Difference between revisions of "A GODLY SENSE OF SELF"
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Latest revision as of 19:46, 13 April 2015
Jesus died for His enemies—for all of us. He did not love
His neighbour as Himself, but more than Himself, in choosing to die
for us. But doesn’t that sound similar to some of those we have described, who
operate out of a false and sinful imitation of divine love? We must remember
the godly principle of Christian action we have established: Jesus was not
seeking to do His works in order to be loved, either by the Father or by those
to whom He ministered. The love of the Father was so real and totally satisfying
to Him, that how others ‘looked at Him and treated Him was second to that
all-fulfilling relationship with the Father. There was no inner, unsatisfied need in Jesus that made Him die for us
so that we would love Him.
Under Command
Jesus died for us, His enemies, not because He hoped that in
so doing He would gain our love, but because the Father commanded Him to do so.
In that sense, the death of Jesus was the crown of His life, because all His
life He had done only what the Father willed. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He
uttered the words which controlled His life, ...not My will, but Thine be
done
(Luke 22:42).
Jesus was a true person, a true self, the blueprint of man
that God intended us all to be. A true
self does not look after the self but chooses to surrender it to God, to listen
to and obey Him. This is the life of joy, peace, meaning, and significance;
at the same time, it is often the life of self-sacrifice, even to death. If
Jesus had died to help people, it would have been pointless, a wasted heap of
ashes; but, because He died at the Father’s command, He was exalted to be their
Saviour and Rescuer. Likewise, Christians are called to obey God, not to go
around laying down their lives for everyone who asks them to, ending up on the
ash heap and whimpering that no one cares. Whenever we are simply responding to
people’s needs out of our own deep need for love, we are always disappointed,
for very few of those we try to help will care enough to even say thank you!
But if we act because the Father commands us to, then we know that we are part
of a greater whole, and our sacrifice is knitted into the ongoing purpose of
God.
Christians lay down their lives for the people their Abba tells them to! And so, in it all, they have
the strengthening of the Holy Spirit, they have a joy set before them, and they know they are not alone.
Joy Unspeakable
Again, it was in West Africa that I sat in a hut. The walls
were made of mud strengthened with tree branches, and the roof was made of many
layers of grass woven through branches. A hole in the roof let out the smoke
from the fire that burned in the middle of the floor. In the corner was a
narrow bed, and a cuckoo clock hung on the mud wall. Opposite me, in an ancient
rocking chair, sat a charming American lady, old enough to be my grandmother,
knitting a sweater. I had come on behalf of the churches that supported her, to
plead with her to come home to a well-earned retirement. At seventy-five years
old, she had served the people of this tribe for forty years. She smiled and
told me to cash in the ticket, which I had brought with me for her trip home to
Michigan.
She had laid down her life for these people—but it was not a
heap of ashes. It was the expression of the love of God in and through her. She
had obeyed God her Father, which involved laying down her life in the power of
the Spirit for these people for these many years. Dying to her own will, she
lived in the resurrection of joy and peace, and that mud hut was a palace to her.
In fact, I felt I was sitting in the presence of royalty!
I have seen pastors and lay leaders lay down their lives for
their flocks, and do so at the Father’s command, with the result that they have
vibrant mental and emotional health. These Christians find fulfilment in loving
others with sacrificial love. Jesus taught that we would be filled with a joy
unspeakable when we fulfilled the reason for our being by loving one another
with God’s love. In Luke 15, in three parables, He tells of the neighbours and
friends gathering to celebrate the finding of the lost; in one of these
parables, the return of the prodigal son resulted in killing the fatted calf
and dancing and rejoicing. But take careful note: The shepherd didn’t go
looking for the sheep in order to have a celebration where he would be honoured
for his heroic rescue! Nor did the father welcome home the rebel son because he
desperately needed to eat the calf and have an all-night party. If that had
been the case, he would have regularly scoured the neighbourhood, looking for
anyone who was lost and even remotely connected to his family so that he could
kill another calf.
The overflowing joy that comes when God’s love in us acts is
the bonus that is thrown in, not the reason for the act. We act upon His
guidance and direction because of our deep love for Him, which emanates from
the unconditional love He has shown us. And the result of our love action is
that we are miraculously filled with and surrounded by His unspeakable joy.