| Author | Message | ||
| Martinc Registered user Username: Martinc Post Number: 181 Registered: 9-2006 |
"If you love Me, you will keep my commandments." Jn. 14:15 ESV We heard this key text in ways that were very formative in all relationships with each other and with God. Specifically, I believe the SDA connection between love and obedience has had a profound impact deep in our souls and in our SDA families. It all seemed pretty straight forward; those who loved Jesus were being prodded to keep the 10 Commandments. But just how did this work? Perhaps it meant that commandment keeping is the prescribed method of loving Jesus: "The way to love Me is through keeping my commandments." Or, maybe Jesus was saying that He would continue to love us, on condition that we were successfully keeping the 10 commandments: "If you love Me, prove it by continuing to keep the 10 commandments, and I will continue to love you." However we heard it, Jesus was offering us a bargain, an exchange. Our law-keeping was exchanged for His love and ownership of us. When we did our part, then He would do His, and the relationship could continue. Of course, we knew that God loved everybody unconditionally, whether they wanted to be saved or not. But once we became believers, once we professed His name and claimed to love Him back, the exchange of obedience for love kicked in. The love of God, the ownership kind, remained secure for us on the condition that we kept the 10 commandments. No wonder Paul called the old covenant the “ministry of death.” Then what are these commandments He is asking us to keep? The answer is very simple: The “commandments” of Jesus Christ are His life and Person. He is the embodiment of the law, and the law’s original Pattern. The law of Moses was a shadow, but now the Reality has come. So when we imitate Him, we are not following some code or rule book, we are copying a living Person. Take any of the old commandments you wish, such as #10, coveting. Here’s how to keep it: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped…” Phil. 2:5-7 “Thou shalt not covet” is now a non-grasping Person. That is a Law who enters our minds and teaches us. He told us in Matthew, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matt. 11:29 The Living One has stalked us all our lives with His relentless purposes of grace, and suddenly one day, He speaks the gospel into the tomb of our heart. We are awakened with the news that the Law Giver bought us with His blood, and we repent and believe. When His voice fills our deadness with obedience, we arise and become commandment keepers. The Holy Spirit brings Him to live in us when we hear the gospel of free grace and forgiveness. With His life in us, we can cheerfully obey out of love for that Law. Now we don’t keep a written code called the 10 commandments; that law was weak and cannot save. The New is strong, for this is a Law that keeps us. We are alive with the Holy Spirit indwelling us, giving us a soft, living heart (Vss. 16,17). Now we can respond, not with the calculated goodness of stony rules and “principles,” but with a gentle sympathy for others. This text is also a promise, as we see in verse 12: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do.” There is no exchange of our obedience for His life. We trade in our sin and our dead, stony hearts for His new heart with marvelous new powers: the ability to rejoice or weep with those who rejoice or weep. Now, in keeping His commandments to love. we are imitating a Person, not following an example through rules. Oh how we love that Law, He is our meditation all the day! (Ps. 119:97). Martin C Alexander Maclaren’s sermon, “Love and Obedience,” was a great help in my understanding of this text. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 11842 Registered: 12-2003  |
Martin, this is profound and very-well said. I love this example you used:
None of what Jesus said about righteous living can actually be understood apart from being made new by being born of the Spirit. When people who are still dead in sin become "religious" and attempt to live by the Bible, they perceive the teachings of Jesus to be "good advice" on how to be acceptable to God. Instead, when a person understands that the Lord Jesus was describing a way of living that was IMPOSSIBLE under the law, that He was revealing that the only way we can enter the kingdom of heaven is to be born again (John 3:3-5), everything Jesus said looks different. Jesus gave these impossible commands to Jews under the law, and they were intended to see that they couldn't DO those sorts of things (such as "don't lust; don't steal; don't be angry at your brother," etc.) with the law's guidance. Those requirements were completely OUTSIDE the law. Jesus was introducing a "new law"—the law of Himself as the fulfillment of the Mosaic law and the Living Law who would literally indwell us by means of the Holy Spirit and bring our spirits to life. This new law is what Hebrews 7:12 has in mind:
Amazing post, Martin. Colleen | ||
| Martinc Registered user Username: Martinc Post Number: 182 Registered: 9-2006 |
Colleen, you just reminded me: When I was SDA I didn't want to discuss the New Birth. It was all very annoying. It was too ghostly, too New-Agey and subjective--not for those who respected their own minds. Us Awakeners had a thing about anything that felt subjective. While trying to write this, I realized that our old understanding of the new birth was terribly limited--and still is. We have been so much like Nicodemus, feeling very perceptive, yet saying idiotic things about realities we couldn't see because we were not alive. No wonder we wanted to talk about Law as a bunch of hard little things that gave us physical or mental stuff to do. Jesus' words bring us closer to something that is literally not of this creation, out of this world. The New Life belongs to the glorious creation, the one that is not yet. It will be spoken into existence after all the present elements are melted with fervent heat. There is no mind trick or scientific instrument that can show us any glimmer into that place. It's not for practiced intellects to toss around on Sabbath morning, it's not even of the five senses, but of the spirit. Our new spirit is only a little translucent window into a mighty place that we can only dimly perceive. But we know the way, and we see best when we look to Him who can open our eyes. Would someone else out there would like to join this conversation about love and obedience, the New Birth? Jump in! Martin C | ||
| Leighpinski Registered user Username: Leighpinski Post Number: 128 Registered: 8-2010  |
I don't have anything to add. I'm still learning. I'm just reading reading reading...taking it all in! Thanks for the awesome post, Martin C  | ||
| Harpazo Registered user Username: Harpazo Post Number: 12 Registered: 9-2010 |
Thank you Martin and Colleen for this and for the scriptural insights that you have shared over the past months that have been working to chip away at the incorrect understanding that is deeply ingrained in me when it comes to my love of and obedience to our Lord. Over the past years I have come to an understanding of the Gospel, up to a point. I understood that salvation is through Christ alone. However, it has been made apparent recently that I have always believed that I must respond with obedience as “my end” of the deal. The result has been unsatisfactory to say the least, but all of my prior scriptural education had pointed to obedience being a key part of demonstrating my love of God. My inevitable failure resulted in a heavy feeling of guilt and questioning my salvation. Today, I give up! The Spirit of God dwelling in me is the only way that good can come from me. All the glory must be God’s. Even my “good deeds” only lead me to self exaltation. I thank the Lord for calling me and giving me a new living spirit that desires to serve Him. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 11856 Registered: 12-2003 |
Praise God, Harpazo. I'm rejoicing over "Today, I give up!" There is so much peace and resolution in that "place". He is faithful.
Colleen | ||
| Martinc Registered user Username: Martinc Post Number: 184 Registered: 9-2006 |
Harpazo, I love it! You have now made a "declaration of dependence;" Admitting totally abject failure to keep up your end of "the deal." Like Colleen said, there is not only peace there, but a genuine resolution there that was not accessible--except from the Holy Spirit. (Message edited by MartinC on October 20, 2010) |
