When we consider God’s goodness to us in salvation, we rejoice in the obedience that our Savior Jesus Christ gave to God the Father on our behalf.

First, by His obedience in suffering, even to the point of death on a cross, we have the forgiveness of our sin.

Second, by His obedience to all God’s law, the law’s demand for a perfect righteousness has been satisfied, and we are counted as if that righteousness were our own. All this is by God’s grace, gifted to us in Christ, and received by faith.

These two obediences have been referred to as Christ’s passive and active obedience, respectively. They are the sole ground and confidence of our acceptance before God. Amen.

In this article I would like to consider another kind of obedience – filial obedience. Filial obedience is the obedience given by a son or daughter to a parent. One of the great blessings of our salvation is being adopted into the family of God.

As adopted children we, “did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but [we] have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” Romans 8:15. The obedience we give to our heavenly Father is one of thankfulness, respect, reverence, and genuine affection, knowing our Father’s steadfast love for us in Christ.

It is important to remember that even as faith in Christ’s obedience for justification comes as a gift from God, so a sanctified heart which responds to God in loving, filial obedience comes from God’s grace.

While still alienated from God, our hearts are disposed to self-love, self-rule, and not to loving submission to our good God. In Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, God promised long ago that in the New Covenant established in Christ, we would be given a new heart and a new spirit.

This would be God’s gracious work in us through his Holy Spirit, conforming us to the image of Christ who loved his father and obeyed him in all things. A transformed heart is also spoken of in Philippians 2:13, which reminds us that, “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

This is a great comfort for those who rightfully acknowledge that it is not in their own strength to obey God. In the previous verses in Philippians 2, the apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, has just encouraged the Philippians to love one another in the church. Now that does take God’s working in us.

It is not always easy to forgive, be patient, be long-suffering and all the other “one-anothers” we are called to. Thankfully our heavenly father promises to work in us to give us both a desire and a will to do those things pleasing to him.

Sometimes however, at least for me, I can get focused only on my need for strength. At the beginning of Philippians 2:13, the word “for” reminds us that it is God who is working in us.

There are others who “work in us” – parents “work in” in their children to prepare them for life; coaches “work in” their players to prepare them for competition; and employers “work in” their employees to prepare them for their jobs.

But Christians have God - their wise, loving, patient, forever faithful, and committed Father working in them by the Holy Spirit. How much more should we put love into practice and “work out” what God is working in us?

In doing so, we “show that we are thankful to God for his benefits, so that he may be praised through us, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.” (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 86).