With our Consecration comes also our Obedience to Christ. But before I look at it, I want to look to Christ as our example of Obedience and then His word's concerning obedience. These I will do over the next few days, the LORD willing, under His watchful eye and should He add a word or two they will be added there and then. First Pastor Hoekstra and his fine study on Grace as found in Isaiah's letter. As for my part I will make use of the ESV translation as has been my current habit.
"Isaiah Proclaiming God's Power for the Weak"
"He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:29-31)
"Isaiah is another example of an Old Testament saint who lived by Grace (that is, by depending upon GOD to work in the lives of His people). This dependency upon the LORD can be seen in Isaiah's proclaiming GOD's power for the weak. "He gives power to the weak . . . those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength."
GOD desires to impart His power to the feeble. "He gives power to the weak." Those who are of the world cannot partake of this power, because they do not know the giver of this heavenly power. Sadly, many of GOD's own children do not receive this divine enabling, because they are unwilling to admit their weakness. Actually, the privileged place for receiving the LORD's empowering is to confess that we have no might at all on our own. "To those who have no might He increases strength." He gives us the abilities needed where and when such as raising us up in the wee morning hours of the day or in the cool of the day.
In the days of youthfulness, mankind is the most convinced of possessing personal might. When one is young, weariness seems to be a distant threat. Yet, the truth is that even youthful energy eventually proves to be inadequate for the demands of life. "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." Nevertheless, there is enablement available that the most promising days of youth could never supply. It is an empowering that only GOD can provide.
This God-given power is experienced only by those who will wait upon the LORD. Left to themselves, old and young alike will find human might so frail and inadequate, "but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength." Those who place their hope in GOD are strengthened by the LORD Himself. They are enabled by GOD to live above their circumstances, looking down on life from heavens' perspective. "They shall mount up with wings like eagles." When it is time to press energetically ahead, they can do so without becoming exhausted. "They shall run and not be weary." When it is more appropriate to plod along methodically and persistently, they do not collapse. "They shall walk and not faint." All of this results from the power of GOD unleashed within those who wait upon Him."
Christ's Example of Obedience,
John 14:25-31 (Jesus is speaking) "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. For the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, HE will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said [about My commandments and GOD's law as GOD's Oracle (Jeremiah 31:33-34)] to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard Me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim (nothing) on Me, for I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here."
John 15:1-11 (Jesus is speaking) "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit HE takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit HE prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."
Romans 5:18-21 "Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, Grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, Grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD."
Hebrews 9:6-10; 10:1-10 "These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the Holy places is not yet opened as long as the first (tabernacle) section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation."
Hebrews 10:1-10 "For since the Law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for Me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your Will, O GOD, as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book.'" (Psalm 40:6-8) When He said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the Law), then HE added, "Behold, I have come to do Your Will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second. For by that Will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
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