01-29-2012
The Love That Control and Compels Us
Pastor Dan Little - The Landmark Church
Binghamton, NY
adfontes.djl@gmail.com
Scripture Reading
1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
2 Cor 5:14 “For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, AMP)
Look with me at 2 Cor 5:14 where Paul says “For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, AMP)
Here is what Paul is NOT SAYING. He is NOT saying; “It is my deep love for Christ that keeps me going.”
What he IS SAYING is this; “It is Christ’s love for me that controls and urges and impels me forward in the work He has given me to do.”
If you don’t know the story of Paul’s conversion read it in acts chapter 9. Read it and then you will know why Paul’s deepest awareness of himself was that he was loved by Jesus with such an inexplicable and infinite love—loved to such an extent, loved so completely, loved without deserving it, or earning it, loved so unfailingly that nothing would ever be able to separate him from that love.
In truth, Paul’s conversion experience is just one version of everyone’s experience. We love God because He first loved us.
This is why John 3:16 is not at all about the world loving God, but is all about God loving the world and coming unto us in order to save us from the ravages of sin and death. And there we were standing on our hind legs clearly declaring that we wanted nothing to do with Him. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but WHOEVER DOES NOT BELIEVE is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ESV
NOT BELIEVING IN JESUS!
Not believing in Jesus may be more troublesome to people in the church that we think.
What I mean is this, I sometimes think that our fear of coming to Jesus with our sins must cause Him at least as much, if not more sorrow than our going off and entering into the sin itself.
Jesus knows every thought; no sin is hidden from Him, and He must watch in stunned sorrow when after sin we choose not to come to Him for help.
If we were listening we would hear Him pleading with us saying; “You know that I surrendered His body to the torturers, and shed My blood on the cross, and gave up My life to the grave for your salvation, so you know the extent of my mercy and grace toward you. And now you have sinned (which we both knew you would do) but you don’t think it is not safe to come to Me for forgiveness? You know that if you come to Me I am faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all wickedness, so why don’t you trust me but you don’t think it wise to trust me in this matter?”
I think that Jesus is shocked not at all by our sin. In fact we know that if we say we have no sin we are only fooling ourselves.
No! It is not our sin that shocks Jesus. What shocks Jesus again and again is our refusal to bring our sins to Him so we can be forgiven and cleansed and healed.
1 John 1:8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (NLT)
I do not think I am being harsh in saying that we mostly know and pay a respectful theological nod to the eternal voice of Jesus calling us to confess, be forgiven and cleansed and healed.
We have this other ancient voice warning us off from Jesus saying; “Never admit your sin to anyone, and certainly don’t bring the matter up before Jesus.
The voice persists in telling us that it is more important for us to maintain the LOOK of health than to actually come to Jesus in with our sins so as to be actually made healthy by the grace and goodness of God.
We do not believe in Jesus enough to trust Him and the result is a thin façade of health and goodness that simply masks over a cesspool of festering sins and demonic influence. And there seems to be no one around announcing that we can have real healing.
I am of the opnion that for many reconnecting with the practice of confessing, forgiveness, and cleansing would be very much like the event of Josiah’s time—the rediscovery of the book of the law in the long neglected, cluttered and dilapidated temple. (see 2 Chronicales 34:8 and forward).
The great question then and now is “How did the priesthood and the people carry on so long without it?”
The awful answer is; “They were doing religion their own way.” God was not in it.
This ancient enemy voice, the one that warns us away from Jesus constantly calls into question the truthfulness of God’s Word. It is the same voice that first spoke to Eve through the serpent saying; …"Did God actually say,..” ( Genesis 3:1)
In any of his myriad forms this enemy (Satan) always comes around claiming to have a little additional information, a little bit of wisdom to had to God’s that will lift that wisdom to a bit higher, higher that that of Christ and the Cross, higher than the wisdom behind the sacrificial death of Jesus, and he appeals to directly to our craving for secrecy and safety and certainty in sin, and offers a way to go around God. Bury you sin under your tent floor and keep looking good, we are told, and no one will be wiser.
This wisdom will always work to make the grace of Jesus and His cross of none effect in my life. (Col 1:17)
So let me say it again, when Paul writes saying For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, (2 Corinthians 5:14 AMP), you must understand that His deepest awareness of himself is that he is sinner to the core, that he is deeply loved by Jesus Christ, that he has done nothing to earn or deserve that love, but Christ brought it to him when he was a self confessed hater of Jesus.
That love, says Paul, the love that Christ has is so real, can be so absolutely trusted that I can tell you this; Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love (trust in rely on, surrender to) God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? …
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Paul is telling us that the love we get is the love we get from Jesus is the love we give back to Jesus, and if we will allow that love to make the complete circuit from God, to us, back to God, then we may be assured that all things will work together for our good.
He is saying that the strong force of God’s love binds him so hard and fast to the eternal life of God that nothing, not tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, nothing can break that bond, or ever reduce us to anything less than conquerors through Christ who loves us.
Do you believe that you are loved by God?
If so, then you can relax no matter what.
You can stop thinking that the world depends on your performance.
You can stop trying to manipulate and manage in order to make yourself safe.
You can stop thinking that you are being punished when hard things happen.
The Christian life has never been one of personal safety. It has always been a life of daily surrender and trust to where we can feast on God’s presence in the midst of our enemies.
John records Jesus saying this to those who were under the thumb of religion and the legalism of the Scribes and Pharisees; “…John 5:38 “….you do not have my Father’s word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (ESV),
Two chapters later John records Jesus saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ’Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’" (John 7:37-39 ESV)
So let me end with my all time favorite passage from Peterson’s translation of the Gospel of Matthew;
Matthew 11:28 "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me — watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly." (MsgB)
Jesus came (He said) to seek and save the lost.
He stands before you loving you just as you are and not as you ought to be. He loves the life He sees right now and knows how to heal the deep bruises, the pain of betrayal and disappointment.
He came under the title of SAVIOR because He saves us from our sin, from ourselves and rescues us from a collapsing world system.
May God cause us to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, to be strengthened and enlarged so as to comprehend the width, length, height and depth of Christ’s love. May we be filled with the very fullness of God’s life.
Give yourself to His relentless love and everything will change.
