TAKE SCRIPTURE AS A WHOLE

By Andrew Murray

 
We begin with Paradise. In Gen. 2:16, we read: 'And the Lord God commanded the man, saying.' And later (3:11), 'Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?'
 
Note how obedience to the command is the one virtue of Paradise, the one condition of man's abiding there, the one thing his Creator asks of him. Nothing is said of faith, or humility, or love: obedience includes all. As supreme as is the claim and authority of God is the demand for obedience as the one thing that is to decide his destiny.
 
In the life of man, to obey is the one thing needful.
Turn now from the beginning to the close of the Bible. In its last chapter you read (Rev. 22:14), 'Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life.' Or, if we accept the Revised Version, which gives another reading, we have the same thought in chapters 12 and 14, where we read of the seed of the woman (12:17), 'which keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus'; and of the patience of the saints (14:12), 'Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.'
 
From beginning to end, from Paradise lost to Paradise regained, the law is unchangeable-it is only obedience that gives access to the tree of life and the favor of God.
 
And if you ask how the change was effected out of the disobedience at the beginning that closed the way to the tree of life, to the obedience at the end that again gained entrance to it, turn to that which stands midway between the beginning and the end-the cross of Christ. Read a passage like Rom. 5:19, 'Through the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous'; or Phil. 2:8, 'He became obedient unto death, therefore God hath highly exalted Him'; or Heb. 5:8, 9, 'He learned obedience and became the Author of salvation to them that obey Him,' and you see how the whole redemption of Christ consists in restoring obedience to its place.
 
The beauty of His salvation consists in this, that He brings us back to the life of obedience, through which alone the creature can give the Creator the glory due to Him, or receive the glory of which his Creator desires to make him partaker.
 
Paradise, Calvary, Heaven, all proclaim with one voice: 'Child of God! the first and the last thing thy God asks of thee is simple, universal, unchanging obedience.'
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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.