Trust and Obey, for There is No Other Way

John 3:1-21

Growing up, we used to sing a hymn called “Trust and Obey”. The words went like this:

Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.

Many Christians believe that faith is all that is required for salvation. But this is clearly not the case based on Jesus’ own words. In John’s Gospel, Jesus clearly states, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him” (Jn. 3:36). There is a marriage between faith and obedience, and the fruit of that marriage is salvation.

Since becoming Catholic, I have had friends ask me questions like, “So if I don’t become Catholic, do you think that I’m going to Hell?” This question assumes that the teachings of the Catholic Church are not the teachings of Christ. Therefore, the question should be returned by reframing it this way: “If I reject the teachings of Christ, am I still going to Heaven?” Every Christian denomination believes that to reject Christ’s teaching is to reject Christ, which is a damnable offense by any denomination’s doctrinal positions on the risk a soul is incurring by rejecting Christ’s teachings.

If Christianity is primarily about “belief” or “intellectual assent”, then one’s entrance into heaven would need to be determined by an entrance exam where the brightest theological minds are the only ones privileged to enter. Similarly, if salvation is only about what you do on this earth, then those with the greatest accomplishments would be privileged with the beatific vision, and childlike faith would be a contradiction. The reality is that both must be true; childlike faith must accompany our works, but this becomes increasingly difficult when there is a plethora of denominational differences on what it means to “trust and obey.”

Earlier today, a friend of mine told me that St. Augustine addresses the same question this way: “If Jesus says that obedience is necessary for salvation, and St. Paul says faith is necessary for salvation, then who is right?” His answer? “Both!” This is why the sacraments are important. They demonstrate the relationship between God’s grace and man’s will within the rhythm of human existence as experienced with the Holy Catholic Church. God’s grace draws a man to the sacraments, but man’s will is revealed in responding to that call. Nearly every time I enter a confessional, the priest, before giving me absolution, says, “Remember, it’s God’s grace that brought you here today. Do not be discouraged.”

I sometimes tell friends, “I became a better Protestant now that I am Catholic.” What do I mean by this? When you’re Protestant, most of the time, grace is experienced in a secular context. For example, a miraculous healing in the hospital or surviving a car accident you shouldn’t have, or maybe enduring the loss of a loved one because God’s grace pulls you through. Any Christian, Protestant or Catholic, experiences this kind of grace in their life.

The difference for the Catholic is that he experiences the relationship between God’s grace and their will within the Church’s teachings, rhythms, and practices. He does this by obedience to God’s grace as found in the sacraments. To receive the grace promised by God, you must submit to God. Thus, it is the submission to God that reveals to human eyes the faith required to receive God’s grace. This image is clear when one observes penitants awaiting confession or the reception of Christ in the Eucharist at Mass.

When you walk into a parish during confessions, a line of men, women, and children is formed. Collectively, they are a picture of the church as a “living” thing. Some are wealthy, some are poor, some are sick, others are in peak physical condition, still others are geniuses or theologians. Regardless of their state in life, they are all in the same line because they are all equal before the Great Physician; they are sinners in need of healing.

During the reception of the Eucharist or the call to communion, elderly people hobble up to the rail with canes, children are carried by their parents (another picture of God’s grace), and the genius as well as the mentally ill all submit to Christ in the Eucharist. This is only possible if their will is responsive, through faith, to the grace of God. St. Thomas Aquinas said it this way,

“Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.”

That’s the academic version of St. Thomas Aquinas, but few Protestant admirers of St. Thomas, at least as far as I can tell, know about St. Thomas’s use of “faith alone” in his hymn, Pange Lingua (Sing, My Tongue):

Word made Flesh, by Word He maketh

very bread his flesh to be;

Man in wine Christ's Blood partaketh,

And if senses fail to see,

Faith alone the true heart waketh

To behold the mystery.¹

But, if old monks or Latin hymns are not your thing, you can always sing the simple words of some of those simple Protestant hymns on your way to the confessional or to receive Christ in the Eucharst:

Trust and obey,

For there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus,

But to trust and obey.

— DR

1. This was taken from the St. Thomas’ hymn, Pange Lingua, which translates to “Sing, My Tongue.” There have been several translations, but the keen observer will note the original Latin contains the phrase “sola fide”. You can read more about the discrepancies here: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11441c.htm