Again I say Obey

Today I read Jeremiah 39:9-42:19 and Hebrews 5:2-6:8. My favorite verses are:

Jeremiah 42:6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.

If we would live by these words, what a world it would be—“we will obey the voice of the LORD our God”. Notice what precedes this declaration—whether it is good or evil. How could the word spoken by God be evil? Well, considering the theme of the entire book of Jeremiah, we must realize that God is a God of judgment. When His people disobey, there are consequences. If we are the recipient of those consequences—judgment for our sins—we certainly don’t feel good about it. It is what could be called a “necessary evil” sent from God to make us aware of our responsibility to obey Him. When we are willing to receive both good and evil from our God, we know that it will be well with us. He will do what is best for His children; if we want that, it is our responsibility to obey Him.

The verse in Hebrews is speaking of Jesus Christ. He became a man and lived in the flesh to fulfill the plan of God that He might become the sacrifice for our sins. When He had completed His mission on earth, He returned to the Father. We are again told to obey Him in order to receive the gift of “eternal salvation” which His death bought for us. He does not save us only in part or only for a short time; He saves us for eternity. No one and nothing has the power to take away our salvation. We are not perfect; we will sin after we are saved. But He IS perfect and he chooses to forgive us for those sins just as He forgave us when we called upon Him for salvation. There may still be consequences, but we can never lose the eternal salvation which He paid for with His blood.