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HOUSMAIL
HM036
13 September 1999 LOVING JESUS
MORE Jesus
said two very challenging things about the relationship between love and
obedience. "If you love me, you WILL keep my
commandments". (John 14:15) "He who DOES NOT LOVE ME, does not keep my
words." (John 14:24) And
with that He also left this truly wonderful promise - "If a man
loves me, he WILL keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come
to him and make our home with him." (John 14:23) Think
of it. This is no intangible, impossible future "pie in the sky"!
Nor is it only a distant future "pie on earth"! It is a very real
promise for this PRESENT LIFE! "We ARE
(present tense Paul says) the temple of the living God". (2 Corinthians 6:16) To qualify for it, all we have to do is love Jesus enough to
obey His Commandments! If
we can find the secret of that sort of love, God will no longer be remote
"up there in Heaven", or "out there somewhere", wandering
around His creation. He will be "at home" with us where we really
live, within the innermost parts of our being ..... and so will Jesus! And
if that is true for us, then when we awake at the resurrection, it will
become a glorious eternal reality. How
can we who are so painfully aware of our own frailty, ever love Jesus enough
to believe and obey that way? How can we ever love Him enough to break the
cycle of sin? The
Bible contains ONLY ONE SIMPLE ANSWER to that question. It is described in Acts 8:12 as: THE
(TWO PART) GOSPEL ABOUT:
1.
THE GOSPEL ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD The
Gospel offers a personal inner peace which comes ONLY through God's reign in
human hearts and lives, NOW IN THIS LIFE. It is a promise of an inheritance
in God's future Kingdom on Earth. It contains a promise of conditional
immortality. And it provides a motivation for change; a hope to live for; and
a goal to reach. 2.
THE GOSPEL ABOUT THE MAN NAMED JESUS The
things about the man named Jesus (who is also THE SON OF GOD) provide the
necessary information about what is required of us, in order to QUALIFY for
those conditional promises. They
describe the differences between those who will inherit the Kingdom, and
those who will not. They describe the standard of judgement which will
eternally separate between the two groups. They tell US each individually,
what is wrong with US. They tell us what MUST be changed. They tell us what
to do to please God. And they tell us HOW TO CHANGE! LOVE
- THE FINAL LINK The
PROMISE of the Kingdom is certainly a powerful motivation. And KNOWING WHAT
TO DO is essential. We cannot proceed without the foundation contained there.
However, if those things stand alone, without LOVE FOR JESUS, they will never
be enough! That
is where the CROSS has its place. It ALONE offers the INSPIRATION for the
LOVE which TRULY believes and obeys! There
we learn how seriously God views OUR SINS! There we see in graphic and
repulsive detail, the terrifying TRUTH about what OUR SINS deserved. There
we learn the depth of the love of God for us when He gave His own Son to
suffer those things for us. There we learn the love for us that Jesus shared
with His Father, when He took our penalty upon Himself. NOTHING
AT ALL can quench this love .... not rejection .... not reviling or mocking
or false accusation .... not spitting in His face ..... not plucking the
beard from His face ..... not the buffeting and bruising which marred his
visage beyond recognition ..... not placing that fearsome crown of thorns on
His head ..... not flogging the skin from His back ..... not even nailing Him
unjustly to a Roman cross. We
see Jesus accepting all that was done to Him, loving us unconditionally,
without retaliation or complaint. Nothing this side of death, nothing in all
creation, or all eternity, can ever make this man, or the God who is His
Father, cease from loving us. (Romans 8:38-39) When
we lay hold of the message of the love of Jesus properly, it will confront us
with a demand to make our own personal choice about how we will respond. When
I face the terrible cost of my sin, and my PERSONAL responsibility for every
last moment of that terrible suffering, I recoil in horror, and my heart
cries out to God in contrition for my part in causing the need for death of
Jesus. And
the words of Jesus echo down the centuries still, as I hear Him intercede for
ME ...... "Father forgive them ....." Such
love compels my allegiance. Such love has broken my spirit and made my heart
contrite for my sin. Jesus will not be denied. His love leaves me with no
other choice than to love in return. And
when love begins to fade or grow cold, we must go back to the cross .....
AGAIN! ..... and AGAIN! ..... and AGAIN! ..... until we do believe enough,
and love enough, to obey this KING who we love BECAUSE HE FIRST
LOVED US! (1 John 4:19) Then
when repentance becomes more than lip service, and Jesus TRULY becomes our
Lord, and love begins to produce its inevitable fruit in our lives, not only
will we know how to obey, but we will also experience the wonder of the
promised presence of God within. Allon |