CONTINUED...
The question was,
How does a saint of God who is struggling with Christian disciplines and sin increase their love for Jesus, thereby bringing a life that is congruent with the new nature imparted to them?
The truth is…there is nothing in the way of Christian discipline that the believer can do to increase his or her love for God. They don’t need to “do” anything. They need a revelation. “A revelation of what?” one might ask. A revelation of God’s love. Let’s take a look at a text and I’ll draw a foundational principle from it:
I John 4:7-19
{4:7} Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;
and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
{4:8} He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
{4:9} In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through him. {4:10} Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to
be] the propitiation for our sins. {4:11} Beloved, if God so
loved us, we ought also to love one another. {4:12} No man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God
dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. {4:13}
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us,
because he hath given us of his Spirit. {4:14} And we have
seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son [to be] the
Saviour of the world. {4:15} Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in
God. {4:16} And we have known and believed the love that
God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in him. {4:17} Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of
judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. {4:18}
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear:
because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made
perfect in love. {4:19} We love him, because he first loved
us.
Notice the last verse in the text, “We love him, because he first loved us.” We don’t begin with more disciplines and behavior modification (legalism). We begin with turning to Scripture to get a revelation of God’s love towards us. Why? Because we only love Him… as a result of Him shedding His love lavishly upon us. When a struggling believer begins to get a revelation of how much God loves them, How God Himself bore all their sins upon the cross. How Jesus Christ became the object of God’s wrath on their behalf. How they are justified purely by faith, and adopted in as a son or daughter. When they realize that their Heavenly Father is indeed, “Abba father”, the condemnation and fear is lifted. There is no fear in love. If one is made to fear God as though there never was a cross…they can never be made perfect in their love for God. They fear Him as an abusive, threatening, violent father who might be provoked to beat them when they mess up or make wrong decisions. As we begin to understand God’s love…our love for Him will naturally grow in response. And the more we understand God’s love…the more we will in turn love Him. And as our love is perfected in understanding Him and His love, our behaviors will change…and we will have renewed our mind, aligning it with God’s revelation, thus producing a desire for greater sanctification.
Here’s a real life example. This college aged kid in church was expressing that he was struggling with temptations to drink on the weekends with his peers. More times than not, he gave into the temptation and went partying with them. He wanted to read his Bible and pray more, but he didn’t feel motivated enough to do it. He just wanted to love God more, but didn’t know how to do it. The brothers in our cell group advised him to institute a “quiet time” for prayer every morning. They also advised him to change the music he listened to and advised him to set aside 15 minutes a night for Bible reading. Then they assigned him an “accountability partner” to break his knee caps if he failed (Just kidding! Lol). They meant well…but they put him under bondage. As he tried to perform the duties on their “little list” (read “Law”) he found that occasionally he’d sleep to late for the quiet time he committed to. Sometimes he’d get tired and go to sleep before his 15 minute Bible reading. When his “accountability partner”, Guido the Killer Christian, called him to see if he was abiding by the list, the brother lied and said he was praying and reading his Bible every day. The result? CONDEMNATION. The Law always brings condemnation because no one can keep it indefinitely. Needless to say, this caused him to shy away from prayer time even more. He also became afraid to read the Bible, because when he read it, all he saw was that God was angry at him and displeased with him. God was becoming like a bitter, angry, and demanding father in his eyes. The first cell group meeting of last month he ditched. Just didn’t show up. So I decided to call him, though I’m not the “religious policeman” assigned to him. We talked. I asked him why he didn’t come. He said, “Because I can’t do it. I can’t be a Christian. I just don’t love God enough. I can’t stop doing the things that I know He doesn’t want me to do.” I said, “Do you know what God wants more than that?” He said “What?” I said, “God just wants you to know how much He loves you.” From there we began to talk about God’s love. How God loved us…while we were yet sinners. How Jesus became our propitiation. I looked up the definition of propitiation and read it to him. We talked about how Jesus Himself was the object of God’s wrath on his behalf. Yes…Jesus was punished for every mistake this brother would ever make to satisfy the demands of God’s holy justice. I then said, “So how could God be angry with you? His anger was already poured out on Christ?” This kid then said, “He did that for me?” I said, “Yes. And he did it once and for all.” He was silent. I could hear a sniffle over the phone as he tried to hide the fact that he was crying. I encouraged him to come back to the cell group. When he did, to my surprise he confessed about lying. He explained that he just didn’t want them to see him as a failure. I committed myself to doing something privately. Every time I see this brother, I’m saying, “He did it all for you.” Guess what…last time we talked he was sharing something he read in his Bible. What led him to begin reading? A desire to know the God who loves him so much, He’d die to redeem him. His love is growing, as a result of a revelation of God’s own love for him.
When we understand just how much God loves us…there’s just no way we can stand there unaffected. If we are sincerely seeking God, a revelation of how He first loved us will birth an ever deepening love for Him. All the “disciplines” will then cease to be seen as disciplines, but will become fruit of the Spirit.
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