Today I recieved a message from Michelle Leong from Maylasia. She was just encouraging me that I should trust God that his plans for me will come to fruition. Thanks Michelle.
Her blog introduced me to Brooke Fraser’s, song, “Albertine.” While I had heard Brooke Fraser sing songs that she had done with Hillsong United (like “Lord of lords”), I did not know this side of her. I was both excited and felt a sense of companionship, and yet challenged by the words. Even though my heart is for the people of Africa, I am challenged by the words…
“Now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms, I cannot let go till you are”
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Romans 13:8-14: Love, for the Day is Near
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
![* Henry Peach Robinson * British (Ludlow, England, 1830 - 1901, Royal Tunbridge Wells, England) [Courtesy of SFMOMA]](http://collections.sfmoma.org/media/Previews/TEMPRENAME/ST/ST1998.0397.jpg "Dawn and Sunset")
* Henry Peach Robinson * British (Ludlow, England, 1830 - 1901, Royal Tunbridge Wells, England) [Courtesy of SFMOMA
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MAIN POINTS:
/// I. The Kerygma (a New Creation)
“The hour has come to wake up from your slumber!…The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.“
This is an apocalyptic statement, straight from the Kerygma (κήρυγμα) of the gospels;
it is the message that sums up the entirety of the ministry of Jesus,[1] in just the way that Jesus taught that the entirety of the Law could be summed up in the basics of the Sh’ma and the Golden Rule: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…[and] love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 22:36-40)
The Kingdom of God has come on earth, a kingdom of peace and righteousness, a kingdom that is under the authority of God alone and is dominated by his decree… to love each other.
“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:12).
- We have all been created in God’s image. The way we treat each other shows what we think about God.
If we are quick to judge, God will be quick to judge us. Whatever it is that we see in Jesus, that is what we should strive for others to see in us. This is what it means to “put on” Jesus.
Some people have tended to use the idea of “truth” to justify there actions. People are willing to die for the “truth.” It is as if seeking the “truth” is what the Gospel is all about. Yet, here we see that Jesus puts even the “truths” of the Law as being subservient to our relationships. We “shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free,” and yet, that truth is summed up in the “Law that brings freedom”, which is the law of love. (James 1:25;2:12) As James tells us, “mercy triumphs over judgement“. because we are not going to be judged based on what we know about the truth, we are going to be judged based on how the truth is lived out in us. Let us not be those who find ourselves “disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27) because we failed to remember that “judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.” (James 2:13)
God’s Kingdom has come and is still yet coming. JJesus is the author of the salvation that has come, and is coming for all creation. If we really believe this, we must act on it now.
/// II. Wake Up!
![Henry Peach Robinson [Courtesy of the American Museum of Photography]](http://www.photographymuseum.com/hprobinson2figuresinlandscapelg.jpg "Figures in Landscape")
Henry Peach Robinson [Courtesy of the American Museum of Photography
1) This kind of love (agape love) is unconditional love. To “love your neighbor as yourself” is a good rule of thumb. It has been preached all around the globe by leaders throughout history; even before the time of Jesus. It shows us that our morality should be based on our ability to be empathetical, to see others’ situation as if it were our own. Yet, the difference here is that we are not just doing this when it is beneficial to us, or when we want to.The glory of God is shown in us when we live out the forgiveness he has shown on us. As Jesus explains, the difference between the holiness that God requires and the “practicality of morality” shown in the pagan cultures is this: God’s love is unconditional; God’s love is forgiving; God’s love is not in order to build himself up, but for the benefit of others (especially those who curse us). We must love the way God loves us. We must! As Paul says, “Bless those who hurt you; bless and do not curse!” (Romans 12:14).
2) But all this assumes that we are only out to love those whom bless us or curse us, we have left out a huge section of God’s Kingdom that he desires us to be a part of: The needy! If we are going to identify with Jesus, we have to be willing to identify with those whom he identified with …the outcasts, the persecuted, the lowly. Jesus, though we was God, was born in a humble family, among the common people who could not even afford the sacrifice to be made at the temple at the time of his birth (Luke 2:24; Lev 12:8).
