AND STILL OBEYS

(Republished Post by: Lilly Hobbs)

At the very last minute, before leaving for a camping trip last week, I grabbed a book off the top of one of our bookshelves that I’ve wanted to read for quite some time now. I wasn’t sure I would get the chance to finish even a few chapters over the course of our trip, but to my complete surprise, I finished the entire book before our return home.

The book is one of C. S. Lewis’s most famous works, known as The Screwtape Letters. This popular satire is comprised of a series of 31 letters in which Screwtape, an experienced devil, trains his young student, Wormwood, on effective strategies for tempting the human who has been assigned to him. Screwtape assists Wormwood in their ultimate goal to ensure his human continues on a steady path toward damnation.

The whole book is written in such a way that I’m still processing many of the letters, but there was a quote in one letter specifically which has not left by mind since I first read it.

Screwtape writes, “Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”  (C. S. Lewis)

And still obeys. That one line just pierces my heart in a way I’m afraid I cannot explain on paper.

When we take the time to reflect, it takes but a moment to realize that the cost of our disobedience has always been high. The perfect world which God so lovingly created was immediately filled with sin, sorrow, and suffering when Adam and Eve made the choice to disobey God and the boundary He had put in place to protect them.

Since then, mankind has continued to forge chains that bind us and weigh us down. We lack the power to free ourselves from them, and our only hope of being set free lies outside of ourselves.

If we will but open our hearts and minds, we will certainly discover that the blessings of obedience to Jesus alone are utterly astounding.  

His death on an old, rugged cross has brought about reconciliation and redemption and has made a way for us to be freed from sin and shame forevermore. However, the predicament which disobedience has placed us in can only be reversed if we willingly choose to forsake our rebellion and instead choose obedience to His ways and His will.

Jesus’ very life reveals this truth to us in such a profound way. The supreme expression of his obedience (death on a cross) was also the supreme expression of His love for His Father (John 14:31).

For the Christian, making progress in the area of obedience to Jesus should be our only priority, and this is all made possible with the help and support of His Spirit.

In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

You see, the test of true love really is obedience to Christ when our own desires to do so and every original motivator falls away. To obey when one doesn’t have the answers they have searched so long for, the support they were promised, the enthusiasm they first experienced, is the kind of obedience which pleases Him most.

There is nothing in this world worth forsaking or disobeying Jesus to obtain.

In the words of C. S. Lewis, my hope is that all of Hell rejoices when I am out of the fight and no longer have the opportunity to choose Jesus above all else.

Our obedience is not the obedience of one who is trying his hardest to justify himself before the Lord, but is that of one whose main ambition is to please Him “who loved us and gave Himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2 & Galatians 2:20).

So, today’s question becomes, will you still obey?

SO, WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= What are you going to do differently?