Sunday, 30 January 2022

Law and Grace - part 15

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1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God - that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

What is love without responsibility? That's right, nothing, because there is no such thing as love without responsibility. Love without responsibility will always be selfish and self-centered which is not love at all. Yeshua came to earth so that we would end our self-centered ways, and put Him on the throne of our hearts.

We do this by Grace, but Grace does not end responsibility, it enables responsibility. We are transformed from a "striving in the flesh" response to God, into a "desire to please" heart response to God. Yeshua is the reality of all things, and He is the reality of our responsibility to end our selfish ways.

John 15:13 No one has greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. Yeshua laid His life down for us. Not only are we His friends, but, by His blood, we are brought into His family. Quite a miracle actually. And, let's remember the following verse ... John 15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.

What is the greatest commandment? Mark 12:28-29 One of the Torah scholars came and heard them debating. Seeing that Yeshua had answered them well, he asked Him, "Which commandment is first of all?" Yeshua answered, "The first is, 'Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. The greatest commandment has two parts. The first part is stated above to take heed that there is One and only One true and living God.

However; there is a second part. The second part (found in the next verse) is to love God completely. Mark 12:30 And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. There is much to this second part. First, as we already discussed, we can't love without responsibility. And part of that "love" responsibility is to care for the people of God. John 21:17 He said to him a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him for a third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You!" Yeshua said to him, "Feed My sheep!"

I pray this is becoming clearer. Grace does not replace the commandments of God. Grace enables God's power in us to do the commandments of God.