"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." - Jn 3:36
This sentence didn't quite make sense in my English major brain. On the one side of the sentence, all we have to do is believe, and on the other, we have to obey. In other words, the sentence only makes sense if obedience follows belief.
I think obedience does follow belief. Once we've come into contact with the Creator of the universe (and we have), understood Him to be what He is (and we have), accepted His Son as our savior and acknowledged that He lives in us (and we have), the overwhelming value of that sacrifice gives immediate rise to the sheer desire, need, compulsion to obey what he asks of us.
That's not to say that our flesh on its own is capable, or that there aren't any other links in the chain between belief and obedience. But it is necessary for us to recognize, like Jonah, that there is no hiding, no ignoring our duty to listen and obey Christ, as believers and followers of Christ.
Powell
I think this is a good launching point for evaluating how far we are willing to take the name of Christ. You hear and listen to what God teaches and what He shows us in the Bible. Then, logically, as Powell pointed out, obedience follows believing what He teaches. Leads me to that verse in Revelation talking about being 'lukewarm' (Rev. 3:16). God wants all of us not just the believing part but also the obedience part as well. By not taking the believing to the next step, by being obedient always, we are basically rejecting God for what He is and the sacrifice He made for us. I pray that we can truly take that next step with all our hearts and mean it.
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