself has the plan in hand. He loves and cares for the lost world more than we do. He also sees the forces of evil that are lurking all around, ready to oppose, so He must have workers that have been approved or tried and trained to such perfect obedience that He can depend absolutely on having His instrument ready the moment He needs it.

Self-Will Hateful

There is not a moment in our life that we cannot glorify God. So we should not put down every difficulty and trying event to the devil, and set to work to get rid of it. It is a better way to face the trial and say, "Friend, do that for which you have come." This will glorify God, and will build up our life in Christ even more quickly than many other things we imagine will do so. It is the self-will that must be crucified in each of us. It is hateful to God, therefore He constantly allows trials of various kinds to come against that self-will. Praise God, when we can say to every trial of patience or love in the daily life, "Friend, do that for which you have come." It is a further step to the completeness of our death with Christ, and soon the "peace which passeth all understanding" will guard our hearts (Phil. 4:7), for these very trials will be found to have brought us into full union with the will of our God.

Let us ever bear in mind that God the Holy Ghost is forming the Body of Christ, so soon to join the Head in the clouds. This is the Church, not any earthly gathering together, but a spiritual temple "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1). "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall [we] also appear with Him" (Col. 3:4). So let the blessed Holy Spirit do His work of glorifying Christ, taking of the things of Christ and making them plain and real to us. It is as we gaze on Jesus, on His matchless love, His meekness of spirit, His holiness, that we have no spirit left in us, and we praise God that we "are dead" (Col. 3:3) and that this wonderful Christ is dwelling in us, to be all we need for spirit, soul and body.

Unity – One in Christ

This is the only true place of unity – the Christ, one in Christ. Uniformity, even if it could be in outward organization, would not bring us into unity of spirit. It is only as we have the Spirit of Christ, the Christ life, that we shall be united into one Body, the one Spirit. So let us see in every trial of our patience and love, a "friend" and let us follow our blessed Lord’s example and say, "Do that for which you have come." This is the truly broken spirit, the true humility which is strong as a lion to meet God’s will, and meek as a lamb to submit to it.


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