Absolute Obedience

           At the height of the climax of Star Wars Episode III, Obi-Wan makes a compelling statement before he engages in a veritable battle of good vs. evil with Anakin Skywalker. Anakin tells Obi-Wan that he is either with him or against him and after concluding that there will be no reasoning with the fallen Jedi, Obi-Wan says this: "Only a Sith deals in absolutes". This is to say, only evil deals in absolutes. While the philosophical arguments made in the Star Wars saga are interesting and plentiful, if we were to meditate on this one statement alone, could it be backed up by scripture?

Now, the purpose of this post isn’t to argue the biblical soundness of Star Wars. Instead, I just want to reflect on the sentiment that only evil deals in absolutes that exists not only in this movie franchise but also in our culture, even our Church culture. It's an attitude that says there are gray areas. That God can hate the sin, but love the sinner. That as long as you're being a reasonably good person, by some ambiguous and highly relational standard, then you’ve run the race well. Why specifically I bring this up now is to enable us to operate in a mindset that disengages this worldly rhetoric in our spiritual lives so that we may conform to His will and His heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, through obedience.

            Our God-the Most Holy-the only truly good-absolutely deals in absolutes. Here are just a few examples (emphasis mine):

 You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)

 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)

 He who is not with Me is against Me (Matthew 12:30)

           As seasoned believers we understand this area of absoluteness: we can only be made acceptable to God through the sinless sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that if we are not acceptable to God, we are an enemy of God. This we seem to understand well enough. It's pretty ingrained into our spiritual conscience, even if we occasionally lose sight of the magnitude of this knowledge (which is something to mourn over, to be certain). Where this limited understanding of His supremacy becomes an issue in the area of spiritual growth is when it comes to obedience. We hear the absoluteness in 1 Corinthians 2:16 that says we have the mind of Christ, but when we measure that against our own minds we come up with this idea that the things that do not measure up to a Christ-like mind are the result of our imperfection. Somehow, though, this isn’t reconciled with this portion of  scripture: "and you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-- if indeed you continue in the faith…" (Colossians 1:21-23).

Scripture is very clear that God not only is absolute in power to save but that the Holy Spirit also has absolute power. If we receive the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ then it should be no wonder that when giving instructions on how to conduct ourselves there is still very much a theme of absoluteness. This is why it is an issue when we continue to sin and excuse it because we as feeble humans are imperfect. Yes, we are imperfect and our flesh and the enemy is strong. But Christ’s redemptive power is stronger and we are given this power upon receiving the Holy Spirit. When we excuse, or even just lament about, our imperfection and our affinity to sin, we are sending a message to ourselves, to the world, and to our Heavenly Father, that His holy power and absoluteness is limited to salvation and does not extend far enough to actually change us. This is not the God I know and conducting ourselves in this manner is diluting His glory, which could be the greatest sin we might ever commit.

As we enter into the discipline of obedience, we must make much about God and less about ourselves. We will never be Christ-exultingly obedient on our own accord. Only through grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit will we see transformation-will there be something different about us. Our obedience for the sake of obedience does nothing for the glory of God. It does not take a Godly person to be a good and obedient person. I dare say there are plenty of unbelievers who conduct themselves in a way that is more obedient to God’s commands than we as believers do. Being a good person will do nothing for the glory of Christ. Being a transformed person will. Transformation is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit and will be the mark of a truly mature Christian. So as we begin to conform our minds, our hearts, and our actions to the will of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, we must do so in a manner that allows us to see His absolute power and allows others to see His glory. Any other path to obedience is futile.