When the crucified Jesus is called the ‘image of the invisible God’, the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this. God is not greater than he is in this humiliation. God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender. God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness. God is not more divine than he is in this humanity.[2]
This means that, when we “put on” Jesus Christ, we are acting as his presence in the world. This means we must be led by HIS SPIRIT. We must become sensitive to his leading. We must be willing to submit ourselves to searching out and finding those whom God has called us to intercede for, to be his hands to, to bring hope to.
/// III. Put asside the deads of Darkness
Paul exhorts us that there will come a day when “God, through Jesus the Messiah will judge our secret thoughts” (Romans 2:16). As Jesus said, “There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing secret that will not become known and come to light.” (Luke 8:17) Therefore, we must “wake up” from our slumber and live as if we are already in the daylight. Some day, we will “fully know, just as we are fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) We cannot go around living life anymore as if we are not accountable.
We must come to see ourselves as if everything we do matters, not just for our own selves, but for the entire world. We are all inter-connected. Every thought, every deed, every action, every bit of anger, every bit of confusion, every time we give up intstead of persevering, we do it together.
We know now that, not only does “deads of Darkness” refer to those things that we do that God is disaprroving of, but it necessarily refers to those things that we think we will get away with because they do not matter. Our successes and failures are achieved and failed together. We must change not only the way we act, but the way we think.
Soon, we will have no choice. We can not look back later and say, “I wish I would have.” There is no future and there is no past. There is only right now, and the choices we make together to be the people God has called us to be at this moment.
Christian Perfection \\
Perhaps you this as a desire for a kind of spiritual perfection. To love God with all my might! To love my neighbor as a means of worship to God…yes, I guess it is. As John Wesley put it:
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- `Love is the fulfilling of the law, the end of the commandment.’ It is not only `the first and great’ command, but all the commandments in one. `Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,’ they are all comprised in this one word, love. In this is perfection, and glory, and happiness: The royal law of heaven and earth is this, `Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.’ The one perfect good shall be your one ultimate end. One thing shall ye desire for its own sake, — the fruition of Him who is all in all. One happiness shall ye propose to your souls, even an union with Him that made them, the having `fellowship with the Father and the Son,’ the being `joined to the Lord in one spirit.’ One design ye are to pursue to the end of time, — the enjoyment of God in time and in eternity. Desire other things so far as they tend to this; love the creature, as it leads to the Creator. But in every step you take, be this the glorious point that terminates your view. Let every affection, and thought and word, and action, be subordinate to this. Whatever ye desire or fear, whatever ye seek or shun, whatever ye think speak, or do, be it in order to your happiness in God, the sole end, as well as source, of your being. — John Wesley, “The Circumcision of the Heart,” Sermon 17
We cannot change the things we have done. Thank God that his love for us is not dependant on what we have or will do. We cannot change the past. We can only resolve to be better. Jesus says, “If you want to be perfect” (Matthew 19:21) then you are going to have to give up everything that is not used for the purpose of obeying…we must learn to listen and follow God. Jesus says, “Be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is Perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
Christian Perfection means loving those who love you, loving those who curse you, and loving those you yet know nothing about, but loving them simply because we are led by the spirit to love, identifying with the outcast and the downtrodden, and living as though our lives were open for the world to see all we have done. This is the obedience of faith that Paul struggles so hard to get accross to us in Romans. We obey as a result of faith, because of our Love for God, and our Love for each other.
[1] Rudolf Karl Bultmann, Jesus Christ and Mythology (New York: Scribner, 1958), 84. See also Rudolf Karl Bultmann, Kerygma and Myth (New York: Harper, 1961), 211.
[2] Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ As the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 205.
[3] Bill Hybels and LaVonne Neff. Who You Are When No One’s Looking: Choosing Consistency, Resisting Compromise. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1987.
