A classic paragraph in the book The Desire of Ages sums up the question of obedience. It identifies genuine obedience; it tells us how genuine obedience can be obtained.

“All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.” – Page 668.

Let’s go back and read it carefully, taking one sentence at a time.

“All true obedience comes from the heart.” If that is true, then all obedience that does not come from the heart is not true obedience, right? If we have to work hard to obey, going against our own desires and inclinations, then whatever we manage to produce is only morality, never obedience.

“It was heart work with Christ.” Christ is the greatest single example of righteousness by faith.

He came to this earth not only to die for us, but also to show us how to live. Revelation 3:21 gives the promise,

“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”

We are invited to be overcomers in the same way in which Christ overcame.

“If we consent, He will so identify Himself with our though and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses.”

What is our part? To consent. What is His part? To change our hearts and minds and even our impulses, until we find ourselves doing His will naturally and spontaneously Do you like the sound of impulsive obedience? Would it be good news to you, when faced with a decision in your life, to discover that your first impulse was in harmony with the will of God? It’s available!

“The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service.” If the service of God was your highest delight, would you have to try hard to obey? Would obedience be hard work? Or would it be–well, delightful!

Now comes the method, the explanation for how all of this can happen in our lives. “When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience.”

Let me ask you, if you find that you are not experiencing continual obedience as yet, what is the problem? Do you need to try harder? Do you need to make more resolutions? Do you need to develop your will power? Or do you need to put forth greater effort to know God as it is your privilege to know Him?

And finally, “Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.” Do you find sin hateful? Or do you sometimes find sin attractive? If you find sin attractive instead of hateful, what is wrong? You have not yet gained a true appreciation of the character of Christ; you need to commune with God.

When we become acquainted with God, knowing Him as it is our privilege to know Him, obedience will he natural, spontaneous, and impulsive! As we place our deliberate effort toward communion with Him, obedience will be the inevitable result.