a Twilight Musing

There are several striking passages in the New Testament that speak of Jesus' wonderful and beautiful obedience to God's will. In Philippians2:7-8 we are told that He "made himself nothing" and that He "humbled himself and became obedient to death---even death on a cross!" In Hebrews 5:8, it is said that although Jesus was the Son of God, he "learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him . . . ."

Moreover, (in Romans 5:19), His obedience is contrasted in its effects with the disobedience of Adam: "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." It is not only that Jesus presents us with a model of obedience to follow, but that He empowers us also to obey God. As Paul expresses it in Ephesians 2:10, we are "created in Christ Jesus to do good works," and we are able to do these good works because we are secure in His love and grace, rather than being driven by an attempt to earn our salvation. Being new creatures in Christ, we are not so much bound to be obedient as we are free to be obedient. This is what Paul means when he says, "Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14).

As we meet around this table, we are renewed in our strength and motivation to obey God, because Jesus carried out the ultimate cosmic task of obedience: unfairly but freely taking on Himself the penalty of our disobedience. Partaking of this bread and wine, we realize that our ultimate responsibility is to be at peace in the assurance that our salvation rests not on what we have done or can do, but on what He has done and is continuing to do. We are able to fulfill the spirit of the Law, because He has fulfilled the letter.

Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.