God's Love & the Law Fulfilled
The Following is a brief of a message given at a bible college earlier this year:
In
my preliminary planning for what I would say to you today, I felt I should tell you
about something
that has become dear to me. To talk about a subject I have used in a similar
setting. In the pulpit we need to remember exactly who it is we’re speaking on
behalf of. With that thought in
mind there should be no fear, no lack of commitment, etc.
However,
that is not what God wanted me to talk to you about. I thought and planned and
thought some more and was convinced I had the idea down pat.
However, things just got more jumbled.
When
I finally committed my thoughts to paper I completed what was a passable sermon
but it was NOT what God wanted and I couldn’t keep things in an order so they
made good spiritual sense. Not that
the subject isn’t valid. It just
isn’t valid for this day or this time.
I’m
slow sometimes but I’m not stupid, I scrapped that sermon. What I am
going to talk to you about is what came to me next.
Introduction:
In Matthew Chapter 22, Verses 36-40 we read, "Teacher, which
is the greatest commandment in the law?
Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
All
the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
I: God’s Love
In I John Chapter 4, verses 7-16, we read, "Dear friends, let
us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been
born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God,
because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us; He sent his one
and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love:
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought
to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love each other,
God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live
in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have
seen and testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in
God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is
love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."
So, if God is Love (and according to what we just read HE IS LOVE!)
and we live in His Spirit and His Spirit lives in us, then we also are love.
If this is the case, then we, in effect, have fallen in love with
our God, the Father, His Son Jesus and His indwelling Holy Spirit. This is
the purest of loves. Not as a man knows love but as God's Spirit teaches
us love (an absolute, pure, perfect love).
II: The Law
Think about the Commandments and Law for a moment.
We know God gave the law to teach man about his sinful state and so man would
realize he needed to seek God.
We also know that no man was ever made righteous
by the law because man is not capable of following the Law by 'rote' without
failing to fulfill some aspect of the Law.
We consider that Jesus said, in Matthew Chapter 5
verses 17-18, "Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth,
until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke
of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is
accomplished."
In other words Jesus makes very clear He did
NOT, as some would lead us to believe, come to abolish the law but to FULFILL
IT!
III: Conflict between Love
and Law
How is this possible? Paul tells us, Romans Chapter 6 Verse
14, "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law but
under grace."
On the surface it appears the law has been done
away with.
That is not the case. In Jesus and by extension, in the
Spirit Filled believer, the law has been fulfilled, not removed.
Logically (and our God is a logical God), there must be something
that resolves this apparent disparity in the Word.
IV: Resolution
Here it is.
If
God is Love and God lives in us then we are Love.
The indwelling Spirit of God reveals and brings to
us that perfect love which can only come from God. This means we are
completely filled with, saturated by and immersed in the purest form of love
that man could ever hope to experience.
In other words we are so in love with God that we
become desperate not to do or say anything that would damage that relationship.
If we truly love someone we make every effort to not damage the relationship and
that same thought applies here.
This means if we truly love God, we can't and won't tolerate
anything or anyone or anything that even appears to be another God. We abhor
the thought of an image that might take the place of our God. We wouldn't
think of taking God's name in vain. We will remember the Sabbath as a
means of remembering the Creator who rested that day. Because God commands
us to love Mother and Father we wouldn't go contrary to that because we
are so in love with God that a basic disobedience of that command tears our
hearts. Our love for God will not allow us to Kill. Our love for God
will not allow us to lie or covet.
In other words, we have become the essence of the law. Not
that we are the law in any legalistic sense or manner. Rather, we, by the
Spirit of the Law giver and the indwelling totality of God's Love have become
the essence of the law.
I would venture to say that a true believer
wouldn't necessarily need to be able to quote the law.
Because God's Love is so complete in them they wouldn't consider taking a
chance on grieving the God they are so in love with.
His Spirit WILL guide a believer through the daily temptations that
befall all men.
There is no flaw in the scriptures given by God
or in the way they are presented.
In Summary:
God is love. God lives in us (believers).
Therefore, the believer is love. Therefore, we fall in love with God
(again, not the kind of love the world understands). God is love and so I
become love. Anyone in love will not deliberately do anything to damage the
relationship between them and the person with whom they are in love. My
love from, in and for God will not allow me to kill, steal, covet, etc. In
essence I have become the law.
Therefore, for the Christian Believer, the law is
fulfilled.
You, as believers and fellows of the Kingdom of God
must be saturated with His love. There
should be NO compromise in this area. There
can be no compromise in this area.
If you remember who it is you’re really working
for, you will not forget what He has given you.
And, as important, you will find every way you can to share the free gift
of His Salvation and Love with anyone you meet or speak to.
Remember, you are His man or woman and you represent the Kingdom. The world and its many dangers must be looked at through the eyes of Jesus and His Love, not our own flawed vision.
