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And more, much more than this, I did it my way,” sang Frank Sinatra. There is something life-affirming about doing it “my way,” charting one’s own path, following one’s conscience and talents and not compromising one’s values along the way. But when it comes to the ways of God, it is best to do it God’s way, as Jesus did in following the path to the cross.

The prophet Ezekiel spoke to the people of Israel about God’s ways, in particular the ways of righteousness and wickedness, promising that God granted each person individual responsibility for sins committed. It might seem strange to us that people would protest about a move from corporate to individual responsibility, but Ezekiel records the complaint from the people that “the way of the Lord is unfair.” God responds with incredulity that the divine ways are questioned: “Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?”

The complaint of the people seems to have been grounded in a static notion of who counts as the righteous and the wicked. But what about when the righteous turn away from righteousness or those who are wicked turn away from wickedness? God offers judgment: “When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it…. Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life.” Conversion and justice are at the heart of God’s verdict. God weighs our repentance and changes of heart; perseverance in the ways of righteousness is essential, not just a claim of past righteousness. So those who “considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.”

God’s way is always the way of righteousness, though this way can be surprising and baffling, shocking us with the depths of God’s mercy. We might as a result stubbornly decide that God’s way is “unfair” or attempt to resist God’s paths, but the ways of God are the way of compassion. Since it is Jesus, the preeminent model for us, who followed God’s ways perfectly, Paul begins his beautiful hymn to Christ by encouraging the Philippians to have “the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose” as did Jesus. He asks that the Philippians “with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” This way, says Paul, was the perfect path forged by Jesus, in which only obedience to the will of God was followed.

In having this attitude, which Paul encourages for all Christians, Christ was willing to empty himself, “taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” It was a way that in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus asked to have taken from him, so that he could follow some other path; yet it was the path that God gave him that Jesus walked in humility, obedience and sacrifice to his death. We are, of course, more like the interlocutors of Ezekiel, who cry out, “The way of the Lord is unfair,” than like Jesus, who was ever obedient. This is not to say that to question God’s way, as Jesus did, or to ask for another path is improper. It is only when we reject the ways of God that we begin to wander away.

Yet, as Ezekiel demonstrates, even if we have wandered away, God offers us chances to be converted and repent. This merciful offer is on display in Matthew’s parable of the two sons. In the parable, one son says no to the father’s request to work in the vineyard and the other son says yes. But the son who said no to the father later changed his mind and his ways, while the son who said yes decided not to work in the vineyard. If we are the son or daughter who is saying no to the father, we can still change our ways, just as the son or daughter who says yes and then rejects God can still turn back. You did it your way, but more, much more than this, why not try God’s way?

This article appears in September 22 2014.

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.