To ask that God’s love should be content with us as we are
is to ask that God should cease to be God – C. S. Lewis
When people mean when they say that God is love is often
something quite different; they really mean love is God – C. S. Lewis
Recently I saw a tweet that brought a wry smile to my lips.
On the 24th September this year Nicole Scherzinger tweeted the
following passage of the Bible from her account:
“A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one
another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
The above passage is John 13:34. Jesus was speaking to his
disciples during the meal known commonly known as the Last Supper. Jesus knew
that he was about to be crucified and he was effectively given his last sermon
to the disciples before he would be taken away. Earlier in his ministry, he had
broken down the entire law that had been given through Moses, comprising over
600 rules and regulations into two, to love God with our whole heart, mind and
soul and to love our neighbours as ourselves. After Jesus died, even Paul wrote
an entire chapter in the book of Corinthians on the topic of love. One then
might be forgiven for thinking that the only important thing in Christianity is
love. However, while it might be the most important thing, it’s not the only
thing.
The Bible says that “while we yet sinners, Christ died for
us”. He died for us because he loved us. The Bible also says we love him
because he first loved us. That means we are able to love him back because he
first loved us. The Christian group had a song that said, “Love is a Verb”.
That means that you cannot say you love without doing something to show it? How
do we know he loves us? Because he died to save us from our sins. But he also
wants us to love him back. In the book of John 14:15, Jesus said: “If ye love
me, keep my commandments.” Therefore, the only way we can show we love God is
by keeping his commandments.
I've said before that I do not believe that Christ came to
establish a religion called “Christianity”. I believe that Christianity is a
contraption formulated by man to allow us fall short of what Christ expects of
God since we are “just men” even though Christ said that greater works than he
did we would do. Christianity is a crutch we lean on that allows us to
conveniently fall short of what God expects of us. Christ came to set up a
kingdom known as the Kingdom of God (or the Kingdom of Heaven) with the Holy
Spirit as his representative when he left, not to set up a religion. From the
book of Acts, we understand that Christians were called by that name first in
Antioch. I believe the people who started using the term were not people of the
same faith and there is every likelihood that the term might have been
derogatory. We shy away from the concept of a kingdom with a king because
somehow prefer the concept of presidents and democracy where everybody is
“equal”. However, God is not some equal opportunities employer, he is a king.
Romans 8:2 talks about the “law of the Spirit of life”.
Isaiah 9:6 talks about the government being upon the shoulder of the child that
is born. If there is a kingdom or government, it presupposes that there must be
legislation. We seem to think that the kingdom of God has no rules. However,
what kingdom, or government can stand without rules? We seem to think that
because we operate a new covenant that we are under no obligation to keep any
of God’s commandments. While I will admit that quite a number of the laws were
personal to the Jews, the laws known as the 10 Commandments are not. For
instance, from Jesus words, it’s quite clear that God is still interested in us
honouring our parents. So, if we still need to obey laws, how then is this
dispensation of grace different from that of the law? The main difference is
Holy Spirit. Under the law, we tried to please God with our own efforts. We did
all we could and we still fell short. When we sinned, we tried to pacify God
with the sacrifice of animals because the Bible says the wages of sin is death.
Therefore we needed something to take our death when we sinned. Under grace,
before we even sin, we understand that Christ has shed his blood for our past,
present and future sins. We also understand that God himself through the Holy
Spirit is working in us to help us keep the laws. We also don’t need to beat
ourselves up when we fall or run away from him when we sin. We are to run
toward him and fall at his feet and receive his forgiveness.
The Bible says Christ is returning for a Church without
spot, wrinkle or blemish. If Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, do
we presume to think that God is happy if we continue doing the same things that
made him consider us sinners even after we accept Christ?I think not. God said
that in these times, he would write his laws not on tables of stone but on the
tables of our heart. The heart is a symbol of love. It means therefore that in
these days, God’s laws will be dear to us. His laws will not be grievous to us
because we love him and want to please him and because we understand that they
are for our good.
God is a God of love. But he is also a God of judgement. Any
attempt to gloss over this is wrong. While God is love, love is not God. We
should stop trying to excuse or justify the wrong we or others do by saying
“God loves us the way we are”. It's even funnier when people who don't acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Saviour try try to preach love to Christians. If there was a man who was married but had an
anger problem and every time he got angry he beat his wife. When he’s asked why
he doesn't deal with his anger issues, he replies, “God loves me the way I am”.
I wonder which one of us would agree with that. Jesus said he did not come into
the world to condemn it. However, he did say that in the end, we would be
judged by the words he had spoken. Everything we do should flow out of love but
we should use love as an excuse not to move on to maturity. How does maturity
come about? By being obedient to God’s laws.The Bible
makes it clear that one day, Heaven and Earth will pass away and we all we will
stand before God’s throne in judgement. Then we’ll discover just how far God’s
love extends. But by then, it might be too late.
JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a political thriller about the persecution of Christians. DECEPTIO is published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers and is available at http://www.bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND a story about love, loss, rejection and redemption available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ. You can follow him on Twitter at @Cruz_JCReal
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