Perfecting Holiness through Love

the sun setting on another day of grace

If you have been reading all my posts on God's love for us, I hope that you are taking it personally!  This love is the foundation of our relationship and if there is fear in it, we will not realize our potential in Christ - our personal destiny.  The world needs to see Christ in us, and know that he is real.  The Bible says they will know it by our love.

Describing our life in him as a branch connected to the vine, Jesus says  "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you."(John 15:9)  Love is our life source.  How can we doubt that it is always there for us, or think that it can depend on our good behavior?  It is the enemy who wants to plant those doubts.  God does not hold the threat of His displeasure over our heads for any reason.

fruit from the vine

Continuing in John 15:9-10, Jesus says "Now abide (or remain) in my love.  If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love".  I always heard that to mean that if I obeyed the law, I would be loved" but that's wrong.  That would contradict the rest of the Gospel - the whole New Covenant.  It means that if I heed what God tells me, I will continue to experience His love and not stray from the intimate loving fellowship I am meant to have with Him.  John continues to quote Jesus, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."(15:11)  Jesus' joy was in being close to His Father, in obeying His Father totally and completely, enjoying their oneness.  The true motivation and the power for obedience is the joy of abiding fellowship, not fear.

imagine perfection...

We are meant to be the same way!  God wants joyful abiding fellowship with us, too.  God sent His son to open the way for it.  Jesus gave his life so we could join him in it!  This is so important and it is so easy to let it slip away.  We are loved.  We can know and enjoy God, our Father.  We can know and enjoy Jesus, our Brother and Bridegroom.  We can know and enjoy Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Counselor.  We cannot be fully alive in Jesus with our Father unless we let ourselves be loved fully and completely.

Because love is so often linked with our behavior in human relationships, it can be hard to understand that stressing God's love is not being soft on obedience.  Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:1 "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."  A verse like that used to press down on me with the full force of the law.  I couldn't do it.  I didn't understand how radical grace really is, and I didn't understand how grace leads to obedience that flows from the heart.

everything askew

What if obedience begins with believing that God loves you and you do not ever have to be afraid?   I am seeing that temptation toward disobedience gets it's strength from our fear.  And fear feeds on doubt and unbelief.   It works like this:  If I am not sure that God loves me and takes care of me in every circumstance, I start taking things into my own hands.  Efforts to be in control lead to conflict with others who have their own agenda for control.   An insecure heart will take a self serving approach to relationships, becoming manipulative to meet its needs.  Fear leads to anger when a person feels threatened.  Without love's softening it becomes harder to forgive.  Idols spring up when something we do seems to work really well.   But think what can happen when we feel loved well enough to ignore the threats and accusations of our enemy who steals the joy of our salvation, and the security of our relationship with the Almighty God of the Universe - who is our good Father!

staying on that road that leads to life

No wonder the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)  It takes faith to believe He loves us enough to let go and just surrender.  What a great day it was when I was able to see that surrender is not giving up in failure, but the only way to win the battles of the Christian life.  When I surrender my efforts, God can take over.  The Holy Spirit can fill the places I've held onto.  It takes faith to open up and receive His loving grace.  It takes faith to relinquish my trying to do it myself.  Surrender lets Christ do it through me, for he is the only one who can live the Christian life.

Of course seeing it and doing it were not necessarily the same thing.  It may not be so for everyone, but it took time for my desire to let go to become real surrender.  It is so simple, but can still be a long journey -- that of knowing God loves me.

(Next time I hope to write about overcoming the roadblocks to a surrendered and victorious life)