By faith Abraham obeyed… Hebrews 11:8
The buffet is the opposite of the mixing bowl. When you go to a buffet, food is presented in separate compartments. It’s all laid out for you to choose, so you load your plate with what you like, and you pass on what you don’t like.
It would be easy to think of faith and obedience like choosing foods at a buffet. “Oh, here’s faith! I’d like some of that. It gives me the taste of forgiveness and heaven. And, oh, here’s obedience…that might be a little harder to swallow. I’ll take a pass on that for now.”
Faith and obedience are not like making choices at a buffet. Paul speaks about “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5).
The person who thinks that to be a Christian is to add belief in Jesus to an unchanged life needs to hear this challenge from James: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (Jas. 2:14).
James makes it clear that where there is true faith, obedience will follow. So, beware of the buffet. Don’t separate faith and obedience.
What happens if you try to focus on faith in the Christian life (to the exclusion of obedience)? Have you been down this road? Are you on it now?
