Christianity substitutes obedience to a person, for that of obedience to a law. In legal obedience, a person fulfills a contract which he has undertaken. Christian obedience is like that of a slave to his master whom he loves. He does what he is told, without a will of his own.
If I bid my child do three things, and he does only two of them which he likes to do, and takes his own way in the third, in-subjection of will is as much evidenced by his disobeying in one point, as if he had in all.
Christ’s obedience was perfect, and is our pattern. He was put through every trial to see if there was in Him an unwillingness to obey—that is sin—and it could not be found. In the garden of Gethsemane He chose rather to have God’s face hidden, than to fail to obey. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
There is nothing so humble, or so unselfish, as obedience. It supposes that we have no will of our own.