gospel

New impulses created by Jesus’ love.

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9“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!

12This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command.

15I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.  John 15:9-17

Jesus says, “You are my friends!”

Jesus expects friendship with Him to create new impulses.
Remain in my love. vs. 9
Obey my commandments. vs. 10
Love each other. vs. 12, 17

The order matters here:

Remain in my love. Obey my commandments. Love each other.

Without this order, obedience to Jesus will turn into a dance with self-righteousness. All of our efforts to obey Him will turn into religious appeasement crafted with the hope of making ourselves lovable to Him and OK with the world… except that we are so unable to make ourselves loveable and the world’s applause is fickle.

The order starts with love. To remain is to abide, live in, and enjoy the reality of Jesus’ love for us. His love His solid and fully expressed in His life, death, and resurrection. Obedience is a fruit of being gracefully loved by Jesus. He has initiated this divine friendship.

Live loved! Being loved by Jesus brings us into the communion of God. As we deliberately move our thoughts into the Gospel narrative we will discover new impulses given us by the Spirit to continue in His love, to obey His commandments, and to love people.

Choice and Love

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9“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!

12This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command.

15I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.  John 15:1-17

Jesus says, “You are my friends!”

Jesus initiates friendship.
I have loved you, even as the Father has loved me. vs. 9
I have told you everything the Father told me. vs. 15
I chose you. vs. 16
I appointed you to bear lasting fruit.  vs. 16

In a world of pick and choose I’m often astonished that we have a problem with the reality of love and choice going together. Part of the mystery of the Gospel comes down to this: Jesus choses us. It comes down to nothing but grace. No achievements, no class, no race, no self-righteousness, no good looks swayed the opinion of God towards us. As followers of Jesus we maintain the tension between the reality of our sinfulness and the amazing grace of His choice to include us in His band of brothers and sisters.

Grace and Response

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3May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. 4Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5All glory to God forever and ever! Amen. Galatians 5:3-5  NLT

So many followers of Jesus get caught up again in the race to rescue themselves.

Instead of achievement being a response to God’s love, achievement becomes an idol necessary for us and required to justify our existence.

Instead of health being a response to God’s love, health becomes proof that we are blessed and actually fantastic humans.

Instead of relationships being a response to God’s love, relationships with certain people become the proof that we are loveable, and even worthy of love.

Instead of righteousness being a response to God’s love, righteousness, becomes a pursuit that proves we are pure and powerful, and able (we believe) to get what we want from God.

All of this happens when we lose sight of the grace and peace of God that’s ours in Christ.  He gave his life for our sins in order to rescue us from this evil work in which we live. The Gospel is FOR the follower of Jesus. Constant contact with Christ in the truth of the Gospel will keep us rooted in His grace and peace. Without being emerged regularly in the Gospel, we will generate false forms of peace which are many in this world and we will  become enslaved to them.

Jesus gave his life to rescue us!

Glory to God!

In you.

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9But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

10And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

12Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. Romans 8:9-13

The glorious reality of the new creation accomplished through faith in Jesus Christ and His work for the forgiveness of sin is this: “The Spirit of God, who raise Jesus from the dead, lives in you.”

In you. The Holy Spirit confirms you belong to God.
In you. Though your body will die because of sin, you will live.
In you. The Spirit gives life because you have been made right with God.
In you. The same Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead gives life.
In you. The Spirit frees you from enslaving obligations to the sinful nature.
In you. The Spirit has the power for you to put to death sinful deeds.
In you. By the Spirit, you will live.
Wow! This causes me to pause.

Consider. Give thanks. And listen and respond now – to Jesus.

The Day You Start Something New

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22The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. 23This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see. 24This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. 25Please, Lord, please save us. Please, Lord, please give us success. Psalm 118:22-25

September is full of new starts for many of us. And for those of us who aren’t in school anymore we probably still feel the echo of an impulse to start something new. We still like the smell of a box of crayons, the feel of a new notebook, and the adrenaline that accompanies the unknown. And yes I know some of you are so glad to be done with school, but I bet you still have to face days in which you face something new.

On the day you start something new, I hope you are continuing a prayer conversation you started some time ago with God. In my house this morning I heard this line called out as a wake-up call: “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

I love the rest of the prayer too: “Please, Lord, please save us. Please Lord, please give us success.”

When we start something new perhaps one of the greatest fears before me, is not just that I might fail, but that I might be rejected. Its really good for me to note that the Psalmist’s prayer here for success recognizes the grace of God even in the context of rejection: “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.”  That’s Jesus. Jesus crucified is the stone rejected. Jesus resurrected is now the cornerstone for the people God is building. Jesus is enough!

So, now on the day we start something new, we can call out the prayer with Jesus and in the name of the One who knows the pain of rejection and the joy of the Father’s redemptive power!