03/24/2021
Before coming to know Christ, acknowledging Him as the Son of God, and accepting His sacrifice for our sins, our consciences convict us, and to ease it we seek to be moral, and do good things. We do this in an effort to please, and appease, God. Some of us want to earn His acceptance like a man gains another’s friendship... as an equal. But, our God is above all things, and only our faith in the blood of His Son Jesus Christ can redeem us, make us righteous, and bring us into a true relationship with Him.
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Hebrews 9:14 ESV
The blood of Christ was given on the cross, but much more than through the act of suffering, and dying, it was given in love.
I have watched the movie “Fiddler on the Roof” many times. It is a deep movie with much to say about not only Judaism, but faith in general, and one of the most revealing undercurrents is the relationship between the father of the family, Tevye, and his wife Golde. Their relationship is the product of an arranged marriage, and has been fruitful; they have five daughters. As part of the arrangement they each have played their parts as husband and wife, and father and mother, but finally, after 25 years of marriage Teyve asks Golde an astounding question... “Do you love me?”
Watch this scene for yourself if you like... https://youtu.be/h_y9F5St4j0
It’s a moving scene, and one that I find true of many who come to God, and Jesus Christ... they don’t ask the most powerful question of faith right away... they enter into an arranged relationship with God, and Jesus, based on reasoning, performance, and going through the motions of faithful obedience, but in all of this they miss the power, and amazement, of knowing love itself. They never experience openly the essence of what God intends for us to have with him. They miss the fact that we should be in love with God...
“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
Matthew 22:37-38 ESV
Just as God is in love with us...
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 ESV
So, we can go through the legality of a contract and call ourselves married, and we can believe, and have eternal life, but these are only the outer shells of relationships which are intended to be so much deeper, so much more. When we come to realize love, then suddenly life springs into the dead works we’ve known, and a new brilliance shines where a candle once lit the doorway of our marriage and sadder yet... the altar of our faith.
Today let’s look at the blood of Jesus as more than a physical act of sacrifice, more than dying, but as an unparalleled act of love...
““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:12-13 ESV
We are the friends of God, and Jesus..,
“You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:14-15 ESV
We are speaking today of a love beyond all understanding that fills our hearts to overflowing, and our spirits with the presence of God...
“and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:19-21 ESV
Are you ready to answer the most important question of your physical and spiritual life? Listen to the words that Jesus is singing to us, His future bride, today... “Do you love me?” Can you hear him singing this to you right now, just as Tevye sang it to Golde, and if so what is your response?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your love for us, and help us to know more of it each day. Thank you Holy Father for your Son Jesus and the act of obedience and love we witnessed on the cross at Calvary... an act that is beyond our understanding yet fills our hearts and souls to overflowing with love. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who offered His Son that the perfect sacrifice of His Blood would cleanse us of our sins, and defeat death. Help us as we strain at our limits to love you more, and open our hearts, souls, and minds in the effort. Great are you Oh God, who loves us beyond our ability to understand, and pours out your grace upon us through Jesus. Your love is our strength, and its lamp upholds the glory that is your light in our lives. Strengthen us in our love for you Father as our relationship grows ever stronger. Show us at the moment of our judgement the unfathomable depth of your love for us as you pronounce our righteousness, and lead us to our eternal place at your table.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
Rich Forbes