Obeying God’s Heart

Obeying God’s Heart

Read: Mark 3:1-6

“Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”

Mark 3:4

“If the Spirit of grace is absent, the Law is present only to convict and kill.”

—St. Augustine

IN WORD This verse is about the Sabbath, a critical issue for the Pharisees and, if we’re honest, a critical aspect of God’s revelation for humanity. We cannot dismiss the importance of the Sabbath if we hold any value in Old Testament teaching; it is central to one of the Ten Commandments and a consistent scriptural gauge of devotion to God. But, according to Jesus, it isn’t to be deified. Neither is any other element of law. God’s dictates are vitally important; but our interpretation of them is never meant to conflict with His character.

We may not get as riled up about Sabbath-breaking as the Pharisees did, but we have the same tendency to get the letter of the law confused with the substance of God’s heart. It may not be Old Testament law that restricts us; we all have church traditions and Christian methodology that give us the rules we crave. But whatever is done in legalism at the expense of spiritual vitality and true worship irks Jesus profoundly. His reaction to the synagogue leaders is unsettling: “He looked around at them in anger” and was “deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts” (v. 5).

None of us wants Jesus to be deeply distressed at our stubbornness. But we may assume that this is how He reacts to us when we value form over substance.

IN DEED God is holy, and we must conform to His holiness. This means restrictions on our behavior, because our behavior was once governed by fallen human nature and well trained in following its godless impulses. But when the restraints become the essence of our faith, we are far from the heart of God. According to the Word, this distresses Jesus deeply. Faith in Him is not primarily about restrictions; those are just useful tools. Faith is about following His character. That’s the whole point of obedience. It’s an issue of our heart—and His.