Obey the Lord by Grace
Lord Jesus Christ,
who for our sake fasted forty days and forty nights;
give us grace so to discipline ourselves,
that we may always obey your will,
in righteousness and true holiness,
to the honour and glory of your name,
and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The glory of Lent, the glory of the gospel, is Jesus' perfect obedience to his Father, even to suffering and dying for us, in our place. Here on the first Sunday of Lent our Collect takes us straight to the heart of Christianity, the end of DIY religion, the focus not on what we could do but on all that Christ has wonderfully done!
Jesus’ fasting in the desert is presented by both Luke and Matthew, and the fulfilment motif is unmissable in each. Both accounts emphasise Christ as the True Israelite, the perfect fulfilment of Israel: just as God’s people (whom he calls “my son”) had failed time and again through the Old Testament, so Jesus (“this is my Son”) succeeds, obeys, wins once and for all - “the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God”. Israel’s disobedience led to 40 years of desert wandering; Jesus’ perfect obedience guarantees endless wonderful days of blessedness in the New Creation. We disobey, he obeyed, and through faith, his obedience counts for us. He took the desert, we are given glory.
Our Collect speaks of Jesus fasting ‘for our sake’ which is absolutely right, though we need to remember this was not his primary concern. Christ’s greatest desire was to obey and honour his Father – he came to do his Father’s will. It’s wonderful to know that he did think of us, knowing his sheep for whom he died, suffering in the wilderness for those 40 long days. But he didn’t ‘take the fall and think of me above all’ – what sort of heaven would it be if Jesus was human-centred?! He did take the fall, he endured temptation in the desert, and did that in love, for our sake, thinking of and honouring his Father above all.
What is our response to Jesus’ grace? The remainder of our collect offers simple clarity over a common confusion: believers are saved by grace alone, and that grace calls and inspires us onwards in striving towards faithfulness.
God’s grace covers all our failures – absolutely!
God’s grace is so rich that even our worst and besetting sins can be forgiven – 100% true! God’s grace is the get-out-of-jail-free card which means it doesn’t matter how we live, we can relax and trust that we’ll get into heaven – well, not so fast!
Biblically, God’s grace alone can save (never our works, efforts, actions) but God’s desire is that his grace motivates us to follow Christ daily, praying and seeking to keep in step with the Spirit, which means living according to God’s Word. Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14).
Many sisters and brothers around the world have known what it is to be obedient even to death, but many of us are, like me, nowhere near resisting sin to the point of shedding our blood (Hebrews 12:4). So this Lent we fix our eyes upon Christ who suffered in our place, and depending on his grace alone we long to respond in obedience – not to try to earn our way into the Kingdom, but inspired by Jesus who won that gift for us – faithful in the wilderness and even unto death.
May Christ in his grace give us grace to discipline ourselves to do his will.
So pray this with me:
Lord Jesus Christ,
who for our sake fasted forty days and forty nights;
give us grace so to discipline ourselves,
that we may always obey your will,
in righteousness and true holiness,
to the honour and glory of your name,
and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.