The Ultimate Goal of Obedience

Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” —John 5:19

Some people think that humility is the end in itself. Is it? Is humility the ultimate grace? I think there are those who just think that it is. They think, If I can just achieve humility, as if people will then say, “Ah, isn’t he a humble person.”

Humility is, in fact, the means to the end. Humility itself is not the ultimate goal; the ultimate goal is obedience to the Father. This goal can never be achieved without humbling oneself, because any obedience has to be achieved by humility.

At the core of Jesus’ humility was surrender. The word surrender means to yield to another; it means to resign or to relinquish. Jesus’ humility was evident in His relinquishment of the form of deity. Without ceasing to be God He came to the earth and relinquished that ingredient by which men would see that He was fully God. Jesus constantly surrendered it to the will of the Father, and He kept saying, “By myself I can do nothing” (John 5:30). He could only do what He saw the Father do. He constantly yielded Himself to the will of the Father, and in the end He yielded to the authorities. He let them take Him. He could have called ten thousand angels; He would not even have had to do that. He was God and could have struck them dead. He could have let them see who He was. But no, He yielded to the authorities. He let them take Him to crucify Him.

We must ask ourselves, “Am I willing to subordinate myself, daily, to my heavenly Father? Am I willing to go before Him daily, and say, ‘Father, I subordinate myself to You’?” If Christ was willing, then we should be, too.

Excerpted from Meekness and Majesty (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1992, 2000).