For us to have favor with God, obedience is of utmost importance. To obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). This is evident from the very beginning of the Bible to the very end: Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life (Revelation 22:14).From Paradise lost to Paradise regained, the necessity for obedience remains the same. It is only obedience that restores access to the tree of life and favor with God. While the original disobedience was the cause of humanity's fall, through the obedience of Christ to the Father, and through our obedience to Christ, we can once again be restored. Although he was the Son of God, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal saving health unto all those that hearken unto him (Hebrews 5:8-9).
Let this study awaken in you an earnest desire to fully know God's will concerning this truth. Let us unite in praying that the Holy Spirit will show us how defective the Christian's life is in which obedience does not rule everything. Let us desire to learn how that life can be exchanged for one of full surrender to absolute obedience, and how certain it is that God, through Christ, will enable us to live it out.